Proof of Stake: An Elegy - Charles Valle

Focusing on immigration, colonialism, and the death of the speaker’s infant daughter, Proof of Stake: An Elegy, Charles Valle’s debut collection, details how “[t]here is an emotional debt accrued/ In grief, compounded daily by wordless songs.” “It’s 2019 and there’s a man who wants me/ to go back to where I came from…There’s a man who wants to/Teach me a lesson on supremacy/There are people who want me to believe in one history.” According to Valle the only solution to this, then, is to refuse and resist— poetically, culturally, politically, every which way.    

Publication of this project was made possible by a Make/Learn/Build grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC). Fonograf Ed. gratefully acknowledges RACC for their help and support.

About Charles Valle

Charles Valle was born in Manila, Philippines and immigrated to California when he was seven years old. A valedictorian of his class at San Clemente High School, Charles proceeded to earn an AS in Chemistry from Saddleback College, a BA in English from University of California, Irvine, and an MFA in Poetry from University of Notre Dame. After Graduate School, he moved to Brooklyn, NY and worked as a Media/Technology Editor for Macmillan/McGraw Hill during the day while acting as the Managing Editor for FENCE Magazine/Books at night. Since 2006, he has served as one of the Poetry Editors at FENCE Magazine. He has been a judge or a reader for over two dozen literary contests and fellowships, including the National Poetry Series, Summer Literary Seminars, Millay Colony, and others. Over the past twenty years, his work has been published in numerous publications, such as Denver Quarterly, Berkeley Poetry Review, and others. Charles currently resides in Portland, OR where he works as a Change Manager for Nike as well as serves on the Board of Directors for the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC).