Valerie Lawson’s work has been published in Main Street Rag, BigCityLit, About Place Journal, The Catch, and Ibbetson Street. Lawson’s first book, Dog Watch, was released in 2007. Her work has won awards for Best Narrative Poem and Spoken Word at the Cambridge Poetry Awards and was a finalist for the 2015 Rita Dove Award. One of the founding editors and publishers at Resolute Bear Press, Lawson graduated from the University of Maine Machias, where she studied Book Arts and Electronic Publishing. Previously, she has worked as a bookseller, coordinated a literacy program, organized poetry readings in Massachusetts and Maine, co-hosted the Boston Poetry Slam, once emceed the National Poetry Slam in Sweden, and participated in cultural exchanges with Ireland. Lawson lives in Down East Maine with her partner, Michael Brown, and two retired sled dogs.