Valerie Martínez

News:     

• Read a new poem by Valerie at her Poet Laureate Blog:  www.sfpoetlaureate.blogspot.com

• Read Valerie's essay, "Mira la Mirror: Mexican and Mexican-American Poetry and the National Divide" in the Latino Poetry Review at http://latinopoetryreview.com/  Click on "Essays"

• Take a poetry master class with Valerie at the Taos Summer Writers Conference this July.  For more information go to:  http://www.unm.edu/~taosconf/Workshops/Workshops.htm

• Valerie is Executive Director of Littleglobe, Inc.  Learn more at www.littleglobe.org

VALERIE'S BOOKS, PUBLICATIONS,

CREATIVE PROJECTS, BIOGRAPHY

Valerie Martínez is a poet, teacher, translator, playwright/librettist, editor and collaborative artist.  Her first book of poetry, Absence, Luminescent (Four Way Books, 1999), won the Larry Levis Prize and a Greenwall Grant from the Academy of American Poet after being a finalist in the Walt Whitman, National Poetry Series, and Intro Award competitions.  Her second book, World to World, was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2004.  Martinez’s translations of the poetry of Uruguay’s Delmira Agustini (1886-1914), A Flock of Scarlet Doves, was published in special edition by Sutton Hoo Press in 2005 and a book-length poem, Each and Her, is forthcoming from the University of Arizona Press in 2010.

 Martinez’s poetry, translations, and essays have appeared in many literary journals and magazines including American Poetry Review; Parnassus; The Colorado Review; Puerto del Sol; The Notre Dame Review; Mandorla, Tiferet, The Bloomsbury Review, and AGNI.  Her poems have also appeared in various anthologies of contemporary poetry, including The Best American Poetry (1996); New American Poets--A Breadloaf Anthology; American Poetry--Next Generation, Touching the Fire--Fifteen Poets of Today’s Latino Renaissance; Renaming Ecstasy--Latino Writings on the Sacred and Junta--Contemporary Latino/a Poetry of the Avant Garde.  Martínez served as assistant editor of the anthology Reinventing the Enemy’s Language--Contemporary Writing by Native Women of North America (Norton 1997) and an essay about Joy Harjo (along with poems by Harjo and Martínez) appears in the anthology Efforts and Affections: Women Poets and Their Mentors (University of Iowa Press, 2008).  In the spring of 2009, an animated version of Valerie’s poem “Bowl,” from World to World, will appear in the Poetry Everywhere Series (PBS/The Poetry Foundation) and be shown on public transportation in several U.S. cities.

 Valerie is Executive Director of Littleglobe, Inc., an artist-run social profit organization that collaborates with diverse communities on large-scale art and community dialogue projects.  In June of 2008, Littleglobe premiered the first Common Ground Festival with members of the Cuba, Torreon, and Ojo Encino communities—a multi-media performance created by an inter-generational ensemble of community residents, ages 5-80.  Valerie is currently Artistic Director of Lines & Circles: A Celebration of Santa Fe Families, a public art community project involving three generations of Santa Fe families who are creating original and unique family works to be exhibited in early 2010. 

 Valerie has a B.A. from Vassar College and an M.F.A. from The University of Arizona.  She has taught at the University of Arizona, Ursinus College, New Mexico Highlands University, University of New Mexico, and in the rural schools of Swaziland.  She is currently Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the College of Santa Fe and the Poet Laureate of the City of Santa Fe for 2008-2010.