Valarie Hastings, TWH 2026 Directors Assistant (Poetry)

Valarie Hastings is the 2020 winner of the Steve Kowit Poetry Prize, finalist for the 2023 Laura Boss prize, and recipient of an Honorable Mention for the 2020 Allen Ginsberg Award.  Valarie has published her poetry in more than a dozen literary journals including The New Guard, Innisfree, A Year in Ink, Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Gyroscope, Paterson Literary Review, San Diego Poetry Annual, Literary Mama, SheMom and Crab Creek Review. Valarie was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2019, and was previously a finalist for the Kowit Poetry Prize (2018, 2019), the Knightville Poetry Prize (2019), and the Crab Creek Poetry Prize (2011). Her first collection of poetry, Searching for Dandelion Greens, came out in 2021, with Garden Oak Press. She currently serves as Director of Judges for the Steve Kowit Poetry Prize.