The founder and co-director of Richmond Young Writers, Valley Haggard teaches creative nonfiction classes for adults in The Writing Room of Richmond Young Writers.
As Style Weekly's Book Editor from 2004-2011, Haggard wrote reviews, interviewed authors, covered literary events and organized the semi-annual fiction contest for seven years around Richmond. She's taught creative writing classes for ART 180, the Visual Arts Center, the Virginia Museum, the Children's Museum of Richmond and the UVA Young Writer's Workshop. She founded Richmond Young Writers in 2009 at Chop Suey and served on the board of the James River Writers from 2008-2011, at turns producing the monthly Writing Show and helping organize the annual literary conference. She has written for V Magazine, Skirt, RHome Magazine and had a monthly column in Belle, Style's magazine for women, in which she explores life midway between the bohemian and the bourgeoisie from 2007-2012. After traveling through New York, Italy, Colorado, Arkansas and Alaska, Haggard returned to her home town of Richmond, Virginia to pursue life as a waitress, stained glass maker's assistant, preschool teacher and writer. Haggard has a BA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, a dog, a cat, a husband and a son. She is the 2014 recipient of the Theresa Pollack award for Words.
Read "Mountain Baby," a story about her time as a cabin girl at a remote resort outside of Eagle, Colorado.
Order the anthology "Tarnished: True Stories of Innocence Lost," to read about life in an Arkansas tool shed in Haggard's true life story, "Prom Queen."
Press:
Interview with the James River Writers: Valley Haggard
Interview with C3 Richmond: C3 Questions Profile--Valley Haggard
The Village Exxon Newsletter: Richmond's Local Writing Scene
Richmond Magazine: The Write Kind of Marathon
Richmond Magazine: Writing Marathon/Cookout was 'Fantastic Success'
Floricane/Pergula: Passing on a Passion for Writing
Listen to Girl Haggard and weep!
Email: valleyhaggard@gmail.com
Friend: Facebook.
Follow: Twitter.
I backed into [writing], after my more ambitious dreams - to be a saint or at least a wonderful wife and mother - didn't pan out.
-Phyllis Theroux
