Maynard Book Festival Author Talk: Irene Latham and Charles Waters discussing books for audiences grades 4-6

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 For the Win. Irene lives with her husband on a lake in rural Alabama, where their favorite neighbors are a pair of bald eagles. 

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).

The Silver Unicorn Bookstore will have copies of Charles and Irene's books at the event for purchase and signing.