Valerie Wallace

Valerie Wallace is the author of House of McQueen, selected by Vievee Francis for the Four Way Books Intro Prize, and the chapbook The Dictators’ Guide to Good Housekeeping. Margaret Atwood chose 10 of her poems for the Atty Award and she has received an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award and the San Miguel Writers’ Conference Poetry Award. She is the recipient of grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Barbara Deming Fund for Women, and fellowships from Midwest Writers, Ragdale Foundation, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Vermont Studio Center, Writers in the Heartland, and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.

She was an associate editor and the webmaster with RHINO from 2010-2016 and a mentor with the Afghan Women’s Writing Project for 5 years, and is the Poet Laureate of LaPorte County.