With a week to go until our next reading, it’s time to introduce each of the readers, starting with La Forrest Cope!

La Forrest Cope holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation from Queens College of the City University of New York, where she also majored in English and graduated cum laude. She is an Adjunct Professor in The School of Arts and Sciences at York College/CUNY in the English department. Burnin’ up the Billboard charts with four top-five songs in two years, La Forrest Cope’s explosive talent has helped launch several careers, most notably, Whitney Houston’s. The fiery “YOU GIVE GOOD LOVE” earned La Forrest (a/k/a Lala), who composes music and lyrics, a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song nomination while giving Whitney her first #1 hit single. Based on her own experiences in the recording industry, La Forrest hopes to make her literary debut next year with SOUL SHAKERS, a novel inspired by true events, about the cost of being a crossover artist, the challenges facing women in music, and how the many misconceptions about musical talent diminish the industry’s ability to address it effectively. Visit her website here: Laforrestcope.com