The Place of the Solitaires is John Surowiecki's fourteenth book of poetry. He is the recipient of the Poetry Foundation Pegasus Award for Verse Drama, the Pablo Neruda Prize, the Washington Prize, and the White Pine Press Poetry Prize. His novel Pie Man won the Nilsen Literary Prize for a First Novel. L.A. Flammang writes that The Place of the Solitaires "speaks to our historical moment, evoking the pandemic, social reckoning, work, and loneliness. As always, Surowiecki engages big questions about aging, time, and mourning with no hint of sentimentality."