Khadijah Queen presents 'Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea'

Third Place Books welcomes poet and author Khadijah Queen to our Ravenna store for a conversation about her new book, — a powerfully written account of the factors that led Queen to join the U.S. Navy, the challenges she navigated as a Black woman at sea, and the beginning of her literary life. She will be joined in conversation by writer and critic Jodi-Ann Burey, author of the forthcoming book, Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work.

This event is free and open to the public. For important updates, RSVP is highly recommended in advance. This event will include a public signing and time for audience Q&A. Sustain our author series by purchasing a copy of the featured book!

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

We stay fighting, even if we don't call it war.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a poet’s memoir about family, survival, and one servicewoman’s search for autonomy. Yanked out of college and torn from her sunny hometown of Los Angeles in the early 1990s, Khadijah Queen finds herself sharing a basement apartment with her mother and sister and working two retail jobs in snowy, tiny Inkster, Michigan. Longing to escape the cycle of her family’s poverty, incarceration, and addiction, she joins the US Navy, determined to earn money to finish college and make it back to L.A. on her own terms.

But soon after Queen completes her grueling training and boards a doomed destroyer, she finds herself faced with near-constant sexual harassment, demeaning labor assignments, and overt racism. Stuck on a ship with nowhere to hide, she looks to poetry, literature, and letters from home to get through the long days and maintain her dignity. She keeps her head down until the workplace hostility against women spills over into her dating life and threatens to derail everything she has worked for.

In trying to break through the unspoken code of silence between sailors, Queen must decide where her loyalties lie: with the Navy or within herself. Unflinching and masterfully penned, this memoir questions the promises of service to reveal the true price of being a woman at sea.

Khadijah Queen holds a PhD in English and literary arts from the University of Denver. She is the author of seven books of poetry and prose. Her work appears and has been praised in O Magazine, The New Yorker, Rain Taxi, and elsewhere. Queen is a Cave Canem alum, a 2022 United States Artists Disability Futures Fellow, a 2023 Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellow, and holds the 2025 Cy Twombly Award in Poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and a William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She divides her time between the US, the UK, and France. (Photo credit: Marco Giugliarelli for the Civitella Ranieri Foundation)

Jodi-Ann Burey is a writer, critic and sought-after speaker on race, culture and health equity. Her essays appear in various arts, business and literary publications. Her writing has been supported by VONA, Hambidge, VCCA and the Vermont Studio Center. Jodi-Ann created the prose and poetry salon, Lit Lounge: The People’s Art and co-founded Black Women Write Seattle. Jodi-Ann was born in Jamaica, lives in Seattle, WA, and will always call Queens, NY home. Her forthcoming book will be published on September 30.

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.

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