Laura M. McCullough (born 1960) is an American poet and writer living in the state of New Jersey. McCullough is the author of seven published collections and is the founding editor of Mead: the Magazine of Literature and Libations. She was a finalist for the 2016 Miller Williams Poetry Prize. McCullough is also the founder of Jersey Mercy, a celebration of poetic voices during the Light of Day Foundation's Winterfest in Asbury Park, NJ. It is the first poetry event the Light of Day Foundation has hosted since its inception in 2000. Early years Laura M. McCullough was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. She attended The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, from which she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree. Following graduation she attended Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing and Literature. Academic career McCullough is a Professor of English at Brookdale Community College where she founded the creative writing program. She previously taught at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and Ramapo College, and teaches in the Sierra Nevada College low-residency MFA. Published work McCullough's poetry, short fiction, and essays have appeared in an array of journals and literary magazines, including The American Poetry Review, The Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Green Mountains Review, The Good Men Project, The Writer's Chronicle, JuxtaProse Literary Magazine, Gulf Coast, and Painted Bride Quarterly. McCullough's second collection of poetry, What Men Want, published in 2008, derives its title from a love poem in the collection, "What Men Really Want." McCullough explained her perspective in a September 2007 interview: I grew up in a family with only brothers on a street with only boys. Up until recently, I only had sons. My life has been defined by men. The poet, Ross Gay, and I were discussing this one day, and he suggested I am a male-identified woman. I thought that was very interesting. I learned rules of boy culture before I learned the code of girlhood. In 2013, four more of McCullough's works were published: her fifth full-length book of poetry, Rigger Death & Hoist Another; a fiction chapbook; a short fiction hybrid; and an edited collection of essays on the poet Stephen Dunn (published by Syracuse University Press). In a 2014 interview with The California Journal of Women Writers, McCullough noted the evolution of her work from poetry towards fiction and her reassertion