As an undergraduate at Syracuse University, I was introduced to poetry and short fiction written by literary couple Tess Gallagher and Raymond Carver. I thought I’d grow up to be like them — they would be my model — sharing drafts with a partner, urging one another to write more,…
10182 results were found.
Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free
Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free
Chasing Beauty
Shadow Men
Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Conversation with Libby Casey
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a third-generation Alaskan serving as the state’s senior senator, has repeatedly stood at the center of our country’s most challenging issues, serving as a swing vote and a voice of reason willing to challenge the president, regardless of who holds the office. In Far From Home: An…
The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World
The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World
Having self-published more than 34 books, I’ve always been fascinated by some of the names fiction writers come up with for their characters. I suspect that, like me, they use real names of friends and family. Heroic characters, men or women, do not present as many problems as child molesters…
Liza Flum’s debut collection, Hover (Omnidawn Publishing), places the reader above and below the beating of “wings,” whose presence is known not by the precision of seeing, for they move too quickly, but rather by the bodies held aloft. Here, the hummingbird serves as a metaphoric emblem for the intricacies…
The Afterlife Project: A Novel
The Afterlife Project: A Novel
On June 19th, Black Writer’s Pride week will be hosting a Juneteenth celebration! The Swann Juneteenth Celebration will be held at Charm City Books from 6-9 p.m. To celebrate the liberation and freedom of our ancestors, the evening will include a conversation between Black Writer’s Pride Week Founder Brandon Rashad…
Penelope’s Bones: A New History of Homer’s World through the Women Written Out of It
Penelope’s Bones: A New History of Homer’s World through the Women Written Out of It
Sherri L. Dodd: Witches have always fascinated me. Perhaps it roots from a childhood of unchaperoned walks to our neighborhood creek in southeast Texas. The cool splash of water on a sweltering, humid day served a refreshing sensation. (First sign of a witch’s repertoire: communing with nature.) Then, after harassing…
So Far Gone: A Novel
With nearly a dozen YA and adult sci-fi thrillers — including the popular Spliced trilogy — to his name, Jon McGoran clearly isn’t afraid to wander down dark, speculative alleys and bring readers along with him. He does it again in his latest novel, The Price of Everything, where the…
Children’s Book Roundup: June 2025
Adventures in Desolation Sound by Grant Lawrence (author) and Ginger Ngo (illustrator) (Harbour Publishing). Grant and Heather love TV a lot. Like, a lot a lot. So why did Dad drag them out to the middle of nowhere? “It took us a long time to fall asleep, because Desolation Sound…
It All Felt Impossible: 42 Years in 42 Essays
It All Felt Impossible: 42 Years in 42 Essays
Driving the echo of road, the reciprocal four-hour trek from Dallas to Tulsa — North Texas adobe giving way to Art Deco Oklahoma — a memory of my brother watching every collapse of Warren Moon’s Houston Oilers lifts stiff as astroturf into my thinking. That franchise is now the Tennessee…
Alan Siegel in Conversation with Josh Levin
This comprehensive account of the meteoric rise of “The Simpsons” combines incisive pop culture criticism and interviews with the show’s creative team that take readers inside the making of an American phenomenon during its most influential decade, the 1990s. In Stupid TV, Be More Funny, writer Alan Siegel reveals how…
Stories Are Weapons
Wide Awake
Family & Other Calamities: A Novel
Family & Other Calamities: A Novel
20 Great Books to Give (or Get) on Father’s Day
Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War by Bob Greene. “This is a compelling story about a high-profile member of the Greatest Generation — Paul Tibbets, who flew the Enola Gay and dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.” ~Talmage Boston Dad’s Maybe Book by Tim O’Brien.…
Sara Kehaulani Goo in Conversation with Niala Boodhoo
From an early age, Sara Kehaulani Goo was enchanted by her family's land in Hawai'i. The vast area on the rugged shores of Maui's east side — given by King Kamehameha III in 1848 — extends from mountain to sea, encompassing 90 acres of lush, undeveloped rainforest jungle along the…
Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America
Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America
In the series of anthologies she edits, From the Belly, Karren L. Alenier illuminates the work of Gertrude Stein by envisioning the unconventional 20th-century writer’s seminal Tender Buttons as a conversation with the reader. To that end, Alenier has enlisted a company of contemporary poets and asked them to respond,…
The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s
The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s
As well as penning The Book of Separation, a memoir about leaving Orthodox Judaism, Memphis native Tova Mirvis is also the author of several novels, including The Ladies Auxiliary and The Outside World. Her latest offering is the thriller We Would Never, which Kirkus calls “propulsive, disturbing, and practically begging…
