Pat Valdata

About the Artist

Pat Valdata is fiction writer and poet. Her new novel, Eve’s Daughters, by Moonshine Cove in November 2020, won first prize in the Novel category from the Delaware Press Association. Her other novels are Crosswind and The Other Sister, which won a gold medal from the Árpád Academy of the Hungarian Association. Her poetry book about women aviation pioneers, Where No Man Can Touch, won the 2015 Donald Justice Poetry Prize. Her other poetry titles are Inherent Vice and Looking for Bivalve. Her poetry has been published in Ecotone, Fledgling Rag, Italian Americana, Light, Little Patuxent Review, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. Pat has an MFA in fiction writing from Goddard College. She retired in 2020 from teaching creative writing and English for the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC). A native of New Jersey, Pat has been a Marylander since 1990. She now lives in Crisfield with her husband Bob Schreiber.  

Artist's Statement

I love the narrative power of storytelling and the emotional power of poetry. I want my love of poetry to inform my prose writing with the right words in the right places, and my love of narrative to inform my poetry with glimpses into people’s lives. With both genres I work to use concrete details that engage a reader’s senses, while also exploring ideas to make my reader think: writing that is accessible without being simplistic.