Charlene grew up in eastern Washington and received her MFA in Fiction from Warren Wilson College for Writers after spending many years as an ICU nurse in Seattle. In 2004, she received the Washington State Artist Trust literature fellowship for an excerpt of her first novel then called Uneven Ground. She was awarded a residency at Hedgebrook in 2002 and returned as alumni in April 2008 and 20015. Her stories have been published in Potomac Review and Ellipsis. Her first novel, now called The Goode Sisters, is out on submission. She’s at work on her second novel and lives in Seattle, Washington with her family.