"Philadelphia is just a great place to be a poet," Laura Spagnoli says during her reading at the April 20th Public Poetry Project event. Her poem "Waiting for Test Results in the Kitchen," from Philadelphia Stories (Winter 2006/2007), was selected for publication by the Public Poetry Project of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book in 2017.

She has lived in Philadelphia for over 20 years. "There are a lot of...great poets there," she says, "and good energy."

She's especially grateful to Philadelphia's ixnay press for publishing her first chapbook, My Dazzledent Days (2012). In it, her work often references the city, e.g. Market Street, the Liberty Bell, Philadelphia PECO building, and subway tokens/cards. Other pieces explore the intersection of commercialism and femininity; for instance, in "Beauty," "Poemfomercial," "I'm Gonna Wash That Moon Right Out Of My Hair," and "Marilyn Looks Back On Her Dazzledent Days," a reference to the fictional toothpaste in the movie The Seven Year Itch and the chapbook's title.

In an interview with Speaking of Marvels editor William Woolfitt, poet Kelly McQuain says My Dazzledent Days is "smart and warm and funny."

Fellow Philadelphia poet, Nicole Steinberg says this about Spagnoli's Public Poetry Project poem: "In relatively few words, 'Waiting for Test Results in the Kitchen' imbues an otherwise mundane moment with uneasiness, playfulness, and tenderness. The result is a shivery, exceptional poem that demonstrates Laura Spagnoli's ability to delight and to devastate with the deft precision of her verse."

Spagnoli's poetry has appeared in numerous publications, including Bedfellows, Trinity Review, The Literary Review, The Apiary, Painted Bride Quarterly, and more. In 2010, her short story "A Cut Above" was also published in the collection Philadelphia Noir (Akashic Books). At the time of this writing, she and her husband have a daughter and live in Philadelphia, where Spagnoli teaches French at Temple University.

David P. Kozinski, a host of Mad Poets Society readings, says "Laura Spagnoli is a marvelously imaginative and risk-taking poet. ... I find her work challenging, sparkling and at times, very funny."