Loretta Diane Walker

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 Loretta Diane Walker, an award winning poet, a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, a musician who plays her tenor saxophone sometimes, a daughter navigating a new world, a teacher who still likes her students, a two-time breast cancer survivor, and an artist who has been humbled and inspired by a collection of remarkable people and poets, is an nine-time Pushcart Nominee, and Best of the Net Nominee, won the 2016 Phyllis Wheatley Book Award for Poetry, for her collection, In This House (Bluelight Press). Her work has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies in the US, UK, Canada, and India. Her work has most recently appeared in Concho River Review, Connecticut River Review, Texas Poetry Calendar, San Pedro River Review, Langdon Review of the Arts: Tejas Covido, Wordfest Anthology, Writing Texas 7, Odes and Elegies, and is forth coming in Poet’s Choice, and Switchgrass Review. She has published five collections of poetry and her sixth collection, Day Begins When Darkness is in Full Bloom, is forth coming in 2021. Her most recent collection, Ode to My Mother’s Voice, is published by Lamar University Literary Press. Her manuscript Word Ghetto won the 2011 Bluelight Press Book Award. Loretta received a BME from Texas Tech University and earned a MA from The University of Texas of the Permian Basin. She teaches elementary music at Reagan Magnet School, Odessa, Texas. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., The Permian Basin Poetry Society, Poetry Society of Texas, The Pennsylvania Poetry Society, and The National Federation of Poetry Societies.

Naomi Shihab Nye states, “Loretta Diane Walker writes with compassionate wisdom and insight—her poems restore humanity.”

Website: https://sites.google.com/ecisd.school/loretta-diane-walker/home
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loretta.walker.7
Twitter: @walkerld1
Instagram: @lorettadianewalker

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