Rae Armantrout with Prageeta Sharma — 'Safe Rooms'

Third Place Books welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rae Armantrout for a presentation of Safe Rooms, a new collection that explores the undercurrents of modern life with an unflinching eye on human nature and social malaise. Prageeta Sharma, author of Onement Won, joins in conversation.

Through poems that examine our darker impulses--our tendencies to self-destruct, to grapple with envy, and to navigate the intricate web of family dynamics--Armantrout captures the complex, often contradictory ways in which we search for meaning and connection. Her work holds a mirror to the forces shaping us, both intimate and vast, showing that the so-called "safe rooms" we construct are fragile, temporary shelters, not havens from the chaos that surrounds us.

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About Safe Rooms. . .

Poetry of the shifting architecture of a world we think we know

Acclaimed author Rae Armantrout's remarkable new collection Safe Rooms, explores the undercurrents of modern life with an unflinching eye on human nature, social malaise, and the unsettling ways in which we attempt to protect ourselves from a world that continually undermines our sense of safety. Through poems that examine our darker impulses—our tendencies to self-destruct, to grapple with envy, and to navigate the intricate web of family dynamics—Armantrout captures the complex, often contradictory ways in which we search for meaning and connection. Her work holds a mirror to the forces shaping us, both intimate and vast, showing that the so-called "safe rooms" we construct are fragile, temporary shelters, not havens from the chaos that surrounds us.

Rae Armantrout has published nineteen books of poetry including Versed, which received a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and was a finalist for a National Book Award; Go Figure; Finalists; Conjure; Wobble, which was a finalist for a National Book Award; Partly: New and Selected Poems; Itself; Just Saying; and Money Shot. She is Professor Emerita of Writing at UC San Diego.

Prageeta Sharma is the author of the poetry collections Grief Sequence (Wave Books 2019), Undergloom, Infamous Landscapes, The Opening Question, which won the 2004 Fence Modern Poets Prize, and Bliss to Fill. She is the founder of the conference Thinking Its Presence: Race, Creative Writing, Literary Studies and Art. A recipient of the 2010 Howard Foundation Award, she has taught at the University of Montana and now teaches at Pomona College in Washington.

About Third Place Books

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.