Valerie Martinez received her MFA from the University of Arizona. Her first poetry collection, Absence, Luminescent (Four Way Books, 1999), was the recipient of the Larry Levis Prize and a Greenwall Grant from the Academy of American Poets. Her work has appeared in The Colorado Review, The Notre Dame Review, AGNI, Puerto del Sol, and elsewhere. And They Call It Horizon, a collection of poems written during her time as Santa Fe Poet Laureate, was published in 2010 by Sunstone Press. (updated 7/2023)