Charlotte Pence

Contact Information:
Do you want to schedule a reading with Charlotte? Invite her to talk about poetry or creative nonfiction? Maybe teach a workshop?  All requests will be considered, and she is happy to work within your budget.  For speaking inquiries, contact Charlotte at: charlottepence@mac.com

Bio for Events:

Charlotte Pence is Mobile, Alabama’s inaugural poet laureate. Pence’s most recent book of poems, Code, received the 2020 Book of the Year award from Alabama State Poetry Society and was shortlisted for Best Indie Poetry Books of 2020 by Foreword Reviews. Code details not only the life cycle of birth and death, but also the means of this cycle: DNA itself. Her first book of poems, Many Small Fires (Black Lawrence Press, 2015), received an INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award (silver medal) from Foreword Reviews. Similar to Code, Pence weaves together personal experience and scientific exploration. Many Small Fires explores her father’s chronic homelessness while simultaneously detailing the physiological changes that enabled humans to form cities, communities, and households. She is also the author of two award-winning poetry chapbooks and the editor of The Poetics of American Song Lyrics. Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have recently been published in Harvard Review, Sewanee Review, Southern Review, Brevity, and featured on The Slowdown. A graduate of Emerson College (MFA) and the University of Tennessee (PhD), she is now the director of the Stokes Center for Creative Writing at the  University of South Alabama.