Lauri Cruver Cherian is a writer and an educator, teaching English as a Second Language and Bilingual Education to children and adults for 30 years. She is a proud native Washington State but has been transplanted to South Texas for three decades. Lauri has a master’s degree in Language Acquisition Education from the University of Houston and a bachelor’s in Bilingual/Bicultural Education from Washington State University. Lauri has been a master teacher and a leader of workshops in adult ESL education across South Texas. She is the recipient of several teacher of the year awards including Bilingual Teacher of the Year in Spring Branch Independent School District in Houston, Texas. She enjoys teaching adult ESL in her community, volunteering, participating in community theater, singing, playing the piano, writing, and traveling. Lauri and her husband have three adventuresome grown children. Her poem, Courage (2021), dedicated to health care workers during the pandemic, won honorable mention at the Texas Mental Health Creative Arts Contest. Pandemic Magazine published her poem, “Coronavirus by 2022” (2022). In 2022, Lauri published her debut chapbook of poetry called, Poems of the Point, a tribute to growing up on the beach in the Pacific Northwest and in 2023 she published her second book of poetry, Brave as Thistles. Lauri's third book is a children's chapter book, Four Anxious Armadillos about anxiety, adventure, and the power of friendship.