Valerie Fioravanti is the author of Garbage Night at the Opera, winner of the 2011 Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction from BkMk Press (pronounced Bookmark Press) of the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Garbage Night at the Opera received the IPPY Bronze Medal in Short Fiction, was a finalist for Late Night Library‘s Debut-litzer Prize in Fiction, and was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Story Prize.
Valerie’s short stories have appeared in North American Review, Cimarron Review, Hunger Mountain, and others. These storieshave received eight Pushcart Prize nominations and Special Mention in Pushcart Prize XXVIII. Valerie received a Fulbright Fellowship in Creative Writing to Italy. Her story “Loud Love” won the inaugural Tillie Olsen Short Story Award from the Tishman Review. Her essays and prose poems have been published in Portland Review, Eclectica, Silk Road, r.kv.r.y, and others.
Valerie primarily works as a writing coach, providing one-on-one feedback and mentoring to other writers. She also teaches and facilitates workshops across the country and now into Europe, as requested. She will consider travel to any town, city, country, or continent. If you or your writing group would like to work with Valerie, use the contact form below. Her First 100 Pages Novel course can be adapted to work in small groups over a weekend, with manuscripts received and read in advance.
Valerie has taught for the UCLA & UC Davis Extension Writers Program, National University’s MFA program, and New Mexico State University. She screens manuscripts for book and story awards and participates in craft lectures and panels. She has appeared at AWP, Napa Valley Writers Conference, UCLA Writers Faire, Litquake SF, and elsewhere.
She received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Fiction from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces where she learned both craft and the art of mentoring from writing luminaries Robert Boswell, Kevin McIlvoy, and Antonya Nelson. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts from the New School in New York City, where she was born and raised.
Valerie was named a “Best Friend to Fiction Writers” by Sacramento News & Review in the 2011 Best of Sacramento issue. It remains one of her proudest accolades.
She can be reached via email at valfiora (at) yahoo (dot) com, or you can fill out the contact form below.
My story “Clap Your Hands” is featured in The Saturday Evening Post‘s New Fiction Friday series.
Click on the cover art below to read the story.
My story “3.6 Pounds” is featured in healthcare-related journal Please See Me‘s “Pain” issue. Click on the story art–photographer Sarah Basha’s Suffering is Optional–to read.
My story, “Toilet Paper Glove,” is featured in the Ka-Ching: Money issue of Crab Orchard Review.
Click the cover image below for the Issuu link. My story begins on Page 21.
My story “The Start-Up Fund” appears in the 2018 issue of Ellipsis Literature & Art.
Click the cover image below for a pdf of the issue. My story begins on Page 59.
I discuss the origins of my second story collection Bridge & Tunnel on The North American Review‘s blog.
Click on Kali Gregan’s cover art (below) to read “The Literary Rub.”
My story “My Freshman Roommate & Her Parents” appears in LUMINA‘s online Volume 7.
The story’s cover image below, by Lisa Ferber, links to the story.
My story “Loud Love” has won the inaugural Tillie Olsen Short Story Award and has been published in the July issue of The Tishman Review. “Loud Love” is part of my second linked story collection, Bridge & Tunnel.
You can read the story by clicking on the image below.
Contest judge Alice Mattison wrote, "I found “Loud Love” a great pleasure to read every time I picked it up. The narrator is a delight, flawed and admirable at once, hilariously honest about the person she finds herself to be. The characters have complexity and depth. The story is funny and meaningful. It’s engaging and believable on every page.”
Fiction editor Jennifer Porter wrote, "The story embodies, in my opinion, not only the spirit of Olsen’s writing but her heart for social activism."
Valerie Fioravanti 