"'Proof of Stake is tenderly radical, a poem pneumatic with contradictions, the Miltonic oak, the anti-Miltonic quasiclusterfuck.' Valle carries his lost loved one close against his chest as he soars through centuries, continents, climates, colonialisms and profit motives, seeking both to register her and protect her from the shitty banns of human time. This is virtuosic writing that abjures writing, naming that abjures naming, a history that abjures histories, and finally abjures its own virtuosity. Yet the love and the desire to continue loving can never be rubbed out. The poem concludes not with consolation but with the resolution to go on with this devotional quest, this simultaneous making-unmaking, to escape form and 'widen the aperture… Dark, more dark.'"

Charles Valle was born in Manila, Philippines and immigrated to California when he was seven years old. A valedictorian of his class at San Clemente High School, Charles proceeded to earn an AS in Chemistry from Saddleback College, a BA in English from University of California, Irvine, and an MFA in Poetry from University of Notre Dame. After Graduate School, he moved to Brooklyn, NY and worked as a Media/Technology Editor for Macmillan/McGraw Hill during the day while acting as the Managing Editor for FENCE Magazine/Books at night. Since 2006, he has served as one of the Poetry Editors at FENCE Magazine. He has been a judge or a reader for over two dozen literary contests and fellowships, including the National Poetry Series, Summer Literary Seminars, Millay Colony, and others. Over the past twenty years, his work has been published in numerous publications, such as Denver Quarterly, Berkeley Poetry Review, and others. Charles currently resides in Portland, OR where he works as a Change Manager for Nike as well as serves on the Board of Directors for the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC).