Jos Charles (born November 14, 1988) is a trans American poet, writer, translator, and editor. Her book feeld won the National Poetry Series and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She is the founding editor of THEM, the first trans literary journal in the United States.[1]
Biography
editCharles grew up in a conservative Evangelical Christian family, and wrote her first poem, about the Crucifixion, when she was seven years old.[2] She received a Masters in Fine Arts degree from the University of Arizona.[3] and is a PhD candidate in English at the University of California Irvine.[4]
Charles's debut poetry collection, Safe Space, was published in 2016 by Ahsahta Press.[5][6] Her poetry has been published by POETRY, PEN, Washington Square Review, Denver Quarterly, GLAAD, LAMBDA Literary, The Feminist Wire, Action Yes, BLOOM, and The Capilano Review.[7] In 2015 she received the Monique Wittig Writer's Scholarship.[8] In 2016 Charles received a Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship through the Poetry Foundation and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry.[9][8][3][10]
Her second book, feeld, uses an original vocabulary that combines Middle English and textspeak.[11][12][13][14][15] Chosen for the National Poetry Series by the poet Fady Joudah, it has been praised for its groundbreaking twist on classic pastoral traditions.[16]
In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, an event widely considered a watershed moment in the modern LGBTQ rights movement, Queerty named her one of the Pride50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people".[17]
Selected works
editBooks
edit- Safe Space (Asahta Press, 2016)
- feeld (Milkweed Editions, 2018)
- a Year & other poems (US: Milkweed Editions, 2022), (UK: Broken Sleep Books, 2024)
Additional resources
editReferences
edit- ^ "Jos Charles". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
- ^ Savard, Molly (14 August 2018). "The Complicated Beauty of Jos Charles' Words". Shondaland. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ a b "Jos Charles Archives". Nationalpoetryseries.org. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ Trumpfheller, Brad (30 August 2018). "Groundshift: A Conversation with Jos Charles". The Adroit Journal. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ "Ten Questions for Jos Charles". Poets & Writers. 14 August 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ "American Poetry Review - Jos Charles - "Bowl of Oranges: An Interview with Kaveh Akbar"". American Poetry Review. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ Foundation, Poetry (3 February 2019). "Jos Charles". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ a b "Two Poems by Jos Charles". Lithub.com. 15 August 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ "Safe Space". Ahsahtapress.org. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Jos Charles". Nationalbook.org. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ "Standardizing the Vernacular: Jos Charles Interviewed by S. Yarberry - BOMB Magazine". Bombmagazine.org. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ "Jos Charles on "Seagull, Tiny" - Poetry Society of America". Poetrysociety.org. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ "Queering Language: 'Feeld' by Jos Charles". Zyzzyva.org. 14 September 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ "To describe the trans experience, this poet created a new dialect". PBS NewsHour. 30 July 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ "VIDA Reviews! feeld notes: feeld, by Jos Charles". VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. 26 October 2018. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ Gellatly, Kylie (2020). ""nature is sumwhere else": A Review of Jos Charles' feeld". Pleiades: Literature in Context. 40 (1): 237–238. doi:10.1353/plc.2020.0026. S2CID 212760244.
- ^ "Queerty Pride50 2019 Honorees". Queerty. Retrieved 2019-06-18.