Judith Valente is an award-winning journalist, poet and essayist. Her chapbook "Inventing An Alphabet" was selected by Mary Oliver for the 2005 Aldrich Poetry Prize. She is the author of the poetry collection "Discovering Moons" and co-editor with Charles Reynard of
"Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul," an anthology of poems and reflections on finding the sacred in the ordinary. Her news reports appear regularly on national PBS-TV and local PBS in Chicago. She is currently at work on a non-fiction book about her experiences as a regular visitor to Mount St. Scholastica Monastery in Atchison, Kansas. Valente is a sought after speaker who gives frequent workshops and retreats that combine poetry and the visual arts in an effort to live a more comtemplative life in a 24/7 world.