Alabama Authors Directory

The Alabama Authors Directory is a resource for readers, editors, publishers, educators, librarians, program planners, and the simply curious to discover and learn more about writers with connections to the state.

Authors directly submit their entries via this form, including publications, availability for programs and workshops, and contact information. Easily searchable and updated, the directory will grow and become more valuable with each entry.

Alabama authors are writing in every genre, for every age and interest, and in just about every corner of the world. From the new and emerging to the underknown to the best known, the Alabama Authors Directory is a resource to discover writers and works that reflect our rich, lively literary culture.

All information is provided by authors or their representatives. Entries are published as submitted after review for format and appropriateness. AWF reserves the right to screen and deny any content deemed inappropriate.

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irene

Irene Latham

Hometown: Oneonta, AL Lives in: Oneonta, AL

Contact Information

  • Email: irene@irenelatham.com

Address:

    • PO Box 122
      Oneonta, AL 35121
      United States
  • Preferred Contact Method: Email

 

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About Irene Latham

Genres: Fiction, Poetry, Children and Young Adults

Available for: Readings, Workshops, In Person, Remote

Bio: Irene Latham writes poems and stories from the Purple Horse Poetry Studio & Music Room, located beside a mountain lake in Blount County. Her passion for poetry started in childhood, with Shel Silverstein’s books (read to her by her father) and love poems she crafted for her mother. Named the winner of the 2016 International Literary Association-Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award and the Alabama State Poetry Society 2006 Poet of the Year, Irene is the author of more than twenty …Read More award-winning books for kids, several of which she co-wrote with her poetic forever friend Charles Waters. She has served as poetry editor for Birmingham Arts Journal since 2003 and especially loves discovering and working with people just finding their poetic voices. Her blog “Live Your Poem” has been active since 2006 and currently features hundreds of free original poems inspired by art. Her newest writing adventure is co-curating (with Charles Waters) poetry anthologies for children.

Works: Be A Bridge. Illustrated by Nabila Adani, Lerner Publishing, 2022.
African Town. Penguin Random House, 2022.
Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes and Friendship. Illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko, Lerner Publishing, 2018.
The Cat …Read More Man of Aleppo. Illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, Penguin Random House, 2020.
Dear Wandering Wildebeest: Poems From the Water Hole. Illustrated by Anna Wadham, Lerner Publishing, 2014.
Dictionary for a Better World. Lerner Publishing, 2020.
Leaving Gee’s Bend. NewSouth Books, 2017.
Meet Miss Fancy. Illustrated by John Holyfield, Penguin Random House, 2019.
The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets. Illustrated by Mercè López, Lerner Publishing, 2024.
Snail’s Ark. Illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini, Penguin Random House, 2022.
The Museum on the Moon: The Curious Objects on the Lunar Surface. Illustrated by Myriam Wares, Bushel & Peck, 2023.
This Poem is a Nest. Illustrated by Johanna Wright, Boyds Mills & Kane, 2020.

Awards: Scott O’Dell Award for Outstanding Historical Fiction (African Town)
Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor (The Museum on the Moon)
Caldecott Honor (The Cat Man of Aleppo)
Eleanor Cameron Notable Science Fiction Book (D-39: A Robodog’s Journey)
NCTE …Read More Charlotte Huck Award Honor (Can I Touch Your Hair: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship)

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