Pence Wins National Poetry Fellowship

Charlotte Pence, director of the Stokes Center for Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama and the first Mobile Poet Laureate, recently won a $50,000 fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. 

The award provides poet laureates throughout the United States with the opportunity to undertake meaningful and innovative projects that enrich the lives of community members, including youth, through responsive and interactive poetry activities.

“I will provide poetry workshops to incarcerated teens (and those on parole) at Mobile’s Strickland Youth Center,” said Pence, who is also an associate professor of English at South. “At the end of this school year, these students will publish an anthology of their work, and we will host a ceremony to celebrate their accomplishments.”

This project will enable the city of Mobile to join the Alabama Writers’ Forum Writing Our Stories Program that aids incarcerated and paroled youth.