Poet, writer, educator, translator, arts administrator, and collaborative artist Valerie Martínez (she/her) was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She earned a BA from Vassar College and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Her books of poetry include Count (University of Arizona Press, 2021), Each and Her (University of Arizona Press, 2010), And They Called It Horizon: Santa Fe Poems (Sunstone Press, 2010), World to World (University of Arizona Press, 2004), and Absence, Luminescent (Four Way Books, 1999). She also wrote the chapbooks A Hundred Little Mouths (The Whistling Project, 2015) in collaboration with artist Sue Silton, and This is How it Began (The Press of the Palace of the Governors, 2010). Each and Her was a finalist for the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award.

Martínez’s work has been published in anthologies including Renaming Ecstasy: Latino Writings on the Sacred (Bilingual Press, 2004), American Poetry: Next Generation (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2000), Touching the Fire: Fifteen Poets of Today’s Latino Renaissance (Anchor Books, 1998), The Best American Poetry (Scribner, 1996), and publications including Parnassus: Poetry in Review, Puerto del Sol, and Poetry. She has also translated the work of the Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustini (1886–1914) in the collection A Flock of Scarlet Doves (Sutton Hoo Press, 2005). Martínez was the poet laureate of Santa Fe, New Mexico from 2008-2010.

Martínez taught poetry and literature at the undergraduate and graduate levels for over 20 years, including at the University of Arizona, Ursinus College, New Mexico Highlands University, the Institute for American Indian Arts, the University of New Mexico, the University of Miami, and the College of Santa Fe. She has also worked with children, young adults, adults, teachers, and seniors in a wide range of community outreach and educational programs. The executive director of Littleglobe from 2011–2014, Martínez is the founding director of Artful Life, whose arts engagement projects are designed to transform communities through the beauty and power of collaborative art.