An Interview with Stephen R. Platt
Although a senior Marine Corps officer, Evans Carlson wanted to be buried just like an enlisted man at Arlington National Cemetery. And he was — with the same simple headstone. The lesson he taught his Marine Raiders in World War II was this: The reason we’re fighting this war is…
Anima Rising: A Novel
If nothing else, the plot of The Brothers Karamazov is gripping. Fyodor Pavlovitch (Pavlovich by some lights) and his eldest son, Dmitri, fall passionately in love with the same woman, Grushenka. For her part, Grushenka is playing both of them for laughs. But hilarity does not ensue. Instead, Fyodor Pavlovitch…
Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global
Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global
Our featured tellers this month are the mighty Megan Wells and the awesome Mama Edie Armstrong! Join us at Busboys and Poets Takoma or, for out-of-towners, via Zoom. You can register FOR FREE for access to the livestream or to catch the recorded show later. No registration needed for in-person.…
Bare Knuckle
The Cleopatras
Hello, summer! June always feels like a deep exhale — the school year has ended, the days are stretching out, the sun is shining but hasn’t cranked up the heat yet, and everything just slows its roll a little. It’s that sweet spot where life seems easier and lighter, and…
Slither: How Nature’s Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World
Slither: How Nature’s Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World
Join us on June’s First Saturday in Downtown Frederick as we kick off Pride Month! We are excited to welcome local author Enfys J. Book for a meet & greet at our store as they promote their latest book, Queer Rites. Copies of Queer Rites will be available for purchase…
Magic Can’t Save Us: Eighteen Tales of Likely Failure
Magic Can’t Save Us: Eighteen Tales of Likely Failure
In a Yellow Wood: Selected Stories and Essays
In a Yellow Wood: Selected Stories and Essays
The editor-in-chief of Premium Publishing at Dotdash Meredith and a former managing editor at Sports Illustrated, Kostya Kennedy is also the bestselling author of several books, including True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson, 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports, and Pete Rose: An American Dilemma.…
Thousands of books are published each month. And much as we’d like to, we can’t read (or review) them all. But what we can do is point out a few we think you might enjoy. In that spirit, here’s a rundown of forthcoming titles that caught our eye and may…
Is a River Alive?
In The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan writes about Australian POWs during World War II and the cruelty they suffered in a Japanese labor camp. The story is based on his father’s experience; the elder Flanagan survived the Ohama Camp in Japan because an atomic bomb was…
Authority: Essays
Molly Jong-Fast in Conversation with Maureen Dowd
Molly Jong-Fast is the only child of a famous woman, writer Erica Jong, whose sensational book Fear of Flying launched her into second-wave feminist stardom. She grew up yearning for a connection with her dreamy, glamorous, just-out-of-reach mother, who always seemed to be heading somewhere that wasn’t with Molly. When,…
Shake It Up, Baby!
Cunning Folk
The Price of Victory: A Naval History of Britain: 1815-1945
The Price of Victory: A Naval History of Britain: 1815-1945
The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir
The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir
An Evening with Winifred Hughes and Diane Macklin
Bird in Hand is delighted to host Winifred Hughes and Diane Macklin for an evening of poetry and conversation! Hughes’ new poetry collection, The Village of New Ghosts, won the won the 2024 Henry Morgenthau III First Book Poetry Prize for a Writer Over 70, which is facilitated by Passager…
Nightshade
Authors on Audio: Miranda S. Spivack
A former longtime editor and reporter at the Washington Post, Miranda S. Spivack is now an independent journalist focusing on immigration, urban development, and the need for government transparency. Her new book, winner of the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize, is Backroom Deals in Our Backyards: How Government Secrecy Harms…
“Antisemitism” describes a despicable worldview held by those with extreme disdain for people of Semitic, particularly Jewish, descent. It has justified horrible crimes against humanity, including genocide. Even in its less physically violent forms, it often forces Jewish people to live in fear. It is, however, different from healthy critiques…
An Interview with Diane Simmons
Diane Simmons is the author of the novel The Courtship of Eva Eldridge, critical biographies of Jamaica Kincaid and Maxine Hong Kingston, and the short-story collection Little America, winner of the Ohio University Prize for Short Fiction. Her novel Dreams Like Thunder, originally published in 1992 and based partly on…
Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers
Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers
A Different Russia: Khrushchev and Kennedy on a Collision Course
A Different Russia: Khrushchev and Kennedy on a Collision Course
Denali Sai Nalamalapu in Conversation with Serena Zets
