He studied English at the University of the West Indies at St Augustine, and after graduating briefly worked as a sub-editor at the Trinidad Guardian.
He also worked on reviving The Caribbean Review of Books (CRB), and the first issue of the reincarnated journal, of which he is editor, was published in May 2004.
[4] Laughlin served as programme director of Trinidad's annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest since its founding in 2011 by Marina Salandy-Brown.
[5] He is also a co-director, with Sean Leonard and Christopher Cozier, of the non-profit contemporary art space Alice Yard, in Port of Spain.
[8][9] He co-edited (with Nailah Folami Imoja) the anthology So Many Islands: Stories from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans (Peekash Press, 2018).