As a lawyer, activist, and professor of English at the University of Montana, Casey Charles focused primarily on LGBTQ rights and representation. His first book, The Sharon Kowalski Case: Lesbian and Gay Rights on Trial, part of the Famous American Trials Series out of Kansas, became a finalist for a Publishing Triangle Award in 2003. A book of essays on queer law and film appeared in 2012 (Ashgate). A book of poems (Controlled Burn) was recognized as one of Missoula Independent’s best books of the year in 2017, and two poetry volumes have since been published.
More recently Charles has written two novels—The Trials of Christopher Mann (Regal Crest), which takes place during the Dan White trial in 1979 San Francisco, and The Monkey Cages (Lethe 2018) a story set in 1955, during the famous Boys of Boise scandal in Idaho. Two ethnographic essays about HIV long-term survivors (HIVLTS) in Kenya and India appear in the anthology HIV, Sex, and Sexuality in Later Life (Policy Press 2022).
Charles’ latest book, Undetectable: An HIV Memoir is forthcoming from Running Wild Press.
Casey now splits his time between Missoula, where he hikes and skis, and Palm Springs, where he walks his dog in the canyons.