Valerie Bandura's first book, Freak Show, was a 2014 Patterson Poetry Prize Finalist. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, The Gettysburg Review, ZYZZYVA, Alaska Quarterly Review, Crazyhorse, Mid-Atlantic Review, Third Coast, Prairie Schooner, River Styx, Beloit Poetry Review, Best New Poets, and many others. She was the recipient of fellowships and scholarships from the Vermont Studio Center and Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference. She teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.

Other poems by Valerie Bandura in Verse Daily:
January 14, 2014:   "Now You See It Now You Don't" "The first time my sister lost it..."

Books by Valerie Bandura:

Other poems on the web by Valerie Bandura:
"Rodeo Good Stuff"
"On the Other Hand"
Three poems
Two poems

Valerie Bandura's Website.

Valerie Bandura on Twitter.

About Human Interest:

"In HUMAN INTEREST, Valerie Bandura hurls us through a landscape of birds falling from the sky, game shows and Kardashians. She shows us 'a parched landscape / of strip malls, asphalt, and extended cab pickups / with wrap around decals.' Here is a place where 'Nobody’s crazy. / And everyone is.' With a searing eye toward contemporary culture, Finn gives us a glimpse of America at its strangest. This is a wild and harrowing book for a wild and harrowing time. "
—Matthew Olzmann

"Bandura’s poem make me cry. They reach into my pithy little heart and rip it out of my chest. She writes about Black Sabbath and guns and children and bad fathers and nutty sisters and Facebook and beautiful husbands and none of the language wants to pretend. She’s saying, 'Come here. Come closer. I want to whisper something in your ear.' But, it's the ear of the world, of humanity."
—Matthew Lippman