Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. with Jessica Burstein — 'After the Operation'

Third Place Books is pleased to welcome poet and translator Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. to our Ravenna store for a presentation of her new collection of poetry, . These spare poems interweave medical documents, journal entries, and memories, assembling a polyvocal chorus to document the surgery itself and the recuperation process. She will be joined in conversation by UW professor Jessica Burstein. This event is free and open to the public.

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Elizabeth T. Gray Jr.’s After the Operation reports from the No Man’s Land she wandered following eight hours of surgery to remove a brain tumor. What does the mind feel like after something has been taken out of your skull? “An uninhabited coast,” or “all shatter and thoroughfare?” These spare poems interweave medical documents, journal entries, and memories, assembling a polyvocal chorus to document the surgery itself and the recuperation process. The decentralized perspective of After the Operation allows the reader to see the procedure holistically—medically, from the doctor’s perspective; subjectively, from the author’s; and vicariously, from her caretakers’, family’s, and friends’—while approximating the disassociation the patient feels as she navigates unexpected cognitive and emotional side effects. Sometimes bleak but always gorgeous, After the Operation does us a great service in illuminating and articulating the complexities of a serious medical event. This tangible chronicle of Gray’s terror, isolation, bafflement, desolation, love, loss, relief and gratitude serves as a beacon for all of us who will one day, as Susan Sontag says, find ourselves dwelling in “the kingdom of the sick.” Gray makes valiant use of her citizenship there, asking, “When they come for you, when the unfamiliar roar comes, and a sudden opening, and light pours in, when what had kept you safe, what had always been, is breached, pried open, and light pours in, what do you want to have been writing then?” After the Operation is her triumphant answer.

Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. is a poet, translator, critic, and corporate consultant. Previous collections of poetry include Salient (New Directions, 2020) and Series | India (Four Way Books, 2015). Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season (New Directions, 2022), her translations of Iran’s major modern woman poet, Forough Farrokhzad (1937-1962), were a finalist for the 2023 PEN Prize for Poetry in Translation. The Green Sea of Heaven, a 30thAnniversary Edition of her translations of Iran’s major medieval mystic poet, Hafiz (d. 1389), appeared from Monkfish Publishing in 2024. She currently serves on the Boards of Kimbilio Fiction, The Beloit Poetry Journal Foundation, Friends of Writers, and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran. She was a Founder and Managing Partner/CEO of Conflict Management, Inc. and Alliance Management Partners, LLC, boutique corporate consulting firms. She holds a BA and JD from Harvard University and an MFA from Warren Wilson and lives in New York City.

Jessica Burstein co-edits The Journal of Modern Literature, and is the author of Cold Modernism: Literature, Fashion, Art. As an associate professor in the English Department at the University of Washington, and adjunct associate professor in its Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality, Burstein is also the author of a number of scholarly articles on topics ranging from the fashion designer Alexander McQueen to the poet Mina Loy.

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