BOOKS

Books can be ordered from Northwestern University Press.

“In Cipota under the Moon, Claudia Castro Luna scores a series of poems as an ode to the Salvadoran immigrant experience in the United States. The poems are wrought with memories of the 1980s civil war and rich with observations from recent returns to her native country. Castro Luna draws a parallel between the ruthlessness of the war and the violence endured by communities of color in US cities; she shows how children are often the silent, unseen victims of state-sanctioned and urban violence. In lush prose poems, musical tankas, and free verse, Castro Luna affirms that the desire for light and life outweighs the darkness of poverty, violence, and war. Cipota under the Moon is a testament to the men, women, and children who bet on life at all costs and now make their home in another language, in another place, which they, by their presence, change every day.”

Bookseller Rick Simonson from the esteemed Elliott Bay Book Company says:

“Claudia Castro Luna’s stunning book of poems, Cipota Under the Moon, is one of re-remembering and reckoning. Poems arch back to a Salvadoran childhood and adolescence marked by blossoming, coming-into-being beauty – and wrenching, shattering terror – the two often intertwined, and come forward to a present decades later, palpable aftershocks of trauma and forced displacement still being lived. This book bravely meets those aftershocks, an intimate poetic voice recalling and realizing, violence and cruelty, with fierce tenderness. What Amy Hempel, paraphrasing an Arab proverb says: ‘When danger approaches, sing to it.’ With radiant voice, this book sings – to it all.”

AWARDS

Washington State Book Awards 2023 - Finalist in Poetry

International Latino Book Awards 2023 - Honorable Mention

Find it now at Two Sylvias Press.

“In this epic poetry collection Killing Marías, Claudia Castro Luna, both poetically and physically, settles spaces that were unclaimed by Latinas. Her inscription of the disappeared women of Juárez is a live cartographic image of struggle and spiritual survival. Castro Luna does not allow for these dead women to lack agency; they nourish us and the earth, and they speak with their bodies, literally, positioning themselves as recovered entities with agency, in the poet’s skilled narrativizing hands.” – Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Ph.D., author of A Most Improbable Life and The Runaway Poems: A Manual of Love

Books can be ordered from Chin Music Press.

One River, A Thousand Voices celebrates the Columbia River’s energy, beauty and power. It honors the resilience of Native peoples who for millenia have lived along its banks and at this historical juncture with climate change, it is a call to consider our personal role as stewards of the natural world.

Published by Floating Bridge Press, edition. Sold out

Read the full review at The Seattle Review of Books.

“From the very first poem in Luna’s new chapbook, This City, readers understand that Luna has obviously written the book in her role as a Civic Poet, by which I mean she engages with the idea of Seattle. This is a celebration of the city, but it is also an investigation, a work of criticism, and an exhortation to be a better city.” -Paul Constant, The Seattle Review of Books

Available from Penguin Random House.

“A maelstrom of grief, anger, fear and confusion, with glimmers of gratitude and hope: a comprehensive emotional document of a moment.” —New York Times Book Review

Available through Chin Music Press.

By Jamie Ford, Gemina Garland Lewis, Thaisa Way

Foreword by American Book Award Winner Charles Johnson. Introduction by Thaisa Way, PhD. Short story by New York Times Best Selling Author, Jamie Ford Academics, novelists, poets, and garden enthusiasts examine the legacy of immigrant and nurseryman Fujitaro Kubota, whose unique gardens transformed Seattle’s regional landscape in the 20th century. A self-taught gardener, Kubota built a thriving landscape business, eventually assembling 20 acres in south Seattle that he shaped into a beautiful and enduring Japanese garden. Today, this public park serves one of Washington’s most diverse zip codes. An innovator and artist, Kubota created the first “drive-through” garden to capitalize on America’s love for the automobile. While incarcerated at Minidoka prison camp during World War II, Kubota also created a memorable garden in the desert. To Kubota, everything has spirit. Rocks and stones pulsed with life, he said, and that energy is still apparent in his gardens today. Photographs by Gemina Garland-Lewis and Nathan Wirth are interwoven with original poetry by Samuel Green, Claudio Castro-Luna, and others to make this a unique book where every page presents a different view of into Kubota’s garden.

Order your copy from the Hachette Book Group.

Home is a loaded word, a complex idea: it’s a place that can be comforting, difficult, nourishing, war-torn, or political. In this breathtaking, thought-provoking collection, 30 women writers explore the theme in personal essays about neighbors, marriage, kids, sentimental objects, homelessness, domestic violence, solitude, immigration, gentrification, geography, and more. Contributors–including Amanda Petrusich, Naomi Jackson, Jane Wong, and Jennifer Finney Boylan–lend a diverse range of voices to this subject that remains at the core of our national conversations. What makes a home? What do equality, safety, and politics have to do with it? And why is it so important to us to feel like we belong? Engaging, insightful, and full of hope, This is the Place will make you laugh, cry, and think hard about home, wherever you may find it. Edited by Margot Khan.

Purchase a copt at Central Avenue Publishing.

Edited by Jennifer Haupt, By Garth Stein, By Jenna Blum, By Kwame Alexander.

Bestselling authors and poets come together to contribute essays, poetry, and interviews about love, grief, and comfort during the coronavirus pandemic with proceeds to benefit the independent booksellers who play an integral role in literature.