Born in Wisconsin, Charlotte Cox has been writing poetry since she was 10 years old. During her school years in the Midwest, her love of words encouraged her to hone skills in fiction, journalism, and literary criticism. Her early working years were spent teaching junior high and high school students to write. Later she launched a career in the professional world of words with successive jobs as a magazine editor (Illinois), public relations manager (Texas), development administrator (Pennsylvania and North Dakota), and outreach coordinator (Minnesota). However, over the years, less and less of her time was needed for word-crafting, the skill she enjoyed the most. Finally in 2004, after 40 years of guiding communications devoted to fulfilling the dreams of others, she decided to retire and pursue her own childhood dream of becoming a full-time writer. Upon moving to New Hampshire with her husband Larry Cox, this vision became possible. Tapping into such vibrant creative writing networks as the New Hampshire Writers Project, she found enough inspiration among the state's many workshops, readings, and circles of fellow writers to launch her new career as a poet. Since then, Charlotte has won first place in the Poetry Society of New Hampshire's Member Contest, third place in the River Run Seacoast Poetry Contest, and honorable mentions in the PSNH National Contest. Her poems have been published in the 2008 and 2010 Poets' Guide to New Hampshire, PSNH's The Poets' Touchstone, The Beaver Island Reader, Piscataqua Poems: A Seacoast Anthology, and the forthcoming The Widow's Handbook (Kent State University Press, 2014). She has had articles published in Library Journal, Public Libraries, New Hampshire To Do, and Seacoast Living. She served as the editor of Larry Cox's book, Close Encounters with the Common Loon (North Star, 2012). She has been a featured reader throughout New Hampshire's Lakes Region, including Effingham, Gilford, Laconia, Moultonboro, Rochester, and Wolfeboro. She was invited to read at the Currier Museum's 9/11 Memorial event, Wind in the Timothy Press' Poetry Festival in Canterbury, and the Exeter venue of the annual global event, 100 Thousand Poets for Change. She is also an active member of Poets in the Attic in Wolfeboro. Since her husband's death in 2008, Charlotte continues to live in Laconia, sharing her time between developing her writing, supporting her fellow poets, and helping out her two daughters' families (one in Henniker, one in Mexico) with a total of five grandchildren.
