Beating Writer's Block and Other Blocks: Learning to Start & Love Writing(11-15)

Greetings! My name is Val. I’m an editor, publisher, educator, and, of course, a voracious writer and reader, particularly in the scifi, fantasy, and mainstream genres. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Johnson State, and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Spalding University. I have worked in the literary and publishing world for over twenty years in different capacities.
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I have been writing for many years and submitting and publishing for almost as many. My fiction, nonfiction, and poetry has been published in a wide variety of markets, encompassing everything from a long critical essay to a twenty-five-word story. I am a literary editor, specializing in developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, and graphic novel editing, with a focus on speculative fiction. I’ve worked with a wide variety of submission managers and contacts, and I also coach authors on how to prepare their work for publication, research appropriate markets, and handle submissions.

My interest in publishing has existed almost as long as I have been writing. While the ‘zine I published and sold as a teen isn’t necessarily the best indicator of my publishing ability, it did spark my love of publishing and provided a foundational base for my current publishing work. I am one of the founding editors, and current seven-year editor in chief, of a thrice-yearly literary magazine. I supervise a staff of over a dozen editors, handle all accounting and design responsibilities, and work with my team to produce a print and PDF issue every January, May, and September. We focus on intersectionality and underrepresented voices in our outreach, and currently pay all contributors. 

My primary nonfiction research and publishing focus has centered around queer fiction, encompassing the history from 1900 to current times, with a focus on how queer literature intersects with queer history and its intersection with other marginalized voices, particularly racial and neurodivergency. My research in this field is ongoing, and I am continually adding to my knowledge base. 

I have taught many forms of creative writing and literature classes over the last fifteen years, with subjects ranging from fiction writing to poetry forms to literature classes, to a wide variety of ages including adult learners and homeschooled teenagers. I have always designed my curriculum, and because of this have extensive experience in being able to modify it to match a learner’s skillset without sacrificing either the quality or quantity of learning. 

All of these experiences have equipped me with the foundation for my classes. In my creative writing series, ranging from one-time to semester length courses, I cover topics including discovering the parts of fiction writing, creating speculative fiction, and learning to write even when a learner feels they do not have the skills. In my poetry classes we study everything from poetic forms to slam poetry, as well as silly forms like the Clerihew. In my queer literature series, we study queer literature and how it intersects with history and other marginalized voices, equipping the learners with not only the literary history, but knowledge of the contemporary history that surrounds it. 

One of my favorite things about teaching is the ah-ha moment when a learner not only comes to an understanding of what we are doing, but also the why. While each class has a set of skills and knowledge for each student to gain, I am keenly aware that all students gain mastery of their skills at different rates, and that there are many different styles of learning. For this reason, I design my classes in a flexible format so that even in sessions where there are a variety of learning styles I can ensure that my learners do not get frustrated, and are able to comprehend and retain the information I am teaching. I offer a variety of courses, including a variety of classes in writing basics, speculative fiction, literary analysis, queer literature, graphic novels, slam poetry, editing, and publishing, as well as the occasional related class. 

I live and breathe the literary world, and I look forward to teaching your learner!