Three glittering pieces of news about Floating Bridge Press author Claudia Castro Luna caught our eye this week:

First, Seattle Weekly named Claudia Castro Luna, King County’s first Civic Poet, Seattle’s Best Poet! They explain that she “demonstrates an innate understanding of Seattle. Her words paint fear of the future, anxiety for what remains of the city’s identity, and longing for the past. Seattle’s Poetic Grid, her final project, combines Luna’s identities as an immigrant, urban planner, Seattleite, and poet. Each dot on the grid contains a location-based poem written by Seattleites. It is meant to serve as a living testament to the city.” 

Second, The Seattle Times did a photo montage of “Seattle’s Poem” – the final poem in her chapbook, This City.  “In these two years, Castro Luna has presided as civic poet over a city whose physical map is changing rapidly — so much so that Castro Luna thinks most people don’t have time to take in what is happening or to contemplate what’s been lost. “We don’t have enough time to mourn the change,” she said. “You kind of walk around with this ghost in your head.” ” Check out the beautiful article and photo montage here.

And thirdly, but certainly not last is the poetic grid of Seattle she has created. It is “an interactive map of the city that she calls the Seattle Poetic Grid (seattlepoeticgrid.com). It’s a collection of poems that draw an intimate, personal picture of the city’s neighborhoods as a reader clicks on them…” Make sure to explore this map of our beautiful city through the poems of its residents.

To read more of her poems about Seattle, check out her chapbook This City.