John Valentine lives in Savannah, Georgia, where he teaches philosophy courses at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has been published in The Sewanee Review, The Midwest Quarterly, The Southern Poetry Review, Snake Nation Review, International Poetry Review, Confluence, Pudding House Publications, and other journals. His influences include Zen Buddhism and existential literature. His poems attempt to capture kensho or the sudden moment of illumination in a world of impermanence.

With a beautiful use of simile and metaphor, John Valentine's The Day the Meteor Comes provides a fascinating and moving rumination on life and death that is a pleasure to read and think upon. Constructed with great care and with no extraneous words, these poems follow his life’s course from beginning (“Birth Certificate”) to end (“To My Eulogist”) with the polish of someone who knows exactly what he wants and how to get it. Sometimes surprising, his images are always spot on. This collection is worth reading again and again.
~ Irv Miller, Moonburn

John Valentine shows a subtle and sweet way with words, comparing the sun to a new woman walking on waves, talking about writing that is finding a road not on any map and "beginning anywhere but only with ammonia." Valentine surprises and delights, whether telling us about a friend with Alzheimer's disease, imagining "rain reading Braille on the page of leaves" or waxing poetic about the Flying Wallendas. Subject matter as diverse as country singer George Jones and United Airlines Flight 93 are on Valentine's incredible radar, and he writes about them with polished sensitivity and skill. It's a pleasure being taken along for such a ride by a writer of his passion and knowledge. Bravo!
~ Harry Calhoun, The Insomnia Poems

Purchase The The Day the Meteor Comes here.