Book talk and signing with the author of Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance. RSVP here. About the book: Drawing from original interviews with the author, Holler is an illustrated look at six inspiring changemakers. Denali Nalamalapu, a climate organizer in their own right, introduces readers to the ordinary…
Belly Woman
Mean Boys
Only Smoke: A Novel
Virtual Kidlit Mystery Panel: Tracy Badua, Alechia Dow, and Mia P. Manansala
Loyalty is so excited to welcome authors Tracy Badua, Alechia Dow, and Mia P. Manansala for a Kidlit Mystery Panel highlighting their new books Death in the Cards and Their Just Desserts! This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast and is free to attend but registration is required. Click…
Attorney, literary agent, and longtime Independent contributor Ronald Goldfarb, one of the most appreciated and respected advocates of Washington’s distinguished community of writers and authors, died on May 4th. He was 91. A whiz kid from North Bergen, New Jersey, Ron was born in Jersey City on October 16, 1933.…
Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI
Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI
I am an avowed Oxfordian because it’s impossible for me to believe that an untutored actor like William Shakespeare penned all those magnificent plays. Rather, I’m confident they were authored by Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. Nonetheless, there’s a whole establishment of scholars who oppose this theory…
Authors on Audio: Paul Dickson
Dubbed a “one-man book factory” by the Washington Post, author Paul Dickson — recipient of the Independent’s 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award — is truly prolific. Among his 60+ nonfiction titles are The Dickson Baseball Dictionary; Labels for Locals: What to Call People from Abilene to Zimbabwe; Words from the White…
Duet for One: A Novel
Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television
Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television
An Interview with Cheryl Janifer LaRoche
Cheryl Janifer LaRoche’s Apostle of Liberation: AME Bishop Paul Quinn and the Underground Railroad introduces Paul Quinn, a well-known figure in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, founded in 1787. The church still celebrates Quinn as its fourth bishop, its “Apostle of Liberation,” and one of its founding Four Horsemen.…
B. Dylan Hollis in Conversation with Emily Heil
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Baking Yesteryear comes Baking Across America: A Vintage Recipe Roadtrip, a cross-country culinary journey with 100 uniquely American recipes. From the deserts of the Southwest to the shining Atlantic Coast, the USA is as sweet as it gets. Social media personality…
Children’s Book Roundup: May 2025
Brave Old Blue by Colleen Muske (author) and Christopher Thornock (illustrator) (Sleeping Bear Press). “Old Blue arrives. Unsure. Alone. Trying to be brave. ‘Welcome, Old Blue,’ says Bobby. Old Blue nickers.” The exhausted, frightened animal takes in his surroundings and slowly — slowly — begins to understand that he’s finally…
Cultivating Bravery Amidst the Storm
As the daughter of two areligious parents (one who drifted away from a vaguely Christian upbringing; the other who broke determinedly — and, in some ways, disastrously — from the Catholic Church), I’ve never given faith a lot of thought. It’s always seemed to me a murky concept full of…
Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals): A History
Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals): A History
Chessie
Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (Penguin Press). Reviewed by Karl Straub. “Ron Chernow’s Mark Twain arrives during this difficult season for long-dead writers, and it’s hard to imagine a biography proving more useful to Twain lovers and bashers alike. In examining the art and life of a man both adored…
The Wolves of K Street
When the Tides Held the Moon
Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
Enter (Graywolf Press), Jim Moore’s wise new collection, demonstrates that, at 79, this poet is still at the top of his game. He’s reached a place where hope is now irrelevant. “How strange,” he writes, “that the subject of life is death.” It’s as if he’s on a bridge looking…
“Join me in Birmingham after the April meeting,” my daughter suggested in January, knowing I’ve wanted to visit sites along the Civil Rights Heritage Trail there. I booked my ticket. Reading is as necessary as packing before a trip, and I started with Taylor Branch’s America in the King Years…
Abigail Leonard in Conversation with Michaela Ross
In the tradition of Three Women and Hidden Valley Road, international reporter and radio producer Abigail Leonard’s page-turning work blends reporting, research and history as it follows four women — Anna from Finland, Tsukasa from Japan, Sarah from the U.S., and Chelsea from Kenya — through the first year of…
Get Ready for the Gaithersburg Book Festival
The fabulous, free Gaithersburg Book Festival celebrates its 16th year this weekend, and the offerings couldn’t be better! From a must-see lineup of authors — including Dave Barry, Glory Edim, Rick Atkinson, Hena Khan, Jeffery Deaver, and dozens of others — to writing workshops, a children’s village, food trucks, vendors,…
