Valerie Miner
Valerie Miner is an American novelist, journalist, and professor. A dual US/UK citizen, she lives in San Francisco and Mendocino, California with her partner.
Biography
Miner is the award-winning author of fifteen books. Bread and Salt is her fourth collection of stories. Her latest novel is Traveling with Spirits. Other novels include After Eden, Range of Light, A Walking Fire, Winter's Edge, Blood Sisters, All Good Women, Movement: A Novel in Stories and Murder in the English Department. Her short fiction books include Abundant Light, The Night Singers and Trespassing. Her collection of essays is Rumors from the Cauldron: Selected Essays, Reviews and Reportage. In 2002, The Low Road: A Scottish Family Memoir was a Finalist for the PEN USA Creative Non-Fiction Award. Her short fiction collections, Trespassing and Abundant Light were each Finalists for the Lambda Literary Awards.Miner's work has appeared in The Georgia Review, Triquarterly, Salmagundi, New Letters, Ploughshares, The Village Voice, Prairie Schooner, The Gettysburg Review, The T.L.S., The Women's Review of Books, The Nation and other journals. Her stories and essays are published in more than sixty anthologies.. A number of her pieces have been dramatized on BBC Radio 4. Her work has been translated into German, Turkish, Danish, Italian, Spanish, French, Swedish and Dutch. In addition to single-authored projects, she has collaborated on books, museum exhibits as well as theatre.
She has won fellowships and awards from The Rockefeller Foundation, Fondazione Bogliasco, The McKnight Foundation, The NEA, The Jerome Foundation, The Heinz Foundation, The Australia Council Literary Arts Board and numerous other sources. She has received Fulbright Fellowships to Tunisia, India and Indonesia.
Winner of a Distinguished Teaching Award, she has taught for over twenty-five years and is now a professor and artist in residence at Stanford University. She travels internationally giving readings, lectures, and workshops. She and her partner live in San Francisco and Mendocino County, California. Her website is www.valerieminer.com.
Books
- Bread and Salt: Short Stories, Whitepoint Press, 2020
- Traveling with Spirits. Livingston: Livingston Press, Aug/Sept., 2013. 304 pages.
- After Eden. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, Spring, 2007. 248 pages.
- Abundant Light. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2004. 191 pages.
- The Night Singers. Nottingham: Five Leaves Press, 2004. 200 pages; Re-issued New York: Open Road Media, 2014.
- The Low Road. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2001. 259 pages. Paperback published 2002.
- Range of Light. Cambridge: Zoland Press, 1998. 227 pages. Re-issued New York: Open Road Media, 2014.
- A Walking Fire. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. 254 pages.
- Rumors from the Cauldron: Selected Essays, Reviews, and Reportage. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992. 281 pages. Re-issued New York: Open *Road Media, 2014.
- Trespassing and Other Stories. London: Methuen; Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1989. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2003. 239 pages.
- All Good Women. London: Methuen; Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1987. 464 pages. Re-issued New York: Open Road Media, 2014.
- Winter's Edge. London: Methuen, 1984; New York: Feminist Press, 1985. 184 pages.
- ---. An der Schwelle zum Winter. Munich: Droemersche Verlagsantalt, 1988.
- Murder in the English Department. London: Women's Press, 1982; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983; Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1985; London: Methuen, 1988. 169 pages. Re-issued New York: Open Road Media, 2014.
- Movement, A Novel in Stories. New York: Crossing Press, 1982; London: Methuen, 1985. 193 pages. Re-issued New York: Open Road Media, 2014.
- Blood Sisters. London: Women's Press, 1981; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982; London: Methuen, 1988; East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2003. 206 pages.
- ---. Kankardesim, Askim. Istanbul: Gendas A.S., 1998.
- ---. Blodsostre. Copenhagen: Hekla, 1984.
