How to Be a Contemplative: Poems and Brief Reflections

Judith Valente’s chapbook Inventing an Alphabet was selected by Mary Oliver for the 2005 national Aldrich Poetry Prize. It was followed by her full-length collection, Discovering Moons, in 2009, published by Virtual Artists Collective/Chicago.

Along with Charles Reynard, Judith is co-editor of Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul, an anthology of poems and reflections. She is the author of five nonfiction books, including the memoir Atchison Blue: A Search for Silence, a Spiritual Home and a Living Faith and How to Live; and co-author of How to Be and The Art of Pausing: Meditations for the Overworked and Overwhelmed, a collection of haiku and short meditations.

Judith is a former staff writer for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post and on-air correspondent for national PBS-TV and two National Public Radio affiliates in Illinois. She was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in journalism and has won numerous awards for her journalism, poetry, and nonfiction writing. She is a sought-after speaker who frequently leads retreats on how to live a more contemplative life in the secular world and guides the annual “Benedictine Footprints” contemplative, cultural and culinary retreat/pilgrimage to lesser-known parts of Italy.

Website: judithvalente.com
Facebook: Judith Valente
Instagram: JudithValente_Author

Paperback: 90 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (May 21, 2025)