ABOUT ME
I’m a poet, book editor, lover of nature and music, true crime podcast addict, and lifelong fan of the St. Louis Cardinals.
I’m interested in the intersection of words and other media, such as visual art, music, and technology; Blade Runner-esque explorations of past relationships (with baseball references inserted, as needed); and collaborative projects related to origami flower-folding, reclaiming language used to restrict women’s rights, and recently, the works of postmodern dancers.
For the past few years, Sarah Rosenthal and I have been engaged in a deep exploration of the work of dancer-choreographers Simone Forti and Yvonne Rainer. The first part of the project, The Grass Is Greener When the Sun Is Yellow, was published by The Operating System in 2019, and our essay collection, One Things Follows Another: Experiments in Dance, Art, and Life Through the Lens of Simone Forti and Yvonne Rainer, is forthcoming from punctum books in 2024.
In 2014, Chicago-based artist Jennifer Yorke produced artist books based on my manuscript Flood Diary and an installation based on my manuscript A Rupture in the Interiors (Airlie Press, 2023). The works were exhibited in Berkeley and Chicago, respectively, and our collaboration led to a residency at La Porte Peinte in Noyers, France.
I’m a founding member of the Bay Area Correspondence School, where I’ve exchanged mail art; spearheaded the writing of a collaborative Facebook poem about the “war on women,” which led to the creation of the chapbook A Body You Shall Be; and helped coordinate multiple events, most notably the BACS Variety Show and Art Extravaganza in 2017. For eight years, I was a member of Kelsey Street Press, where I helped produce many innovative books by women. I am currently a member of Airlie Press, a Pacific Northwest-based poetry collective.
In addition to my book publications (for more info, go here!), my work has appeared or is forthcoming in various journals and websites, such as Storm Cellar, Barrow Street, VOLT, and Interim (check out my online publications here).
A native St. Louisan, I arrived in San Francisco in 2003 and lived in the Bay Area for 12 years; I currently reside up the road in Portland, OR. I received my MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco. In my daytime hours, I edit education books in Portland, where I live with my husband, Andrew.
To get a hold of me, please send a note to val dot witte at gmail dot com