📆 Tuesday, August 22nd
⏰ 7 – 8:30 pm
📍 Elliott Bay Book Company: 1521 10th Ave, Seattle
📞 (206) 624-6600
🎟️ Free
Robert Lashley’s poetry is a floodgate, and when it’s in front of you, it’s impossible not to engage with it. His performances have no pretense, just full-bodied delivery. His work is uncompromising, and the way he delivers it to an audience feels trusting and generous, like he leaves a piece of himself onstage.
Lashley is the author of a few books of poetry, most recently 2021’s Green River Valley, but I Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer is his first novel. It follows Albert, a college student healing from his time as a young Crip drug runner as he wrestles with honesty, identity, and accountability—both for himself and others, in academia and at home. Like much of his other work, the novel is deeply rooted in the Pacific Northwest, particularly the Black communities in the Tacoma area. If you want a taste of the book before the big launch, he’s published a few excerpts (and thoughts) on his Substack newsletter Mister Lashley’s Office.
Elliott Bay Books hosts this launch day party, which also features poet Verbal Oasis, aka Monique Franklin, and author Jonah Barnett.
