Valerie Schultz is a freelance writer, journalist, columnist for The Bakersfield Californian, and a contributing writer to the Jesuit publication America and the daily prayer book Give Us This Day. Her essays and short stories have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune, as well as in Catholic publications such as US Catholic, Commonweal, Human Development, and The National Catholic Reporter. Her books include Closer: Musings on Intimacy, Marriage, and God (2008), Overdue: A Dewey Decimal System of Grace (2019) and A Hill of Beans: The Grace of Everyday Troubles (2021).