Tom Laichas’s poetry collections include Three Hundred Streets of Venice California (FutureCycle Press, 2023), Sixty-Three Photographs from the End of a War (3.1 Press, 2021), and Empire of Eden (The High Window Press, 2019).

He earned a Ph.D. in History from UCLA for work on the origins of California state fiscal oversight, and has served as Senior Editor at the journal World History Connected, published through George Mason University for an audience of world history teachers instructors at the high school and college levels.

For over thirty years, he taught history at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, as well as at Long Beach State University. Currently, he is lead teacher in the Libros Schmibros Fellowship Program offered through Libros Schmibros, a lending library and cultural center in Boyle Heights. The program introduces students from Roosevelt and Mendez high schools to Los Angeles politics, art, and history.