Valerie Nieman is the author of a poetry collection, Wake Wake Wake, published in September 2006 by Press 53. Her poetry was earlier collected in two chapbooks, How We Live (State Street Press, 1997) and Slipping Out of Old Eve (Sing Heavenly Muse! 1988). Her poetry has appeared in journals including Poetry, New Letters, Redivider, and West Branch, and in numerous anthologies. She is the author of a collection of short fiction, Fidelities (West Virginia University, 2004) and two novels, Survivors, published in 2000 by Van Neste Books, and Neena Gathering, published by Pageant Books in 1988.

Nieman’s travel writing appears in major newspapers. She has won an NEA creative writing fellowship, two Elizabeth Simpson Smith Awards for a Short Story, sponsored by the Charlotte Writers Club, and the Greg Grummer Poetry Award from Phoebe. A longtime newspaper reporter and editor, she earned her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and now teaches at North Carolina A&T State University.  

Photo by Jack Hobbs