About

Valerie Nieman's debut historical novel, Upon the Corner of the Moon, is the story of the young Macbeths, destined to unite Scotland in the tumultuous 11th century. A second book, The Last Highland King, will appear in 2027. She is the author of a short fiction collection, three poetry books, and six other novels, including In the Lonely Backwater, winner of the 2022 Sir Walter Raleigh Award, which was called “not only a page-turning thriller but also a complex psychological portrait of a young woman dealing with guilt, betrayal, and secrecy.” Her novel Blood Clay won the Eric Hoffer Prize in General Fiction. To the Bones, a horror/Appalachian/ecojustice novel, was a finalist for the 2020 Manly Wade Wellman Award, and now has a sequel, Dead Hand. A graduate of West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte, she has held state and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and was a founding editor of two literary magazines. Now professor emerita of creative writing at NC Agricultural and Technical State University, she teaches at writers’ workshops.

Other Works

  • Dead Hand

    2024
  • In the Lonely Backwater

    2022
  • To the Bones

    2019
  • Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse

    2018
  • Hotel Worthy

    2015
  • Neena Gathering

    2013
  • Blood Clay

    2011
  • Wake Wake Wake

    2006
  • Fidelities

    2004
  • Survivors

    2000

Awards and Recognition

  • National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship
  • North Carolina Arts Council poetry fellowship
  • Kentucky Foundation for Women fellowship
  • West Virginia Commission on the Arts fellowship
  • Greg Grummer Prize in Poetry
  • Elizabeth Simpson Smith prize in fiction
  • Emma Bell Miles Prize for the Essay, Mountain Heritage Literary Festival, 2019
  • Runner-up, Brockman-Campbell Book Prize, 2019
  • Winner, Flyleaf Books annual poetry contest, 2017
  • Winner, Seven Hills annual contest, YA fiction, 2017
  • Willie Parker Peace History Book Prize (NC Society of Historians), for Mens Et Manus: A Pictorial History of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, 2016
  • Winner, Sir Walter Raleigh Award, 2022 (Best work of fiction by a North Carolina writer)
  • American Writing Awards thriller/suspense category winner 2023
  • Finalist, Robinson Jeffers/Tor House Poetry Prize, 2023
  • Finalist, Forewords Review book prize, 2023