Lauren Kalstad is a poet, children's book author, and Lecturer at the University of North Texas where she also received her BA in Creative Writing with a minor in French. She went on to attend New York University in Paris receiving her MFA with a concentration in poetry. Her works have appeared in publications including The Belleville Park Pages, The Alarmist, and The Coe Review, and she is the author of the children's book To the Stars in Bumper Cars (2020). Her love of the culinary world led to a freelance career in food journalism with articles published in EATER and Edible. Courses at UNT include First-Year Writing and World Literature with the theme "Murder, Madness, & Morbid Curiosity," a survey of dark-themed lit spanning from 429 B.C. to today. She is the faculty advisor for the North Texas Review, a creative writing, arts, and music publication that showcases the talents of our undergraduates on campus.

Currently she is finishing her second children's book titled The Peanut Butter Monster, and working on a poetry manuscript tentatively titled Before I Had a Name.