AUTHOR

Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Tennessee. Valerie has been published in the New York Times, which has hailed her as one of America’s “most intriguing, fully formed new talents.” She has recorded four critically acclaimed, best-selling solo albums and has also written songs for legendary artists such as Mavis Staples and The Blind Boys of Alabama. Valerie has performed on The Tonight Show, The Late Show, Austin City Limits, Rachael Ray, and CBS Saturday Morning, and graced some of the world's most prestigious stages, from Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center. She’s part of the Turnaround Arts program originally started by First Lady Michelle Obama. Also a poet, her first collection, Maps for the Modern World was published in April 2021 by Andrews McMeel Publishing. When she’s not touring, June splits her time between Tennessee and New York.

Valerie June

ILLUSTRATOR

Marcela Avelar

Marcela Avelar is a Mexican-born artist based in New York City. She is the founder of a not-for-profit digital art collective called The Artruist. Her work can be seen in advertisements as well as album covers for musicians like Special K’s, Aloysius 3, Pete Remm, So Brown, Wes Hutchinson and 9 time Grammy Award winner Norah Jones. She also designed the stage for Norah Jones’ 2017 Day Breaks World Tour. In 2018, Marcela’s artwork was part of an exhibit in New Paltz, NY celebrating Mexican Women Artists, Artbath, a monthly performance series in NYC and she is working on her next solo exhibit. Currently, she is in collaboration with a Mexico based developer to create unique designs for tiles and textiles.

Photo by Mikaela Gauer

PUBLISHER

Third Man Books

Located in Nashville, Tennessee, Third Man Books is dedicated to publishing the best in poetry, fiction, speculative fiction, SF/F, and non-fiction with the same diversity, craftsmanship, and aestheticism that are the hallmarks of our partner company, Third Man Records.