Poet & Painter

About

Valencia Robin is the author of Lost Cities (August 2025) and Ridiculous Light, which won Persea Books’ first book prize, was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and was named one of Library Journal’s best poetry books of 2019. A recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, her poems have appeared in a wide-range of journals, anthologies and podcasts including The Best American Poetry, The New York Times, Poetry Daily, Poem-A-Day, TriQuarterly, The Poetry Unbound Podcast and The Virginia Quarterly Review, which awarded her the Emily Clark Balch Prize. A painter as well as a poet, Robin has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia and an MFA in Art & Design from the University of Michigan. A co-founder of GalleryDAAS at the University of Michigan, Robin’s artwork has been shown nationally and supported by the King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship and the Center for the Education of Women’s Margaret Towsley Fellowship. A teacher, editor and curator, she does readings, artist talks, class visits and workshops at colleges and universities around the country. Robin currently teaches at East Tennessee State University and lives in Johnson City, Tennessee.