A senior fellow at the Ronald Reagan Institute, senior scholar at Yeshiva University’s Straus Center, and former deputy secretary of HHS and senior White House aide, Tevi Troy is also the author of several books, including What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in…
Human/Animal: A Bestiary in Essays
Human/Animal: A Bestiary in Essays
Eat the Ones You Love: A Novel
Eat the Ones You Love: A Novel
An Interview with Melissa Scholes Young
Springtime in Washington, DC, means several things: the presidents resume their races at Nationals Park, pollen blankets every outdoor surface, and Grace & Gravity, the literary anthology featuring women and nonbinary writers from around the District, publishes a new volume. Like earlier offerings, this edition, titled Grit & Gravity, was…
Mark Twain
My literary life began at age 11, in 1983, with my first publication in Reston, Virginia’s newspaper of note, the Reston Connection. Imposter syndrome began then, too. I’d forgotten all about the poem I’d written on a rainy day at summer camp spent indoors in an historic chapel on the…
Fat Leonard
Kramers Poetry Reading: Spring Edition
The Kramers Poetry Reading Series is back and basking in spring sunshine and sonnets. Join us for the Spring 2025 Edition of our poetry series, in which we feature three local DMV poets. This time around, we’re hosting Michele Evans, Nida Sophasarun, and Taylor Franson-Thiel. Each poet will read for…
Newshawks in Berlin
City of Fiction: A Novel of Love and Violence in a Time of Change
City of Fiction: A Novel of Love and Violence in a Time of Change
Boat Baby: A Memoir
Canadian Collections: May 2025
Karen Solie’s Wellwater (House of Anansi Press), her sixth book, doesn’t so much build upon her previous work as continue to draw from the same familiar well. Daniel Fraser, in the Rumpus, rightly recognized that “one of the prevailing tensions” in Solie’s work is “the relationship between nature and human…
What Your Comfort Costs Us offers essential reading and transparent advice for leaders who are ready to address structural inequity at work. With chapters like “Talking About Racism is Hard,” “Checking the Boxes,” and “Uncovering the Added Burden and Toll of Unpaid and Unseen Emotional Labor,” anti-supremacist philanthropic and nonprofit…
A longtime journalist and independent scholar, Biographers International Organization’s president, Steve Paul, is also the author of Hemingway at Eighteen: The Pivotal Year That Launched an American Legend and, most recently, the award-winning Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell. Says the Wall Street Journal, “[Literary Alchemist] has…
Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection
Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection
The Eights: A Novel
An Interview with Andrew Furman
I’ve known Andrew Furman for years, and I’ve just moved to Florida. So, when I saw the announcement for his new collection of Sunshine State essays, Of Slash Pines and Manatees: A Highly Selective Field Guide to My Suburban Wilderness, I knew I’d want to talk to him about it.…
Cue “Pomp and Circumstance”! Ready the tassels and caps! With graduation season underway, I thought it timely to speak with another student-run literary press, George Mason University’s Stillhouse Press. I corresponded via email with Taylor Schaefer, their publicist and marketing manager, who shares, “What I can tell writers approaching us…
enough is enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Eezier to Spell
enough is enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Eezier to Spell
Flight of the Wild Swan
Your Presence Is Mandatory
Celebrate the stunning conclusion to Brittany N. Williams’ Forge & Fracture Saga, Iron Tongue of Midnight! We’ve been so lucky to host a launch party for each one of these stunning YA novels and can’t wait to share this newest release with you! Tickets: $5: Attendance + $5 store credit…
The Impossible Thing: A Crime Novel
The Impossible Thing: A Crime Novel
It’s May, which means two very important things: Everything is blooming, and my book budget is officially out the window thanks to Independent Bookstore Day last Saturday. (But May is my birthday month, so we’ll just pretend that stack of new novels was an early present to myself.) This month,…
Our 7 Most Favorable Reviews in April 2025
Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories by Torrey Peters (Random House). Reviewed by Nick Havey. “Torrey Peters’ electrifying debut, Detransition, Baby, was one of my favorite novels of 2021, and I wasn’t alone: It was lauded in almost every review it received. Naturally, I was thrilled when her next book,…
Our 5 Most Popular Posts: April 2025
“The Washington Writers Conference.” The big event happens THIS weekend. Online registration is closed, but walk-ins are welcome! Teddy Duncan Jr.’s review of Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus by Elaine Pagels (Doubleday). “Miracles and Wonder perspicuously identifies points of agreement among experts. For example, in her chapter…
Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Freidan, Mailer
Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Freidan, Mailer
I’ve been doing some introspection lately, prompted by an impending move. Lots of boxes to go through. Lots of packing up. The last time I moved, I donated scores of books to local libraries, keeping only those I couldn’t do without. Now, I have to cull those remaining books, augmented…
Heartwood: A Novel
It’s the Last Day to Register Online!
