Charlotte Watson Sherman

Born Charlotte Denise Watson, in Seattle (Washington), the eldest in a working class family. Dreamed of being a writer since Pippi Longstocking hijacked my imagination.

Graduated from Seattle University. Worked as a pretrial screener, outreach coordinator, sexual abuse counselor, emergency housing counselor, child welfare worker, mental health screener, volunteer coordinator for a literacy program, research interviewer, and librarian.

Published poetry in Obsidian, The Black Scholar, Obsidian II, Painted Bride Quarterly, Permafrost, and Gathering Ground: New Writing and Art by Northwest Women of Color. KNEEL: An Anthem appeared in the group exhibition, Manifesto: A Modest Proposal, at Pitzer College Art Galleries, Claremont, CA., January 20-March 29, 2018, and Another Chicago Magazine’s The LOOP. Also published a collection of short fiction, Killing Color, Calyx Books (1992); a novel, One Dark Body, HarperCollins (1993); an anthology, Sisterfire: Black Womanist Fiction and Poetry, HarperCollins (1994); another novel, touch, HarperCollins (1995), and a children’s book, Eli and the Swamp Man, HarperCollins (1996). A picture book, Brown Sugar Babe, is forthcoming from StarBerry Books (Spring, 2020).

Workshops & Presentations

  • Navigating Conversations about Racial Healing

    75 min | Altar of Air

    Charlotte Sherman and Jill Littlewood will present the work they have done over the past five years about racial violence and healing. They will present work from the 40 artists who have contributed work to a future museum show on lynching. They will also talk about how they, as a black woman and a white one, came together to do this work. There will be a chance for participants to join the conversation and to engage in writing and sharing around this subject.

Check Schedule for all event times.