Lawrence (Larry) Lesser

Larry Lesser is a UTEP Distinguished Teaching Professor at The University of Texas at El Paso. As an undergraduate, he took a transformative upper-division poetry seminar from Susan Wood. Since then, Lesser has published around 100 poems and 130 songs. Many of his poems and songs incorporate mathematics/statistics (and he has given colloquia/keynotes/readings/workshops, co-organized contests and national conference readings, and written peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on these connections).  His published poetry spans over a dozen different journals or anthologies (e.g., Talking Writing, BorderSenses Literary Magazine, Poetica Magazine, etc.), as listed in https://larrylesser.com/poet-larry-ate/. He has taught full-time for 3 universities and a high school, worked for a nonpartisan legislative agency, co-authored textbooks, won national and statewide teaching awards, and directed a teaching center that served an entire university. His album of original nonliturgical Jewish songs (https://LarryLesser.com/sparks) yielded 4 Finalist recognitions (including Album of the Year) at the 2021 New Mexico Music Awards. He and his spouse are based in El Paso with their hairless rescue dog Kelev.