Winner of a 2004 Oklahoma Book Award for Poetry

In her new collection of poetry, Crossing the Ladder of Sun, Laura Apol explores the ordinary moments of life--watching her daughter, picking blueberries, sharing confidences with friends, arriving and leaving, and driving, always driving--and transforms them into the extraordinary. This book is rich with the lyrical found in what is considered the mundane as it portrays the multiple roles of a woman's life--mother, daughter, lover, ex-wife, friend. Apol's highly personal poems reflect a caring and compassion that transcends loneliness and heartache.

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Praise for Crossing the Ladder of Sun

"Laura Apol has written a book of poems from the heart. Rich in details and grounded in memories, her poems resonate with the eloquence of separation and loss, a longing for connection."

--Paul Janeczko is author of Dirty Laundry Pile and Favorite Poetry Lessons

"If you are willing to accept loss as your teacher, but not exile from joy; if the sweet friction of words can be your ladder from grief to resilience; if you have learned that 'lifelines are seldom free,' then this book will accompany your passage like a good friend. Laura Apol knows 'the just-right word in a prayer/saying stop here.' Her poems find the place, the moment, the sensation by which lightning may be understood--scars, rivers, blueberries. This book deepens my education.

--Kim Stafford, Director, Northwest Writing Institute