Val Howlett wears many hats. They have ten+ years experience in children’s book publishing and now offer freelance services in that field. In recent years, they have been deeply inspired by gardening, floral design, and all kinds of plant nerdery. They own and design for Books & Blooms, a business that sells flower arrangements inspired by literature to the greater Philadelphia area.

Val has an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a recipient of the Katherine Paterson Prize for YA. Their fiction has appeared in Lunch Ticket, Hunger Mountain, and the anthology Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes.