Robert Laidler is an assistant professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, a graduate of the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writing Program, and the author of a poetic libretto, The Fallen Petals of Nameless Flowers, which premiered at Chamber Music Detroit in 2022. Most recently he was a finalist for The 2023 National Poetry Series, and the Adrift Chapbook Contest. His poems can be found in Missouri Review, Ilanot, Driftwood, Oxford, and elsewhere.