Charlotte Ann Porter is a lifelong believer in the power of stories to enrich our lives. She has been a voracious reader since the 1950’s and has been a central force of many book clubs over the decades. Whether she was working with her husband to run their small family dairy farm in Wisconsin or working as a full-time mother to their three young children, Charlotte always had a book going. Charlotte believes in reading for the pleasure of reading, and for the insight fiction can bring to our lives.
Charlotte Ann Porter has promoted literacy and access to reading for all at the grassroots level, working with young people from diverse backgrounds to improve their reading skills. She is the person who will drive to the other side of town to make sure that a child, or an elderly book club member, has a ride to the activity. Now in her eighties, Charlotte remains dedicated to ensuring access, welcoming in new members, and doing the extra work to include people who otherwise could not participate. To Charlotte, it’s not extra work; that’s what you do. There are thousands of people like Charlotte out there that we never hear about, the invisible heroes who make things happen at the community level, person-by-person. In honor of Charlotte’s commitment to literacy and reading for all, and in honor of those thousands of unrecognized heroes working behind the scenes to make our world a better place, The Charlotte Ann Porter Prize for Fiction is awarded every year to the best short story published by The Lemonwood Quarterly.