Storyteller and Poet Luray Gross believes in the power of stories to build community and nurture the heart, mind, and spirit. She has worked with thousands of students and other audiences during twenty-some years as a Teaching Artist. She brings multi-cultural folktales and poetry to the classroom and facilitates response and elaboration, particularly through writing. Her own love of the spoken and written word, the outdoors, and music began during her childhood on a busy dairy farm in Pennsylvania. She was awarded a Fellowship in Poetry by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and named one of their Distinguished Teaching Artists. She is the author of four collections of poetry including The Perfection of Zeros, published by Word Tech, and most recently, Lift, published by Ragged Sky Press.