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Irene Latham & Charles Waters
Irene Latham
Irene Latham is a grateful creator of many novels, poetry collections, and picture books, but her first love is poetry. Her poetry books include: Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship, a Charlotte Huck Honor, and African Town, winner of the 2023 Scott O'Dell Award, both co-written with her poetic-forever-friend Charles Waters. Winner of the 2016 Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award, her solo poetry titles include The Museum on the Moon, This Poem is A Nest, Dear Wandering Wildebeest, and others. Her latest adventure is co-curating poetry anthologies including The Mistakes That Made Us, If I Could Choose a Best Day, and the forthcoming For the Win. Irene lives with her husband on a lake in rural Alabama, where their favorite neighbors are a pair of bald eagles. Read hundreds of Irene's poems for free at irenelatham.com.​
Charles Waters
I was born in Philadelphia and raised in the suburbs of Philly in a town called Yeadon. After graduating from Fairleigh Dickinson University, I joined several theater touring companies, including Poetry Alive! where I first experienced the power of poetry. For eight years afterward when I wasn't developing my poetic skills, I was acting at Walt Disney World performing in various shows, including the role of Judge at The American Idol Experience at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
My books (co-written with Irene Latham) include: African Town (winner of the 2023 Scott O'Dell Award For Historical Fiction), Dictionary For A Better World: Poems, Quotes and Anecdotes from A - Z, Be A Bridge and the Charlotte Huck Honor book Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes and Friendship. Also, my book Mascot (co-written with Traci Sorell) has received an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor and a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor. Since 2007 I have been a proud member of the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).
