Valerie Martínez

Who is Valerie Martínez?

Valerie Martínez is an American poet, teacher, translator, playwright, librettist, editor and collaborative artist. Her most recent book of poetry, Each and Her was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, the William Carlos William Award, the National Book Critics Circle award, and other awards. Her first book of poetry, Absence, Luminescent, 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. 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, A Flock of Scarlet Doves, was published in special edition by Sutton Hoo Press in 2005 and a collection of Santa Fe poems, And They Called it Horizon, was published in 2010.

Martinez’s poetry, translations, and essays have appeared widely in 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 work has been included in many anthologies of contemporary poetry including The Best American Poetry; New American Poets--A Breadloaf Anthology; American Poetry--Next Generation, Touching the Fire--Fifteen Poets of Today’s Latino Renaissance and Renaming Ecstasy--Latino Writings on the Sacred. Martínez served as assistant editor of the anthology Reinventing the Enemy’s Language--Contemporary Writing by Native Women of North America and an essay about Joy Harjo appears in the anthology Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections. Valerie’s poem “September, 2001” was featured in the Washington Post’s “Poet’s Choice” Series and an animated version of Valerie’s poem “Bowl,” appears in the Poetry Everywhere Series.