Contributors

Valerie Martin
Contributor History

Biography
Valerie Martin
Valerie Martin’s most recent novel, I Give It to You, was published by Nan A. Talese/Random House in 2020. Other works by her include Trespass, Mary Reilly, Italian Fever, and Property, along with four collections of short fiction and a biography of St. Francis of Assisi. Her fiction has won the Kafka Prize and Britain’s Women’s Prize.

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In Print

Vol. 82
Works & Days
Spring 2024
Bradford Morrow

Online

October 30, 2024
This house isn’t haunted, has never been, but that will change when, some years from now, I will sometimes feel a chill, and sometimes I will feel alone, and sometimes a voice will say, “Who are you and what have you done with Donna?” And I will try to respond, but I won’t know who Donna is, won’t even know a Donna. I fear I might someday learn.
October 23, 2024
People like to believe they have influence over disasters, catastrophes, losses—by which they mean control—but that’s illusion, and she was done with illusion. Could she write that in her report? You’re all suffering under an illusion. Instead, she picked up the phone and texted: Island//illusion. Illusion//island. They sound the same when you say them enough. There’s a word for that, but I can’t remember it now. I can’t remember anything clearly. All my words are inverted and mirrored. edrorrim. See?
October 16, 2024
Last night I was certain
pppyou were there with a gift
light balanced against shadow

fugitives move along fence lines
cities burningppp
we’re asked to send money
cities burn
where are the plans
there were no bells, no sirens, no warningpppthe cities burned