Poetry

​

Valerie's book-length poem, Each and Her (winner of the 2011 Arizona Book Award) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, the William Carlos William Award, the National Book Critics Circle award, the PEN Open Book Award, the Ron Ridenhour Prize and was an honorable mention in the 2011 International Latino Book Awards.

​

In 2016 Valerie's poetry/prose chapbook, A Hundred Little Mouths, was commissioned by artist Susan Silton and premiered with Silton's Whistling Project/Performance at the 20th Anniversary of SITE Santa Fe. 

 

Valerie’s first book of poetry, Absence, Luminescent (Four Way Books 1999 & 2010), won the Larry Levis Prize and a Greenwall Grant from the Academy of American Poets after being a finalist in the Walt Whitman, National Poetry Series, and Intro Award competitions. 

 

A second collection, 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. 

 

Valerie was the Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, New Mexico from 2008-2010. A collection of poems about Santa Fe, And They Called it Horizon, was published by Sunstone Press in 2010. A special, hand-press version of the title poem was published in special edition by the Palace Press in 2010.

 

Valerie's poetry, translations, and essays have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies including Parnassus; The Colorado Review; Puerto del Sol; The Notre Dame Review; Mandorla, The Bloomsbury Review, AGNI, The Best American Poetry; American Poetry--Next Generation, and Touching the Fire--Fifteen Poets of Today’s Latino Renaissance.  

​

She is currently working on another book-length poem, Count.

​

​