Charlotte Pence


Pence Headshot

Charlotte Pence | Associate Professor

Director of Creative Writing and Director of the Stokes Center for Creative Writing.  Specializes in poetry and creative nonfiction.

HUMB 277  |  460-6149  |  cpence@southalabama.edu


Code CoverCode. Black Lawrence Press, 2020.
PUBLISHER  USA LIBRARY

Code features at its center a narrative sequence with three characters: a young father; a young mother who is dying from an inherited disease; and the mother’s own DNA. Considering exciting new developments in genetics such as CRISPR, which would allow us to eradicate certain diseases, this book approaches ethical questions from a poetic and narrative lens, providing an angle that science cannot. Ultimately, Code is a book about grief—specifically, how to surmount it. The poems attest to how we preserve memory through nonverbal means such as cave art and DNA—as well as through story and poetry.


Books and Poetry Chapbooks

  • Many Small Fires. Black Lawrence Press, February 2015.
    • Award: Foreword Reviews’ IndieFab Book of the Year for 2015 (Silver Medal Winner)
    • Award: The Eric Hoffer 2016 Book Award (Finalist)
  • The Branches, the Axe, the Missing. Black Lawrence Press, division of Dzanc Books, May 2012.
    • Award: Black River Chapbook competition winner
  • The Poetics of American Song Lyrics, editor. University Press of Mississippi, January 2012.
  • Weaves a Clear Night. Flying Trout Press, September 2011.
    • Award: Flying Trout Chapbook competition winner
  • The Writer’s Path: Creative Exercises for Meaningful Essays. Kendall Hunt, August 2004.
    • Award: National Books Program selection