Valerie received a B.S. in literature, summa cum laude, from the State University of New York in 1987. Her stories and essays have appeared in Indiana Review, The Massachusetts Review, Calyx, The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review, New Letters, The Sun, Rosebud, and other magazines and newspapers. She has taught writing in Burlington, Vermont, and in 2002 was a DeWitt Wallace/Readers Digest fellow at The MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. In 1999, her short story, "Jasmine, Washing the Hair of Pearsa," won first place in the Indiana Review fiction contest. Valerie lives in northern Vermont with her husband, John.