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Valya was born and raised in Chicago, spending much of her youth in Chicago’s “Ukrainian Village.” Her love of words was cultivated at a young age, and Valya enjoyed dreaming up fantasies to share with her sister and friends almost as much as she loved getting lost in a good book. While getting her degree in English at DePaul University, Valya studied with Richard Jones, Maureen Seaton, and Anne Calcagno. She then earned her MFA in Writing as part of the inaugural class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied under Michael D. Collins, James McManus, M. Evelina Galang, Rosellen Brown, and Carol Anshaw. Since receiving her MFA, Valya has worked as a college professor, obituary writer, web content manager, internal communications specialist, co-producer of an independent feature film, and cocktail waitress at a Goth bar. She and her family currently divide their time between Chicago and Frankfurt, Germany. Valya was recently shortlisted for the 2007 Fish Publishing One-Page Story Prize, won Second Place in the 2007 Hackney Literary Awards, and was a Finalist for the 2005 New Letters Literary Awards. Her story "AU Followed by a Number" is due to be published in Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics No. 6. Valya is currently at work on her second novel. Read more about Silence of the Trees or read Valya's online journal.
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