Bio:
Laura Stanfill, a novelist and freelance manuscript editor, is the publisher of Forest Avenue Press, a Portland-based regional press with national reach. She edited the homegrown anthology Brave on the Page: Oregon Writers on Craft and the Creative Life, which was named a Powell’s Books Top Five Pick for 2012. Forest Avenue Press’ September release, Stevan Allred’s A Simplified Map of the Real World, a linked short story collection in the tradition of Olive Kitteridge but with more divorce, launches the press’ fiction catalog.

As a community newspaper editor, Laura earned numerous statewide awards, including general excellence from the Society of Professional Journalists, first place for headline writing from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, and the Consumer Issues Reporting Award from the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association for a series on contractor fraud. Laura’s professional background includes stints in public relations and freelancing for regional magazines and newspapers in Virginia, New York, and Oregon. Her fanciful novel-in-progress, Lost Notes, features a nineteenth century canary trainer. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from Vassar College.


Brave on the Page: Oregon Writers on Craft and the Creative Life 

rave on the Page: Oregon Writers on Craft and the Creative Life is a homegrown writers' resource featuring interviews and essays by forty-two authors, including Scott Sparling, Yuvi Zalkow, Bart King, Gina Ochsner, Kristy Athens, Joanna Rose and Jon Bell. 

"If one was not aware of the vibrant literary community that exists within the state of Oregon, then Brave on the Page would be the perfect introduction to the varied literary voices from the state’s working writers," said the Los Angeles Review's Renee K. Nicholson. "Separated into three sections, the first and third consisting of interviews and the second made up of flash essays, this book offers interesting advice and inspiration from journalists, novelists, middle-grade authors, poets, nonfiction writers, writer-activists, short story writers, and all kind of writers in-between."

“For any aspiring writer who feels lonely at the keyboard, Brave on the Page is a treasure trove of inspiration and advice on the writing life that will without a doubt encourage,” said Portland Book Review reviewer Kristen Leigh. “In an artfully curated collection of interviews and flash essays written by Oregon writers and edited by Laura Stanfill, authors speak candidly with equal parts depth and grace about their craft.”

Columnist and author Matt Love called Brave on the Page “easily the most quintessential Oregon book I’ve encountered in a very long time,” when he chose it as the the fourth annual Powell’s On Oregon Blog’s Book of the Year. 

Brave on the Page has spent several months on the Powell's Small Press Bestseller List. The book earned a spot on the prestigious Powell’s staff Top Fives lists for 2012, was named a staff pick at Powell’s Hawthorne, earned a four-star review from the Portland Book Review, and received coverage in many newspapers, including the Oregonian and the Los Angeles Review.