Claudia Castro Luna present 'The Flowers Along the Way: A Memoir'

Third Place Books welcomes Seattle poet Claudia Castro Luna for a reading from her memoir .

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. The Flowers Along the Way is a gripping memoir interrogating how trauma follows us close behind.

"Among the most important poets of the Salvadoran diaspora, Castro Luna's prose is precisely imagined, luminous and wise, and her story will harrow and uplift you.” —Carolyn Forché

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Passionately demonstrating the dormant trauma of political violence and the redemption waiting beyond it

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.

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, One River, A Thousand Voices, Cipota Under the Moon, and Killing Marías. 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 the chapbook This City. Castro Luna's latest work is a memoir, The Flowers Along the Way, (Northwestern U Press). Born in El Salvador, Castro Luna lives in English and Spanish, and writes and teaches in the Seattle Metro area on unceded Duwamish lands. Watch Castro Luna's Poetry of Place talk at TEDxUofW and the PBS Newshour segment featuring her and her signature project, Seattle Poetic Grid.

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is proud to serve the entire Seattle metro area. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events.