About

photo by Marc Monaghan

Valerie Wallace is the author of House of McQueen, selected by Vievee Francis for the Four Way Books Intro Prize (Spring 2018), 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.

Valerie lives in Chicago, where she teaches with the City Colleges of Chicago, gives private workshops, and works in communications, most recently as Assistant Director, Communications, for the project Virtue, Happiness, & the Meaning of Life at the University of Chicago and with Resilience. 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.

Valerie’s photos, videos, & brief bio

Valerie’s press release

Click here for information and to donate to the Hillary Gravendyk Scholarship for Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

 

Cover video images from the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago.