Judith Valente is an award-winning author and journalist who has worked for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, national PBS-TV, and the NPR affiliate in central Illinois. She left daily journalism two years ago to focus on writing that helps busy people slow down and find greater meaning in daily life. She is the author of four spirituality titles, including The Art of Pausing: Meditations for the Overworked and Overwhelmed; Atchison Blue: A Search for Silence a Spiritual Home and a Living Faith, the memoir of her time living as a lay woman with the Benedictine sisters of Atchison, KS; and How to Live: What The Rule of St. Benedict Teaches Us About Happiness, Meaning and Community. She is co-editor of the poetry anthology Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul. Judith is also an award-winning poet, contributes articles to U.S. Catholic and National Catholic Reporter, and guides frequent retreats on how to live a more contemplative life in the secular world. Her latest book is forthcoming in May 2021, a collaboration with Brother Paul Quenon of the Abbey of Gethsemani based on their letters to each other, tentatively titled, How To Be: Exploring Life's Big Questions in a Friendship in Letters.
