NEWS & EVENTS | News & Interviews
News & Interviews
Selected interviews, reviews and articles featuring Laura Chester’s writing and career are highlighted here. Events and appearances can be found here.
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb | Deborah Kalb and Laura Chester discuss Shovels & Chandeliers: A Collage of Poetry & Prose. This new book, published by Combray House, showcases selections from five decades of the author’s written works spanning prose-poetry, poetry, and fiction. The Q&A also touches upon Chester’s recent work as a collage artist. April 11, 2026.
Book Viral | Highly Recommended Read: “A beautifully crafted journey through life’s defining moments….” June 2026.
Laura Chester’s Shovels & Chandeliers: A Collage of Selected Work is far more than a collection of selected writings. It is a literary self-portrait assembled across more than five decades, bringing together poetry, prose poetry, memoir, fiction, personal essays, and excerpts from previously published works into a volume that reveals both the breadth of Chester’s career and the remarkable consistency of her artistic vision. Drawing material from books published between the early 1970s and 2024, the collection serves as both an introduction to her work and a retrospective celebration of a distinctive literary voice.
Elegant, intimate, and beautifully crafted, Shovels & Chandeliers offers a rare opportunity to experience the breadth of Laura Chester’s literary career in a single volume. Rich in imagery, emotional insight, and hard-won wisdom, it stands as both a compelling introduction to her work and a worthy celebration of a distinctive literary voice.
It is highly recommended.
Read the entire review here.
Book Viral | Golden Quill Read: “A book that celebrates the enduring power of poetry to spark imagination across generations.” July 2026.
Some poetry collections invite readers to admire language. Spooning with Mojo invites them to play with it. Laura Chester has created a joyous collection that celebrates the boundless imagination of childhood while quietly acknowledging the emotions that accompany growing up.
The partnership with illustrator Phil Knoll elevates the experience further. Although the poetry stands confidently on its own, Knoll’s illustrations complement the verse with equally playful imagination, reinforcing the collection’s whimsical spirit and inviting readers to linger over every page. Together, words and artwork create an immersive reading experience that encourages repeated visits rather than a single reading.
Perhaps the collection’s greatest achievement is its refusal to speak down to children. Chester recognises that childhood encompasses delight and disappointment, confidence and uncertainty, silliness and sincerity. By embracing every one of these experiences, she creates poems that reward repeated reading, offering new delights as children mature while giving adults a welcome reminder of the imaginative freedom they once possessed.
Spooning with Mojo is an enchanting, beautifully crafted collection that deserves a place on family bookshelves, classroom reading corners and bedtime tables alike. Rich in humour, heart and lyrical inventiveness, it is a book that children will treasure and adults will return to with equal pleasure. It reminds us that poetry need not choose between laughter and wisdom—it can embrace both, leaving readers of every age smiling long after the final page has been turned.
Laura Chester and Phil Knoll have created a book that celebrates the enduring power of poetry to spark imagination across generations.
It is [a] highly recommended Golden Quill read!
Read the entire review here.
Erin Chandler and Emily Wilhoit celebrate Rabbit House Press’s publication of Spooning with Mojo, a collection of Art and Poetry by Laura Chester and Phil Knoll. Get your copy at rabbithousepress.com or wherever you buy your books! December 19, 2024.
Watch the interview below or here. (45:25 minutes)
Berkshire Magazine | “By Horse: Riding in the Berkshires,” by Laura Chester. July 2017.
“An intimate exploration of the Berkshires on horseback reveals a new way of connecting with our rich landscape. Imagine cantering through old-growth forests with mountain runoff trickling down, following paths along ridge-tops, stopping to take in a distant view of unspoiled rolling hills.”
Download a PDF of the article here.
Book Trailer for Riding Barranca by Nadia Szold. June 28, 2013.
Rural Intelligence | “Back In The Saddle: Laura Chester Rides Out the Storm of Transition” by Nicole Dupont, editor. May 28, 2013.
“Laura Chester does not like to dwell in the past, especially her own. That’s why the veteran author and horsewoman decided to write a book about it; to get some of that stuff out. But make no mistake, Riding Barranca, Chester’s latest memoir (Trafalgar Square Books, May 2013), is not a melancholy, regrettable foray into a crappy childhood seen through the bitter eyes of a jaded author. It is a journey — both geographical and metaphorical — surveyed through the high-up lens of a wise woman on horseback; one whose greatest solace and joy stem from her daily jaunts through known and unknown territory. Whether it is negotiating the rugged terrain of the Canelo Hills or repairing a broken relationship with her dying mother, Chester chronicles the hurt and healing balm of a whirlwind year all with the help of her larger-than-life equines.
Read the entire article here.
The Authors Road | George Mason met with writer, poet and editor Laura Chester at her winter home outside Patagonia, AZ. “During our talk Laura shared with us the support and encouragement her parents gave her in her writing, and her professional growth from her early years editing and distributing small press publications.” August 31, 2012.
Watch the interview below or here. (25:01 minutes)
Or, listen to the interview below.
Visit The Authors Road website for additional detail and photos from Mason’s visit with the author.
The Short Review | Interview with author Laura Chester discussing her latest book, Rancho Weirdo. Read the interview here.
Senior Women Web | “Rancho Weirdo” by Joan L. Cannon. Rancho Weirdo for the Culture Watch column: “Rancho Weirdo by Laura Chester contains humor that is integral, not incidental, and they are wonderfully irreverent tales.” February 12, 2009.
“A book, no matter what they keep trying to tell us, is an object we can hold in our hands. Ergo, it matters what it looks like and feels like, as well as what it has in its text. Rancho Weirdo is, by these standards, out of the ordinary. It's ‘only paper,’ but it’s illustrated, its cover is eye-catching, and it even has beautiful end papers of a deep red and two pages about the author and illustrator with color photos of each. From the time you pick it up, you know it’s special. …
“Judging from the title, one might be expecting some contemporary horror or shock-and-awe. It’s quite different from that. Quirky is probably the word that jumps first to mind, but it’s even more than that. …
“Every one of these compositions is unusual, inventive, entertaining, and sometimes even shocking. Most are to some extent mysterious. Whatever your taste in literature, it seems likely that you’ll find something here to whet your appetite for short works. Echoes of Kafka and Poe and Woody Allen may suggest themselves to a reader’s bemusement, but boredom will never be a factor.”
Read the entire review here.
Berkshire Living | “Great Escape,” written by Robin Catalano, photography by Jane Feldman. September 2008.
“Like a good book, writer Laura Chester’s rural retreat asserts her life story and offers quiet reflection at the same time.”
Download a PDF of the article here.
Tuscon Home Magazine | “A Writer’s Retreat,” written by Anne Marie Zerance, photography by Carter Allen. Fall 2006.
“Old world charm reigns in a Hacienda-style home in Patagonia.”
Download a PDF of the article here.
First reading in the Bay Area at the San Francisco Poetry Center, age 25.
This film excerpt is included in Nadia Szold’s film, The Figures: An Abstract on Geoffrey Young.