Valerie Nieman Papers
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 4542
Papers of novelist and poet Valerie Nieman, a graduate of West Virginia University’s journalism department. She has written books and poetry, mostly on Appalachia and themes set around Appalachian life, including To the Bones and In the Lonely Backwater. Nieman has won several awards, fellowships, and grants, including being a 2013-2014 North Carolina Arts Council poetry fellow, as well as earning a West Virginia Commission on the Arts creative writing grant.
This collection includes draft manuscripts of fiction, non-fiction, short stories, and poetry. Also includes books; photographs; correspondence with fellow writers, publishers, and colleagues; as well as artifacts collected by Nieman. This collection contains a mixture of both personal and professional material. The collection also includes audiovisual and born-digital material, described below. Highlights of this collection include a Steno notebook filled with a continuous list of Nieman's accepted and not accepted works from 1975-2015 in Box 11, and personal correspondence with fellow writers Tom Andrews and Jeff Mann (box 1). Other highlights consist of correspondence with poets Timothy Russell and Kevin Rippin, whose crtiques and comments through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, can be seen on drafts of Nieman's early poetry and helped to pave the way for later works. Timothy Russell commented on drafts of her earlier works, while Kevin Rippin's comments appear on drafts from the 1990s onward. Letters, critiques, and comments from mentor and poet Fred Chappell can be found as well throughout the collection.
Digital materials include 12 3.5 inch floppy disks and one USB drive. The floppy disks consist of draft manuscripts of books and poetry from 1996-2004 as well as professional writing and projects from that time period. The USB drive contains draft files and promotional materials for In the Lonely Backwater, Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse, Fidelities, Hotel Worthy, Survivors, To the Bones, assorted poems and short stories, and unpublished works. Also included are limited quantities of correspondence with Fred Chapell.
Please note, this collection is minimally processed.
Researchers may access born digital materials by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
The donor continues to retain all intellectual property rights during her lifetime (including right, title and interest in the use thereof, and to copyrights trademarks or rights of reproduction), after which such rights (with the exception of those pertaining to published books Neena Gathering, Survivors, Fidelities, Blood Clay, and To the Bones and works-in-progress (Dead Hand, The Women and The Lady in Her Aspects trilogy) revert to the West Virginia & Regional History Center at West Virginia University.
13.05 Linear Feet (9 record cartons, 15 in.; 3 document cases, 5 in. each; 2 flat storage boxes, 3 in. each; 1 framed item, .5 in.; 1 oversized folder, .1 in.)
4.52 Gigabytes (1,570 files, primarily Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, and Apple iWork documents)
English
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Gift of Valerie Nieman, 2021 and 2023.
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository