Valerie Martinez

Valerie  is a poet, teacher, translator, playwright, librettist, editor and collaborative artist.  Her 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.  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 (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, the William Carlos Williams Award, the PEN Open Book Award, among others), was published by the University of Arizona Press in September, 2010.  Her collection of Santa Fe poems (written during her tenure as Poet Laureate of Santa Fe), And They Called it Horizon, was published in December, 2010 (Sunstone Press). 

Valerie's poetry, translations, and essays have appeared widely in literary journals and magazines.  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; 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 Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections (University of Iowa Press, 2008).  Her poem, “September, 2001,” was featured in the Washington Post’s “Poet’s Choice” Series (September 2009) and an animated version of Valerie’s poem “Bowl,” appears in the Poetry Everywhere Series (PBS/The Poetry Foundation).

Valerie has more than twenty years of experience as a classroom teacher, primarily at the college level.  For over fifteen years, she has also taught children, young adults, adults, teachers, and seniors in a wide range of community programs.  She is Executive Director and core artist with Littleglobe.  Recent and ongoing projects include the Santa Fe Bus Opera (Artistic Director/Librettist), Lifesongs, a project in which elders in hospice and nursing homes create original music pieces with writers and composers (Writer), Artist-to-Artist, a mentorship program for youth artists and writers in foster care (Project Director), Turn-the-Lens, a collaborative film project with inmates at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center (Collaborative Artist/Facilitator), and the Littleglobe Center for Creative Community Engagement, a professional development program that nurtures a skilled pool of cultural workers in the southwest and beyond (Director).

Valerie is also Co-Coordinator of Women & Creativity Month, a month-long series of events that celebrate women’s creativity--organized and presented by the National Hispanic Cultural Center in partnership with more than 30 organizations, artists, writers, and independently owned businesses with events in both Albuquerque and Santa Fe. 

In 2009 Valerie was awarded the Albuquerque Journal/SAGE Magazine “Twenty Women Who Have Made a Difference” award for her creative and community work.

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, College of Santa Fe, the Institute for American Indian Art (IAIA) and in the rural schools of Swaziland.  She was the Poet Laureate for the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico for 2008-2010.