"Small-Town Charm" by Lauren Geiser

Italics from Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales, The Brothers Grimm

Lauren Geiser is an attorney and poet based in Los Angeles, California. She has a BA in English from Case Western Reserve University and is currently studying under Rick Bursky through UCLA Extension's Creative Writing Program. Her work debuted in Cathexis Northwest Press in January 2025 and will also be featured in Liminal Spaces magazine. When she is not writing or working, she is hiking, practicing hot yoga, reading fantasy novels, or attempting to learn Finnish as she prepares for her residency at the Villa Kivi Writers' House in Helsinki, Finland later this year.