Latham, Irene

Irene Latham is a poet and novelist who lives and writes in Birmingham, Alabama. Her debut novel "Leaving Gee's Bend" was named a Bank Street College Best Book, a SIBA finalist, a Crystal Kite Finalist and ALLA's Children's Book of the Year. As a child she dreamed of being a zoo veterinarian and even trained as a teenage zoo volunteer. All it took was observing one surgery to convince her that perhaps she'd better just write about the animals instead.