Anne Valente
Associate Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Director of Creative Writing
Anne Valente is the author of two novels, Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down and The Desert Sky Before Us, as well as the short story collection, By Light We Knew Our Names, which won the Dzanc Prize. Her short stories appear in American Short Fiction, The Kenyon Review, One Story and The Chicago Tribune, and her essays appear in The Believer, Guernica, Literary Hub and The Washington Post.
Valente has been awarded fellowships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference and the Women's International Study Center, and her work has been recognized in Best Small Fictions 2017 and Best American Essays 2022
Valente earned her bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, master’s of fine arts in fiction from Bowling Green State University, and her doctorate in creative writing and literature from the University of Cincinnati. She previously taught at Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
Recent Courses Taught
The Road Trip in American Literature
Intro. to Creative Writing
Distinctions
- Walter E. Dakin Fellowship in Fiction, Sewanee Writers’ Conference 2017.
- Winner, 2016 Jay Prefontaine Heartland Fiction Prize. New Stories of the Midwest 2015. Chosen by Lee Martin.
- Finalist Award and Publication, 2015 Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren Award.
- Georges and Anne Borchardt Scholar in Fiction, Sewanee Writers’ Conference 2014.
- Winner, 2011 Dzanc Books Short Story Prize.
- Winner, 2012 Copper Nickel Fiction Contest. Judged by Kevin Wilson.
- Notable Story, Best American Non-Required Reading 2011. Edited by Dave Eggers.
Select Publications
- Utah: A Novel. New York: HarperCollins (Forthcoming Winter 2019).
- Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down: A Novel. New York: HarperCollins, 2016.
- By Light We Knew Our Names: Stories. Ann Arbor: Ozane Books, 2014.
- An Elegy for Mathematics. Pittsburgh: Origami Zoo Press, 2013. Re-Issued 2017 by Bull City Press, Durham, NC.
- "A Personal History of Arson." The Best Small Fictions 2017. Ed. Tara Masih; Story Chosen by Amy Hempel. Braddock, PA: Braddock Avenue Books, 2017.
Professional Affiliations
Association of Writers and Writing Programs
Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment
Modern Language Association
Authors Guild
Appointed to the Faculty
2017Educational Background
Ph.D., University of Cincinnati
M.F.A., Bowling Green State University
M.S., University of Illinois
B.A., Washington University in St. Louis
