A Small Tribute
Poems, classrooms, and an Oklahoma life worth celebrating.
Chuck Ladd’s work carries the plainspoken warmth of someone who has spent a lifetime paying attention: to place, to language, to students, and to the small human moments that matter. This page gathers a few public traces of that life, centered on A Quiet Place in Oklahoma.
Book
A Quiet Place in Oklahoma
This is the clearest public doorway into Chuck Ladd’s writing: a book of free verse poetry grounded in peace, candor, and the kinds of simple pleasures that feel harder to hold onto than they should.
Reception
Robin Sloan wrote that the collection is “deft, meditative, and, on certain pages, laugh-out-loud funny.”
He also wrote that the book “invites everybody in, even those new to poetry.”
Reader Response
What readers respond to in the work
“Chuck Ladd's book is plainspoken, pointed poetry that describes a precious state of being to help find peace in an angry world.”
“Ladd's work is lovely, heartfelt and honest. Reading this book is an experience.”
Source: public reader remarks quoted on the Lulu listing for A Quiet Place in Oklahoma.
Life and Work
A writing life shaped by teaching and community
Public biographical notes describe Chuck Ladd as someone who spent more than forty-five years teaching in the public schools of Oklahoma and Texas.
They also place him for more than thirty years in the orbit of Southeastern Oklahoma State University as an adjunct in English.
Along the way, he is described as a workshop presenter and a consultant for schools on college entrance testing.
Public retail metadata places him and his wife Charisse in Durant, where they raised four children together.
Campus Work
Theater, poems, and student life at Southeastern
Public pages from Southeastern Oklahoma State University yearbooks place Chuck Ladd in the university’s drama and literary life in the early 1970s. A 1973 Savage yearbook page identifies him in productions of A Christmas Carol and Desire Under the Elms.
A 1974 Savage yearbook page identifies him as president of the College Players and notes that the group's revived "Poet's Thursday" gave students an open invitation to read and perform their own work.
Yearbook Record
The creation of Poet's Thursday has boosted the Players' morale as well as provided the students with an open invitation to read and perform their own works.
Source: 1974 Savage yearbook, College Players page.
Public Record
The sources behind this tribute
- Southeastern Oklahoma State University directory listing confirms Charles Ladd as an adjunct instructor in English, Humanities, and Languages.
- Lulu paperback listing confirms the title, publication date, ISBN, page count, and genre.
- Fishpond retail listing provides the public author bio used on this page.
- Robin Sloan’s newsletter includes a public note recommending the book.
- 1973 Savage yearbook page identifies Chuck Ladd in Southeastern drama department productions.
- 1974 Savage yearbook index and OCR excerpts identify Chuck Ladd as president of the College Players and mention Poet's Thursday.
A note on tone and scope
This page is meant as an appreciative introduction, but it stays close to material that can be traced to public sources. There is surely more to the story than what is gathered here.
Contact
Request more information or share a note
If you have more information about Chuck Ladd, want to ask about the book, or simply want to reach out, use the form below.