Claudia Castro Luna discusses "The Flowers Along the Way"

There will be time to mingle and chat between 6:30pm and 7pm. The program will start at 7pm.

About the Book:
From El Salvador’s lush countryside to the streets of Oakland, California, a young mother wrestles with the intersecting forces of memory, history, and language in order to chart a new path for herself and her growing family. Fleeing political unrest and civil war violence in El Salvador, fourteen-year-old Claudia Castro Luna arrived in the United States with her family in 1981. Two decades later, holding her two-year-old and pregnant with her second child, she survives a public shooting by hiding behind shrubs in front of her house in Oakland. This event unleashes disorienting and traumatic memories, plunging her into a journey of discovery as she grapples with PTSD, recovers family stories, and begins to make sense of all that was torn asunder within her by the experiences of war and emigration. Beauty, longing, fear, and joy entwine in this powerful story of love, self-determination, and the search for home.

About the Speaker: Claudia Castro Luna is an award-winning poet and writer, an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate fellow (2019-2020), WA State Poet Laureate (2018 – 2021) and Seattle’s inaugural Civic Poet (2015-2018). She is the author of “Green the World” (Chin Music Press, 2026), “One River, A Thousand Voices”(Chin Music Press, 2020), “Cipota Under the Moon” (Tia Chucha Press, 2022) and “Killing Marías” (Two Sylvias Press, 2017). The latter two titles were shortlisted for the WA State Book Award in poetry, 2023 and 2018 respectively. Castro Luna is also the author of and the chapbook “This City” (Floating Bridge Press, 2016). Her most recent non-fiction is in “There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis” (Vintage) and in “Memory's Vault: The Poetic Heart of Fort Worden” (Empty Bowl). Castro Luna’s memoir, “The Flowers Along the Way” is forthcoming from Curbstone in fall 2026.

Born in El Salvador, Castro Luna lives in English and Spanish, and writes and teaches in the Pacific Northwest.

Presented in partnership with Elliott Bay Book Company, with support from The Seattle Public Library Foundation, The Gary and Connie Kunis Foundation, and The Seattle Times. Free and reduced access supported by 4Culture.