Charlie J. Stephens is a nonbinary writer from the Pacific Northwest. Born and raised in Salem, Oregon, Charlie has lived all over the U.S. as a bike messenger, wilderness guide, high school English teacher, and seasonal shark diver (for educational purposes only.) Resident of Port Orford on the southern Oregon coast, they are the owner of Sea Wolf Books & Community Writing Center. Charlie’s short fiction has appeared in Electric Literature, Best Small Fictions Anthology, New World Writing, Original Plumbing/Feminist Press, and elsewhere.
Their debut novel, “A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest,” was published by Torrey House Press in April 2024. It was long-listed for The Center For Fiction’s 2024 First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards/Ken Kesey Award for Fiction. It was awarded the Leslie Feinberg Award in Trans and Gender-Variant Literature and the Bronze Foreword Indies Award in LGBTQ+ fiction in 2025.
“Annihilation for Beginners,” their new collection of short stories published by Buckman, will be out March 3, 2026.
Order “A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest” HERE
Pre-order “Annihilation for Beginners” HERE
Charlie J. Stephens 