Inventing an Alphabet was selected by Mary Oliver, as one of two co-winners of the 2004 Aldrich Poetry Prize. Oliver described Judith Valente's poetry as pointing to the universe of the human mind. Offered abundantly to metaphor, her poems embrace an active and even frisky language that engages us in a kind of rickrack stroll, enjoying the fulsome ride toward summation. Several poems previously won individual prizes (conjugating was included in the Best Catholic Writing, 2004, and Body and Soul won the 2005 Jo-Anne Hirshfield Poetry Prize). Her writing has appeared in Afterhours, Folio, Tri-Quarterly, Rhino, and two anthologies. | Inventing an Alphabet by Judith Valente, Paperback | Indigo Chapters