Singer and songwriter Laurelyn Dossett was born in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in a hymn-singing family. She is the 2004 winner of Merlefest’s Chris Austin Songwriting Contest for her gospel song, “Come by Here.”  In 1997 she founded the band Polecat Creek with singing partner Kari Sickenberger;  they have two CDs:  “Salt Sea Bound” and “Leaving Eden”. Leaving Eden’s title track, about the lost of textile jobs in Eden, NC, has been featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and on the BBC.  Laurelyn and playwright Preston Lane have collaborated on two plays: Triad Stage's Brother Wolf and Beautiful Star: An Appalachian Nativity.  Their next project is Bloody Blackbeard. She lives in Greensboro, North Carolina with her husband and three daughters.