We’ve been going on and on about the literary awesomeness that is the 2025 Washington Writers Conference for months, and the big day is finally upon us! The conference is this Friday and Saturday, May 2-3, and if you’re not there, you’ll miss the chance to network, learn from publishing…
Authors on Audio: Garry Kasparov
Widely recognized as one of the world’s greatest chess players, Garry Kasparov is also an activist, founder of the nonpartisan Renew Democracy Initiative, and author of multiple books, including Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped and Deep Thinking: Where Machine…
A Conversation with Jessica Anya Blau
I first met Jessica Anya Blau in the shower. We were attending the same party and, like houseguests from your worst nightmare, she and I were snooping. When I went to check out the master bathroom, I opened the shower curtain, and there she was, checking out the tiles. “I’m…
The Golden Hour: A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood
The Golden Hour: A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood
Ed Helms in Conversation with David Chalian
History contains a plethora of major screwups — otherwise known as SNAFUs. Coined during World War I, SNAFU stands for Situation Normal: All F*cked Up. In other words, “things are pretty screwed up, but aren’t they always?” Building on “SNAFU” — the award-winning podcast about history’s greatest screw-ups hosted by…
When the World Explodes: Essays
When the World Explodes: Essays
Out of the Darkness
The Translator’s Daughter
The Watermark: A Novel
Rejoice: Independent Bookstore Day Is Tomorrow!
Show the DMV’s many awesome indies some love — and feed your own bookish addiction — by taking part in Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, April 26th! Shop at some of our regional favorites below, or stay home and peruse the anti-Amazon, Bookshop.org! Bards Alley Bold Fork Books Bridge Street…
Gayle Wald in Conversation with Michel Martin
Ella Jenkins is one of the most influential musicians you’ve never heard of; her songs are classics in the world of children’s music. In a career spanning more than 60 years, she recorded 40 albums, won a lifetime-achievement Grammy, and became the bestselling individual artist in the history of Smithsonian…
The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World’s Oldest Writing
Alan Squire Publishing’s Hannah Grieco leads a conversation with literary agent Max Sinsheimer, author Melanie D.G. Kaplan (Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research), and independent editor Tina Pohlman about what it takes to get your work noticed by the powers-that-be! Don’t miss…
Hot Air: A Novel
The Franklin Stove: An Unintended American Revolution
The Franklin Stove: An Unintended American Revolution
An Interview with Samuel Ashworth
In his debut novel, The Death and Life of August Sweeney, DC-based writer Samuel Ashworth begins at the end — with the death of his protagonist, a notorious celebrity chef. Dr. Maya Zhu, unaware August Sweeney has hand-selected her to perform his autopsy, pieces together his life by delving into…
Children’s Book Roundup: April 2025
What Color Is the Baby?: A Celebration of Skin Tones by Harshini Vankineni (author) and Neha Rawat (illustrator) (Candlewick). Kundana is thrilled to be a big sister, and she thinks baby Kuku is perfect! So why does Papa look sad? “Kuku’s skin is just darker than yours,” he tells her,…
The Worst of Times, the Best of Times
These are scary times. Our government institutions are being sacked by corrupt oligarchs and their useful idiots, our economy is foundering, our international alliances are being decimated, and the very rule of law within the United States is proving to be nothing more than an illusion. But readers and writers…
Happy Land: A Novel
Join us for another game of Off-the-Shelf Trivia, Reston’s favorite literary trivia night! Prepare for Molly and Kate to stump and surprise you. Who knows? You might just win a Scrawl Books gift card! Hosted by Scrawl Books, 11911 Freedom Drive, Reston, VA. Learn more here. Want more people at…
The Jinn Daughter
The Politics of Fear
Beasts
We’re thrilled to announce our new online journal, Washington Unbound, which will feature reviews of books by DC-area authors; interviews with writers, publishers, and organizers; a calendar of local literary events; and much more! We are writers who met while working for a local arts nonprofit, and we haven’t stopped…
In her latest collection, Civilians (LSU Press), military spouse Jehanne Dubrow seeks to remind everyone, herself most of all, that “Peacetime is an unforgiving / goddess. She tears anyone,” and to not allow such tearing to let witness slip from the private attention that is so easily swamped by calls…
Wild Dark Shore: A Novel
Here’s how it works: everyone will prepare a bake from A Good Day to Bake (a couple of days after you sign up, you’ll have access to a spreadsheet where attendees list their chosen dishes.) Then we’ll gather in the shop and share a feast! We’ll talk through the process…
Panel in the Spotlight: “Debut Authors: How They Did It.”
