Claudia Putnam

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Claudia Putnam

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Influences
Undset, K Kesey, Silko, Ondaatje, Fowles, Dostoevsky, McCarthy, Le Gui ...more

Member Since
August 2010

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I grew up in New Hampshire but have lived my adult life in Colorado, where I raised my son. I've worked in software marketing, taught comp-rhetoric, been a journalist, sold antiques, cooked greasy food. I studied International Affairs and Russian as an undergraduate and also some comparative religion and Native American studies in graduate school. I like to be outside. I write fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, appearing in many literary magazines. A novel, STRONG BROWN GOD, is underway. Debut, prizewinning poetry collection, The Land of Stone and River, can be preordered here. A poetry chapbook, Wild Thing in Our Known World, is available from Finishing Line Press. ...more

I’m reading poetry (and maybe a bit of fiction) his weekend! (10/25)

POETRY READING: It’s been a while since I’ve been able to do a public reading. So glad I was invited to be the featured reader at this wonderful open mic tradition! Marmo Gallery, in Shelton, WA, is a cornerstone of the artistic community in this region. Worth checking out for its own sake. And the food is awesome! Sat, 10/25, 4 PM. more info: marmogallery.com/events

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Published on October 23, 2025 15:14
Average rating: 4.21 · 67 ratings · 25 reviews · 6 distinct worksSimilar authors
Prehistoric Astronomy in th...

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3.72 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 1989 — 4 editions
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Double Negative

4.82 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2022
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The Land of Stone and River...

4.83 avg rating — 6 ratings
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Seconds

4.80 avg rating — 5 ratings
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Wild Thing in Our Known World

4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2013
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Flint Hills Review (#9 & #10)

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3.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2005
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More books by Claudia Putnam…
Warbreaker
Claudia Putnam is currently reading
by Brandon Sanderson (Goodreads Author)
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Generosity: An En...
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Claudia’s Recent Updates

Claudia Putnam made a comment on her review of Departure(s)
Departure by Julian Barnes
" It’s good, but not wrapped up in plot "
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Heart the Lover by Lily King
Heart the Lover
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Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
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Bog Queen by Anna North
Bog Queen
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Departure by Julian Barnes
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Claudia Putnam wants to read
The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang
The Language of Liars
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Departure by Julian Barnes
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Quotes by Claudia Putnam  (?)
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“I have read that long ago there was a land of glass castles that sank beneath the sea. It was not called Atlantis, but Lyonesse. This happened before history and across the ocean, but when I was little I wondered about that place, how it could be so beautiful and so lost. Sometimes it seemed that the land around my New England home was like that flooded country, with mud where the streets of gold should be and mayflies swarming where there should be lovely fishes, but here and there a shard of crystal to call the heart to beauty. --"Wetlands," in Phoebe.”
Claudia Putnam

“Cairn Stone

This is the rock he lifted
to lay upon a cairn
in a high place.

This rock, warmed by the near sun,
felt right, somehow, in his hand.

He decided to carry it down
to his mother, who lay in bed,
recovering.

It is so easy to please
a mother. Just to think of her
for a moment, from a high place,
and to carry that thought to her

in the form of a stone.”
Claudia Putnam, Wild Thing in Our Known World

“I beam back at her. Fuck the surgery, fuck the kids, fuck the men in our lives or no longer in our lives. This is sweet. When she catches up with me, I say, How many, just how many forty-plus women would do that?

We gaze back up at the face bleeding into the chute we’ve just skied. We *did* that, I crow. Someone should love us just for that. --Hangfire”
Claudia Putnam

“I beam back at her. Fuck the surgery, fuck the kids, fuck the men in our lives or no longer in our lives. This is sweet. When she catches up with me, I say, How many, just how many forty-plus women would do that?

We gaze back up at the face bleeding into the chute we’ve just skied. We *did* that, I crow. Someone should love us just for that. --Hangfire”
Claudia Putnam

“Cairn Stone

This is the rock he lifted
to lay upon a cairn
in a high place.

This rock, warmed by the near sun,
felt right, somehow, in his hand.

He decided to carry it down
to his mother, who lay in bed,
recovering.

It is so easy to please
a mother. Just to think of her
for a moment, from a high place,
and to carry that thought to her

in the form of a stone.”
Claudia Putnam, Wild Thing in Our Known World

“I think literature is best when it's voicing what we would prefer not to talk about.”
Rick Moody

“I have read that long ago there was a land of glass castles that sank beneath the sea. It was not called Atlantis, but Lyonesse. This happened before history and across the ocean, but when I was little I wondered about that place, how it could be so beautiful and so lost. Sometimes it seemed that the land around my New England home was like that flooded country, with mud where the streets of gold should be and mayflies swarming where there should be lovely fishes, but here and there a shard of crystal to call the heart to beauty. --"Wetlands," in Phoebe.”
Claudia Putnam

“I'd like to be the sort of person who can enjoy things at the time, instead of having to go back in my head and enjoy them.”
David Foster Wallace

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