Charlotte Matthews was born in Washington D. C., and her childhood memories are a prominent feature in a number of her poems. She has always felt a great affinity for the land. Right after college, she lived in a tomato greenhouse and farmed in Vermont.

She is the author of two published chapbooks, A Kind of Devotion (Palanquin Press, 2004) and Biding Time (Half Moon Bay Press, 2005). Her poems have recently appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Tar River Poetry, Meridian, and other journals. She is the recipient of numerous awards for both teaching and writing including a fellowship from Brown University and a grant from the Klingenstein Foundation. She teaches at Piedmont Virginia Community College and Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.

She lives with her two children, Emma and Garland, in Crozet, Virginia.