Wake Wake Wake, a collection of poetry by Valerie Nieman, is now available. Nieman is the author of a recent collection of short fiction, Fidelities, from West Virginia University Press, as well as two novels and two chapbooks of poetry. Her poems and short stories have been widely published in journals such as Poetry, TheKenyon Review, 5 A.M., and West Branch, as well as several anthologies, including a recent issue of Kakalak.Awards have included a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the 1998 and 2002 Elizabeth Simpson Smith prizes in fiction from the Charlotte Writers Club, the Greg Grummer Prize in poetry from Phoebe.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Lisel Mueller has said this of Nieman’s work:
"Ultimately it's a writer's excellence as a writer, her strength of language, apart from all good intentions, that convinces us she is telling the truth. (Nieman) has an extraordinary sense of metaphor and a talent for expressive language that seems, at the same time, plain and straightforward, probably because it is so apt as to seem inevitable."
NEWS
Mar 21, 2006 - Former North Carolina Poet Laureate Fred Chappell Praises Wake Wake Wake
"Like the millwright in her poem, Valerie Nieman seems 'with bare hands (to) embrace live steam.' Wake Wake Wake is sinew and tendon, hard muscle and bruised bone; the volume sings with every inch of the body and every breath of the spirit. If she speaks of "hearing that we have all fallen short," she yet believes—she knows—'the way a path is best walked/not by looking down/but by looking out.' Would you be stout of heart, steadfast of purpose? Read Valerie Nieman."
April 4, 2006 - Val met with painter Brian Hibbard and graphic artist Elisa Barger to take a closer look at Brian's stunning work of art "Kayli." "Kayli" is the art Val has chosen to grace the cover of her forthcoming collection of poetry Wake Wake Wake.
Visit Hibbard Fine Arts online to see more of "kayli" and Brian's work.
Val's poetry is featured alongside 15 other celebrated North Carolina poets: Laurie Capps, Fred Chappell, Sara Claytor, Nicole Cartwright Denison, Janice Moore Fuller, Jaki Shelton Green, Glenn Hutchinson, Sarah Lindsay, Al Maginnes, David Manning, Heather Ross Miller, Tanya Olson, Diana Pinckney, Rachelle Rogers, and Mark Smith-Soto.
National Book Award Finalist Sarah Lindsay Praises Wake Wake Wake:
"Valerie Nieman writes poems with long tap roots, and poems with sharp beaks that strike swiftly. They cast off from the known, or fix the familiar with a clear gaze, and unmoor the reader either way. For a nameless hunger and restlessness, here are guide and supplies and hills to climb, all in one fine book."
Aug 13, 2006 - A Sneak Peak of Val's poem "Covet" appears in Raleigh's News & Observer
Oct 23, 2006 - Val is a featured Poet of the Week, as selected by NC Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer and recognized by the NC Arts Council.
"Two Versions" (fiction) now in the current issue of Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel.
"Corridors" (fiction) appears in the fall issue of Green Mountains Review.
Ms.Nieman is a 1978 graduate of West Virginia University and received an MFA in creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte. A longtime newspaper reporter and editor, she is now a professor of English and journalism at N.C. A&T State University in Greensboro.
Ms.Nieman is a 1978 graduate of West Virginia University and received an MFA in creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte. A longtime newspaper reporter and editor, she is now a professor of English and journalism at N.C. A&T State University in Greensboro.
