Caroline Harper New presents 'A History of Half-Birds: Poems'

Third Place Books is delighted to welcome poet Caroline Harper New to our Ravenna store! New will be discussing her new collection of poetry, , a stunning investigation of love’s beastly impulses—all it protects, and all it destroys. This event is free and open to the public.

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This event is free to attend. Registration is required in advance.

Rooted in the Gulf Coast, A History of Half-Birds measures the line between love and ruin. Part poet, part anthropologist, Caroline Harper New digs into dark places—a cave, a womb, a hurricane—to trace how violence born of devotion manifests not only in our human relationships, but also in our connections to the natural and animal worlds. Everywhere in these pages, tenderness is coupled with brutality: a deer eats a baby bird, a lover restrains another. “I promised / a love poem,” New proclaims, then teaches us about the anglerfish, how it “attracts its mate / and prey with the same lure.”
In New’s exceptional voice, familiar concepts take on a shade of the fantastic. A woman tastes the earth for acidity, buries lemons and pennies for balance. Limestone “sucks the sea / into little demitasse” and hyacinths “sip the sun / black.” A lone elephant wanders into the wilderness of rural Georgia, never to be seen again. But perhaps most arresting about New’s work are the truths told by its strangeness, like the ancient fish who “carved their shape” in a mountain’s peak, or a mother who wears a lifejacket in the bathtub.
Crafted by New’s voracious mind and carried by her matchless lyricism, A History of Half-Birds is a stunning investigation of love’s beastly impulses—all it protects, and all it destroys.

Caroline Harper New is a writer, artist, and anthropologist from southwest Georgia. Her poetry is rooted in the precarious landscape of the Gulf Coast, where she explores human-nature relationships, maternal inheritance, and orientations to time. Her interdisciplinary work includes sculptures, paintings, short films, ethnography, translations, and eco-collaborations with musicians and filmmakers. She currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she studies anthropology and poetics.

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.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Third Place Books, 6504 20th Ave NE, Seattle, United States