BIO: Patricia Valdata received an MFA in writing from Goddard College in 1991 and Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards for poetry in 2001 and 2003. Her first full-length poetry collection is Inherent Vice, published by Pecan Grove Press in March 2011. Her poetry has also appeared in Thanal Online, Big Bridge, North American Review, and Letters to the World (Red Hen Press, 2008). Pat is also a novelist; her most recent novel, The Other Sister (Plain View Press, 2008), won a gold medal in 2009 from the Árpád Academy. You can read about how Pat’s poetry and fiction writing complement one another at Public Republic and learn more about The Other Sister at youTube.

Pat is an adjunct associate professor for the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). For more information, please see cloudstreetcomm.com

PUBLICATIONS:
Inherent Vice (Pecan Grove Press, 2011), poetry.
The Other Sister (Plain View Press, 2008), a novel.
Looking for Bivalve (Pecan Grove Press, 2002), chapbook contest finalist
Crosswind (Wind Canyon Books, 1998), a novel

cloudstreetcomm.com/books.htm
POEMS
Looking for Bivalve

An osprey nest, prominent
In a tree above the salt marsh

The salt marsh, for miles,
Reeds, cattails, ice

An oyster-packing plant,
A rotting pier

A sign pointing to Shellpile
A single blue heron.

This map must be wrong.

—Patricia Valdata