Jos Charles

Jos Charles is a trans American poet, writer, translator, and editor. In 2017 her book feeld was a winner in the prestigious National Poetry Series. She is the founding editor of THEM, the first trans literary journal in the United States. Charles grew up in a conservative Evangelical Christian family, and wrote her first poem, about the Crucifixion, when she was seven years old. Her book, feeld, uses an original vocabulary that combines Middle English and textspeak. Chosen for the National Poetry Series by the poet Fady Joudah, it has been praised for its groundbreaking twist on classic pastoral traditions. In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, an event widely considered a watershed moment in the modern LGBTQ rights movement, Queerty named her one of the Pride50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people".

from "feeld"

bieng tran is a unique kinde off organe / i am speeching materialie / i am speeching abot hereditie / a tran entres thru the hole / the hole glomes inn the linden / a tran entres eather lik a mothe / wile tran preceds esense / her forme is contingent on the feeld / the maner sits cis with inn a feeld / wee speeche inn 2 the eather / wile the mothe bloomes / the mothe bloomes inn the yuca

-from feeld (2018)

from "feeld"

iii.

tonite i wuld luv to rite the mothe inn the guarden / 2 greev it / & as a mater off forme / did u kno not a monthe goes bye / a tran i kno doesnt dye / just shye off 27 / its such a plesure to b alive / inn this trembled soot / u lent / shock is a struktured responce / a whord lost inn the mouthe off keepers / & u thum at the mothe / a dozen bes / i tetherred thees nites / i gathred so manie treees

-from feeld (2018)