Everyone’s path to publication is different, but in this panel, moderated by Ginnie Hartman (The Marsh Queen: A Novel), you’ll learn how first-time authors Varun Gauri (For the Blessings of Jupiter and Venus: A Novel), Liza Achilles (Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ‘n’ Sex in Sonnets), Karen Outen (Dixon…
The Bewitched Bourgeois: Fifty Stories
The Bewitched Bourgeois: Fifty Stories
The Maverick’s Museum: Albert Barnes and His American Dream
The Maverick’s Museum: Albert Barnes and His American Dream
Potomac Fever: Reflections on the Nation’s River
Potomac Fever: Reflections on the Nation’s River
We’ve just bought a long-neglected house in the French village of Rigny-Ussé in Touraine. It’s the village of the Chateau d’Ussé (pictured at left), featured in Charles Perrault’s 1697 story “La Belle Au Bois Dormant” — or “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.” Walt Disney modeled his Sleeping Beauty castle…
I moved to the DC area in 2020 to pursue my MFA in creative writing at American University. After years of working independently on my writing, participating in community workshops, running a literary organization, and holding a full-time job, I concluded that my writing needed the time and structure that…
Kwame Alexander’s Say Yes is a meaningful manifesto that challenges readers to embrace the transformative power of “yes.” Adapted from Alexander’s inspiring commencement speech at American University, this book weaves personal stories, profound insights, and actionable wisdom into a must-read guide for anyone ready to fuel their passion, turn rejection…
Space Oddities
Revolusi
My Oceans: Essays of Water, Whales, and Women
My Oceans: Essays of Water, Whales, and Women
Seán Hewitt in Conversation with Andrew Dolan
This event is in partnership with Solas Nua. Set in a remote village in the north of England, Open, Heaven unfolds over the course of one year in which two teenage boys meet and transform each other's lives. James — a sheltered, shy 16-year-old — is alone in his newly…
The Haunting of Room 904: A Novel
The Haunting of Room 904: A Novel
The Beechers: America’s Most Influential Family
The Beechers: America’s Most Influential Family
Panel in the Spotlight: “Nonfiction Authors Share Their Stories.”
In this discussion, moderator Dine Watson (Transplant: A Memoir) will speak with Daniel de Visé (The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic), Eric Dezenhall (Wiseguys and the White House: Gangsters, Presidents, and the Deals They Made), and Brigid Schulte…
The Lives and Deaths of Véronique Bangoura: A Novel
The Lives and Deaths of Véronique Bangoura: A Novel
Brooklyn-based writer Amy Shearn has just published her fifth novel, Animal Instinct, a romp of a tale that follows recently divorced 40-something Rachel Bloomstein as she re-enters the singles world and attempts to navigate dating apps, sexts, confusing algorithms, and a difficult ex, all while trapped at home with her…
Jasmine Guillory in Conversation with Nikki Payne
Loyalty Bookstores and DC Public Library are so incredibly excited to welcome Jasmine Guillory and Nikki Payne to celebrate the release of Flirting Lessons! This event will take place at DCPL's MLK Library, in the 5th floor auditorium. **This event is free to attend, but registration is required — please…
Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews, the Civil War, and the Fight to End Slavery
Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews, the Civil War, and the Fight to End Slavery
There’s Strength in Specializing
My dad’s favorite professor in college was an entomologist who studied fruit-fly wings. He’d read up on fruit flies, observed them, hypothesized about their wings, tested what he hypothesized, maybe tested the null, came up with some data, analyzed it, and shared it with other bug scientists. At least for…
An Unfinished Love Story
Vagabonds
A beautiful 19-year-old named Gilda becomes the mistress of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. She dreams of becoming his wife. The narrator, in love with Gilda, follows clues about her death two years after the affair. During an assassination attempt on the Shah, he gets shot…
“Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis confirmed this week that it has removed from…
Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird
Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird
Spring always feels like a fresh start — the days are getting longer, the flowers are starting to bloom, and I find myself reaching for books that make me feel just as light and full of possibility as the season. There’s something especially indulgent about reading this time of year…
The British are big on detective series, whether it’s television or books. There is the wonderful TV show “Shetland,” based on the book series by Ann Cleeves, but there’s also a raft of others. A recent find is the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths about a forensic archeologist in…
How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978-1998
How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978-1998
Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus
Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus
“Telling the Untold Tale: Finding Your Niche in Historical Fiction.”
