Irene Latham is a Birmingham poet and novelist. Her debut historical novel Leaving Gee’s Bend (Putnam/Penguin, 2010) is set in Alabama during the Great Depression and was awarded Alabama Library Association's 2011 Children's Book Award. Her latest novel Don’t Feed the Boy (Roaring Brook/Macmillan, 2012) is about a boy who wants to escape his life at the zoo. Poetry editor for Birmingham Arts Journal, Irene has also authored two award-winning poetry collections: What Came Before (Negative Capability Press, 2007) and The Color of Lost Rooms (Blue Rooster Press, 2010), awarded the Writer’s Digest 19th Annual Self-Published Book Prize for Poetry.
