Valerie Fraser Luesse is a freelance writer and editor based in Birmingham, Alabama. She spent 22 years with Time Inc.'s Southern Progress Corp., most recently as Senior Writer for Southern Living, where she specialized in features on Southern culture, wrote essays for the popular Southern Journal column, and contributed to the Travel, Gardens, and Foods sections, as well as special newsstand editions. Among her favorite wellsprings for Southern stories are the Gulf Coast, rural Alabama, the Mississippi Delta, Louisiana's Cajun Prairie, and North Carolina's Outer Banks. Her editorial section on the recovering Gulf Coast, written for Southern Living post-Katrina, won the 2009 Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society.
Before becoming a magazine writer, Valerie spent ten years in corporate communications and magazine development, where she oversaw an employee magazine, produced corporate image pieces in print and video, wrote executive speeches, handled communications for Human Resources, scripted and coordinated innovative, entertaining staff/executive meetings, and was a member of several creative teams charged with developing new magazines.
Valerie has a B.A. in English from Auburn University and an M.A. in English from Baylor University. She grew up in rural Alabama.
Contact Information: [email protected].