Congratulations to Pat Valdata (MFAW ’91) who, with Jeff Hardin, has won the Donald Justice Prize for poetry in 2015. Each will receive a $1,000 prize and their books will be published by West Chester University. The competition, for a book-length manuscript written primarily in form, was judged by poet Dick Davis.
Valdata, adjunct associate professor of English at University of Maryland University College (UMUC), is the author of two books of poetry and two novels. Her winning manuscript, titled Where No Man Can Touch, consists of persona poems in the voices of women aviation pioneers, chiefly women who achieved firsts in the field of aviation. They range from the first woman to pilot a hot air balloon by herself to the first woman to break the sound barrier.
Valdata’s poems have been published in Little Patuxent Review, Passager, Delaware Poetry Review, and other literary magazines and anthologies.
Learn more about Pat Valdata at patvaldata.com.