In this discussion, moderator Aaron Hamburger (Hotel Cuba: A Novel) will speak with Tim Wendel (Rebel Falls: A Novel), Louis Bayard (The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts), and Lauren Francis-Sharma (Casualties of Truth: A Novel) about turning real-life episodes from yesterday into page-turning tales that captivate readers today! Don’t…
Our 7 Most Favorable Reviews in March 2025
Theory & Practice: A Novel by Michelle de Kretser (Catapult). Reviewed by Carr Harkrader. “De Kretser isn’t widely known in the U.S., although her 2007 novel, The Lost Dog, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In Australia, her home and the setting for much of her fiction, she’s received…
Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories
Our 5 Most Popular Posts: March 2025
“E. Ethelbert Miller to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award” by Melanie S. Hatter. “If you don’t know E. (Eugene) Ethelbert Miller, it’s likely you’ve been living deep in the Amazon rainforest. Though slim and soft-spoken, Miller is a giant across the DC region and throughout the literary community. A much-celebrated poet,…
Elie Mystal in Conversation with Mark Stern
In Bad Law, the New York Times bestselling author of Allow Me To Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution brings his trademark legal acumen and passionate snark to a brilliant takedown of 10 of what he considers the most egregiously awful laws on the books today. These are…
I’ve been angry a lot lately. The country is or is not in the process of falling apart every second of every day, depending on whom you ask. (What doesn’t seem in doubt is that hateful, cruel people are infiltrating the government and doing untold harm across the spectrum.) In…
The Last American Road Trip: A Memoir
The Last American Road Trip: A Memoir
Candy Darling
Rabbi Shira Stutman in Conversation with David Brooks
Rabbi Shira, Sixth & I’s former long-time and much beloved Senior Rabbi, returns to Sixth & I to celebrate her debut book! She set the vision for Sixth & I’s radically welcoming approach to Jewish learning and community and transformed thousands of lives in the process. When looking for inspiration…
The Blues Brothers
Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America
Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America
Every year, I stand at the front of various Southeastern Ontario university classrooms and deliver a lecture to medical students titled “Metaphor and Medicine.” I’m invited because I’m a poet, physician, and literary scholar — not “just” someone who makes metaphors, nor someone who studies them, but one who also…
My father’s reading chair is a classic of mass-market, Midcentury Modern Scandinavian design. You know this chair: teak, with spare wooden legs and armrests and a high, straight back. Settle in to read, lean back, and the chair reclines — well, jolts you backward and pops your feet up. It…
Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America
Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America
The Hymn to Dionysus
Authors on Audio: Nigel Hamilton
British-born biographer and academic Nigel Hamilton is the author of multiple well-respected books, including War and Peace: FDR’s Final Odyssey: D-Day to Yalta, 1943-1945, How to Do Biography: A Primer, and American Caesars: Lives of the Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush. His latest work is Lincoln…
Book Signing & Happy Hour with Jamia Wilson
Presenting a Friday evening book signing with Jamia Wilson, in celebration of her most recent book, Make Good Trouble, inspired by civil rights activist and congressman John Lewis’ call to challenge injustice. This engaging and informative handbook features more than 70 narratives of global activism throughout history ― including the…
Seven Social Movements That Changed America
Seven Social Movements That Changed America
The Washington Writers Conference Presents Melanie D.G. Kaplan
Independent journalist Melanie D.G. Kaplan has written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, and multiple other publications, and is the author of the forthcoming Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research. What…
Twist: A Novel
Join us for a meet-and-greet with author Bob Shea as he promotes his new book, Bearsuit Turtle Makes a Friend. After spending the day visiting schools, Bob will be at the Iguana in the evening to meet fans and sign books! This event is free and open to the public.…
Feeding Ghosts
Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit
Vatican Spies: From the Second World War to Pope Francis
Vatican Spies: From the Second World War to Pope Francis
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Shane McCrae’s New and Collected Hell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) begins with a reworking of “The Hell Poem,” a sequence from his 2017 The Gilded Auction Block. That collection was a blistering commentary on racism during Donald Trump’s first term. In the era of Trump, Act II, “The Hell Poem”…
