Official bio
Laurel DiGangi is seeking a publisher for her completed manuscript, Things We Couldn't Live Without. Chapters have been published in Ray’s Road Review ("Salvation"), SLAB ("Innocence"), Two Hawks Quarterly ("Bugs"), Under the Gum Tree ("Explosives"), and "Pretty Fingers" in Tulip Tree's Stories That Need to Be Told. ("Pretty Fingers" also received honorable mention in Tulip Tree's yearly competition; also a finalist for Bellingham Review's Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction.) "Bugs” in Two Hawks Quarterly, "Explosions" in Under the Gum Tree, "Salvation" in Ray's Road Review, "Innocence" in SLAB, and a short segment of "Snots" under another title ("Education") in California's Emerging Writers.
Synopsis: I grew up in a blue-collar Polish-American community in Chicago from the mid-1950s to early 70s. My abusive, alcoholic father was the neighborhood illegal fireworks dealer, and my glue-sniffing brother was the local drug dealer. My eccentric mother was pathologically late, even when driving me to Catholic grade school where my severe nasal allergies earned me the distinguished nickname of “Snots.” High school wasn’t much better. Shunned by my fellow honors-students, harassed by cruel greasers and even scarier nuns, I found solace by creating art. Welcome to a pre-feminist world where girls were told their career choices were limited to secretary, teacher, nurse, or nun—and only if they remained single. THINGS WE COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT traces my quest to feel accepted by my peers, to become a successful “commercial artist,” and to break free from a rigid, suffocating culture as I discover what I need to keep and what I need to let go.
Several chapters have been published as short creative nonfiction stories in the following literary magazines: Bugs in Two Hawks Quarterly,
Laurel DiGangi’s journalism and promotional writing has appeared in several print and online publications, including The Chicago Reader, Innovations (John Wayne Cancer Institute), Saint John’s (Saint John’s Hospital, Santa Monica), Providence Health (Providence Health Care Systems), Breakthroughs (City of Hope), Trojan Family Magazine (USC), and Southern California Physician Magazine. As a former writer and film critic for Entertainment Today, she has interviewed dozens of actors, producers, and directors such as Johnny Depp, Robert Duvall, Drew Barrymore, Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson, and Joel and Ethan Coen.
As a health care copywriter, editor and proofreader, she has produced work for Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, Amgen Pharmaceuticals, Kaiser Permanente, Anthem Blue Cross, and National Health Videos (scripts).
In addition, her fiction and creative non-fiction have been published in such literary magazines as Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, SLAB, Ray’s Road Review, Denver Quarterly, Asylum, Cottonwood, and Atlanta Quarterly. An avid film buff, Laurel’s original screenplays have been finalists in several competitions, as well as optioned. She is currently working on several personal and professional writing projects, including a memoir, Things We Couldn’t Live Without.
In her role as a participating adjunct professor at Woodbury University, she has taught writing courses since 2008 and has been director of The Writing Center since 2014. She has also taught a variety of courses at College of the Canyons and Mission College, including English composition, literature, creative writing, and literary magazine production.
Laurel earned both a bachelor's degree in art history and master's degree in English from University of Illinois/Chicago. Based on her undergraduate performance, she earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest and most prestigious academic honor society.
Synopsis: I grew up in a blue-collar Polish-American community in Chicago from the mid-1950s to early 70s. My abusive, alcoholic father was the neighborhood illegal fireworks dealer, and my glue-sniffing brother was the local drug dealer. My eccentric mother was pathologically late, even when driving me to Catholic grade school where my severe nasal allergies earned me the distinguished nickname of “Snots.” High school wasn’t much better. Shunned by my fellow honors-students, harassed by cruel greasers and even scarier nuns, I found solace by creating art. Welcome to a pre-feminist world where girls were told their career choices were limited to secretary, teacher, nurse, or nun—and only if they remained single. THINGS WE COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT traces my quest to feel accepted by my peers, to become a successful “commercial artist,” and to break free from a rigid, suffocating culture as I discover what I need to keep and what I need to let go.
Several chapters have been published as short creative nonfiction stories in the following literary magazines: Bugs in Two Hawks Quarterly,
Laurel DiGangi’s journalism and promotional writing has appeared in several print and online publications, including The Chicago Reader, Innovations (John Wayne Cancer Institute), Saint John’s (Saint John’s Hospital, Santa Monica), Providence Health (Providence Health Care Systems), Breakthroughs (City of Hope), Trojan Family Magazine (USC), and Southern California Physician Magazine. As a former writer and film critic for Entertainment Today, she has interviewed dozens of actors, producers, and directors such as Johnny Depp, Robert Duvall, Drew Barrymore, Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson, and Joel and Ethan Coen.
As a health care copywriter, editor and proofreader, she has produced work for Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, Amgen Pharmaceuticals, Kaiser Permanente, Anthem Blue Cross, and National Health Videos (scripts).
In addition, her fiction and creative non-fiction have been published in such literary magazines as Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, SLAB, Ray’s Road Review, Denver Quarterly, Asylum, Cottonwood, and Atlanta Quarterly. An avid film buff, Laurel’s original screenplays have been finalists in several competitions, as well as optioned. She is currently working on several personal and professional writing projects, including a memoir, Things We Couldn’t Live Without.
In her role as a participating adjunct professor at Woodbury University, she has taught writing courses since 2008 and has been director of The Writing Center since 2014. She has also taught a variety of courses at College of the Canyons and Mission College, including English composition, literature, creative writing, and literary magazine production.
Laurel earned both a bachelor's degree in art history and master's degree in English from University of Illinois/Chicago. Based on her undergraduate performance, she earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest and most prestigious academic honor society.