Laura Villareal earned her MFA from Rutgers University-Newark. She is the author of Girl's Guide to Leaving (University of Wisconsin Press). She has received fellowships and scholarships from The Highlights Foundation, Key West Literary Seminar, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, VONA, National Book Critics Circle, the Dobie Paisano Fellowship Program at UT-Austin, and the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts. She works on an interview series at F(r)iction called "Writers Talking about Anything But Writing." 

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