By Candace Barrington

April 13, 2022

This past weekend (8-9 April) I attended the glorious Sewanee Medieval Colloquium organized in exquisite fashion by Stephanie Batkie at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Among the colloquium’s many highlights, getting to meet and talk to Jos Charles was at the top for me.

I became aware of Jos Charles and her verse when feeld appeared in 2018. As I describe in a forthcoming article, I immediately purchased the book but let it languish on my desk as other projects took precedence. When I finally read it a few months later, I was astonished by its powerful engagement with Middle English semiotics and semantics as a way to allow readers to understand one trans woman’s experience.

Jos Charles’s invitation to gain new knowledge “out of olde bokes” (PF 24) is worth accepting.