Moral Treatment: A Novel
Authors on Audio: Edward F. O’Keefe
Chief executive officer of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation and a former media executive, Edward F. O’Keefe is also the author of The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created a President. Said presidential historian Jon Meacham of the 2024 work, “By detailing Theodore Roosevelt’s emotional connections to…
The Washington Writers Conference Presents Nevin Martell
Nevin Martell is a DC-based photographer and author whose many books include The Founding Farmers Cookbook: 100 Recipes for True Food & Drink, Freak Show Without a Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family Vacations, and Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-Standard Recipes from America’s Favorite Rural…
Iris Mitlin Lav in Conversation with Bruce J. Berger
At an early age, Gitel questions the expected roles of women in society and in Judaism. Born in Belorussia and brought to the U.S. in 1911 as a child, she leads a life constrained by her religious Jewish parents. Forbidden from going to college and pushed into finding a husband,…
Yoko: A Biography
Children’s Book Roundup: March 2025
The Greedy Wolf by Timothy Knapman (author) and Jean Jullien (illustrator) (Candlewick). “There once was a greedy wolf. He was so greedy that every day he would eat enough food for TEN birthday parties.” But what he really wants to gobble up are those seven delicious-looking young goats! Trouble is,…
Dream Count: A Novel
This spring, I’m moderating a panel at the Washington Writers Conference (May 2-3). “What Do (Local) Editors Want? Maybe Just What You’re Writing” will feature several of the movers and shakers in the DC-area independent-publishing scene — some of whom I’ve interviewed for this column, including Stirred Stories and SFWP…
The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells
The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart
John Feinstein, described as a “legendary” sportswriter, who died yesterday of an apparent heart attack at 69, was a larger-than-life figure — and a brash young kid when he and I teamed up in the late 1970s at the Washington Post to investigate a police “death squad” in Prince George’s…
The Adoptee Literary Festival Returns
Following the success of the inaugural event in 2022, the free, all-virtual Adoptee Literary Festival returns on March 22nd. Run by all-adoptee volunteers, the festival’s mission is to bring together writers who self-identify as having been adopted, fostered, or otherwise displaced to share their stories, make their voices heard, and…
Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine
Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine
Talmage Boston: “The Art of Presidential Persuasion”
At a time when many Americans are frustrated with today’s political chaos and questioning the strength of presidential leadership, history offers a much-needed source of wisdom, useful advice, and hope. Join us for a compelling presentation by Talmage Boston, acclaimed historian and author of How the Best Did It: Leadership…
Red Clay: A Novel
A haiku: Whispering wind hums, cherry blossoms drift like dreams, moonlight paints the dawn. A nursery rhyme: Little starfish in the sea, Drifting, dancing, wild and free. Waves come high, then roll away, Splash and sparkle — time to play! Tiny fish swim here and there, Bubbles floating everywhere. Seashells…
The Washington Writers Conference Presents Aaron Hamburger
Aaron Hamburger is the author of the story collection The View from Stalin’s Head, winner of the Rome Prize in Literature, and the novels Faith for Beginners (a Lambda Literary Award nominee), Nirvana Is Here (winner of a Bronze Medal in the 2019 Foreword Indie Awards), and Hotel Cuba (winner…
American Poison: A Deadly Invention and the Woman Who Battled for Environmental Justice
American Poison: A Deadly Invention and the Woman Who Battled for Environmental Justice
Mornings Without Mii
Charlotte Taylor Fryar in Conversation with Sonia Rao
As she walks the length of the Potomac River, clambering up its banks and sounding its depths, Charlotte Taylor Fryar examines the geography and ecology of Washington, DC, with all manner of flora and fauna as her witness. The ecological traces of human inhabitancy provide her with imaginative access into…
Making Sense of Slavery: America’s Long Reckoning, from the Founding Era to Today
Making Sense of Slavery: America’s Long Reckoning, from the Founding Era to Today
On the campaign trail, Kamala Harris used her mother’s “coconut tree” metaphor to make a political point, but I suspect the comment was more complex than Harris let on, perhaps even darker than she permitted herself to hear. Maybe that’s not surprising. