Irene Latham is a grateful creator of many novels, poetry collections, and picture books, including Can I Touch Your Hair?: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship (with Charles Waters), which earned a Charlotte Huck Honor, and The Cat Man of Aleppo (with Karim Shamsi-Basha), which won a Caldecott Honor. Winner of the 2016 ILA Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award, poetry is her favorite kind of playground, and she loves to write poems inspired by nature, animals, art, history, and the experience of being human. An experienced artist-teacher and presenter nationally and internationally, Irene was recently named a 2022 Alabama State Council on the Arts Literary Fellow. She lives with her husband Paul, their energetic dog Rosie, and elderly cat Maggie on a lake in rural Alabama.

“Charles and Irene…were incredible. I learned so much in just a few days, and they were very flexible, supportive, and inspiring.”