RIP Jean Valentine (1934-2020)

We are saddened to learn of the recent passing of Jean Valentine, an influential and beloved poet and educator who published fourteen poetry collections and won numerous awards. Born in Chicago, Valentine spent most of her life in New York City and was New York State poet laureate from 2008-2010. In a tribute to Valentine on the Copper Canyon Press website, the late poet is lauded for "her linguistic leaps, unique consciousness and concision," and for a body of work that "tackles vast concepts such as memory and morality through personal and political lenses." More:

Valentine’s poems act like dreams, imaginative yet tethered to the world as we know it. In an interview with Amy Newman in Ploughshares, Valentine stated: “My dreams were very important to me right in the beginning. I had a teacher in college who said ‘You could write from your dreams’ and that was like being given a bag full of gold.”

Michael Wiegers, her editor at Copper Canyon Press, said, “Jean Valentine is a poet, and a person, whose grace, delicacy and dignity are rooted in a fierce moral conviction and purpose. She was unfailingly inclusive and attentive to those around her. This attentiveness along with an ability to listen carefully was made invitingly evident in her poems.”

Continue reading this tribute on the Copper Canyon Press website.