Valerie Wilson was born in Michigan and has lived her whole life in Michigan. She has been writing poetry for the last eight years. She is the author of Perceptions In Healthy Cooking, a collection of whole foods recipes and poetry. She currently is a self-employed whole foods chef and teaches cooking classes in Garden City, Michigan under the name Macro Val. Val also writes for Healing Garden Journal, a Michigan based holistic monthly magazine and Harmony Bridge, a bi-monthly spiritual magazine based in the Upper Peninsula. She loves traveling and visiting the beautiful cities and towns of Michigan. The pictures in Michigan's Heart and Soul were all taken by Val during her trips around Michigan. Her e mail address is macroval@cs.com.