Select honors and awards
- Fulbright Senior Specialist Award 2009
- Fellowship, Ucross Foundation, Wyoming, May, 2009
- “Honored Author,” Berkeley Public Library Banquet, 9 February, 2009
- McKnight Artist Fellowship, 2005–2006
- Fulbright Senior Specialist Award, 2004
- Finalist, Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Fiction, 2005
- Hugh J. Luke Award for Fiction, for "Percussion," published in Prairie Schooner, Fall, 2003
- McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Fiction, "Veranda," Best Fiction in The Southwest Review, 2002
- McKnight Summer Fellow, 2002
- Finalist for PEN USA Creative Non-Fiction Award for The Low Road, 2002
- Fulbright Scholar Award in India
- University College Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Minnesota, 1999
- McKnight Arts and Humanities Summer Fellowship, Summer, 1998
- Fulbright Teaching Fellowship to Cairo
- Visiting Research Associate, University of Edinburgh, International Social Sciences Institute, April and May, 1997
- "Master Artist," Atlantic Center for the Arts, March, 1997
- Jerome Foundation Travel Fellowship, 1995–1997
- Bush Foundation Sabbatical Supplement Award, 1996–1997
- N.E.A Mobile Residency, Spring, 1996
- McKnight Research Fellowship, 1994–1997
- Rockefeller Foundation Residency at Bellagio Study Center, Italy, July–August 1994
- Common Rhythms Fellow, Lila Wallace Readers Digest Foundation, Centrum Foundation, 1993–1994
- Finalist, Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Fiction, 1990
- Australia Council Literary Arts Grant, 1988
- PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, 1986
Residency fellowships
- Brown Foundation Fellow, Dora Maar, travel and residency fellowship, April, 2019
- Brush Creek Arts Foundation, Wyoming, May, 2015
- Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Fellowship, May, 2014, May, 2011, May, 2010, March, 2008, March, 2007, April–May, 2004, May–June, 200l, January–February, 1995, April, 1990
- Fondazione Bogliasco, Liguria Study Center, April/May, 2013
- Fundación Valparaiso, Mojácar, Spain, February, 2013
- Heinz Foundation, Hawthornden Castle, May, 2012 and 1996
- Hedgebrook, Whidbey Island, WA, September 2012
- Ucross, Wyoming, May, 2008
- MacDowell Residency Fellowship, July–August, 2002, May, 2003, September–October, 2004
- Yaddo Writing Fellowship, 1999
- Bellagio, July–August 1994
- Leighton Colony, Banff Arts Centre, Canada, July–August 1993
- Blue Mountain Center, May–June 1992
- Cummington Community for the Arts, Cummington, Massachusetts, October 1989
Teaching (selected)
- 2005–present, artist-in-residence, professor, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
- 2017, 2020, Faculty, Stanford in Paris, Fall Quarter, 2017
- 2015, Faculty, Stanford in Santiago, Chile. Fall Quarter, 2015
- 2008–present, Faculty, MFA Program in Creative Writing, University of Alaska, Anchorage, Low Residency
- 2005–2009, Core Faculty, MFA Program in Creative Writing, Pacific University, Low Residency
- 2006–present, Professor Emerita, Department of English, University of Minnesota
- 1995–2006, Professor, Department of English, University of Minnesota—Minneapolis
- 1992–1995, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Minnesota—Minneapolis
- 1992, Associate Professor, Department of English, Arizona State University—Tempe
- 1990–1992, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Arizona State University—Tempe
International experience
Interviews (selected)
- “A Conversation with Valerie Miner,” Long interview about work by R.A. Rycraft. Excerpt from Traveling with Spirits. The Writer’s Chronicle, October/November, 2015.
- “Valerie Miner: A Person of Letters.” Essay and long interview about writing by H. Lee Barnes, Orchid, Spring, 2003.
- Long interview about work in Irish Writers Speak Out: Voices from the Field, edited by Caitriona Moloney and Helen Thompson, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, Spring, 2003.
- Extensive interview about her work in Backtalk: Women Writers Speak Out—Interviews. Ed. Donna Perry. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993.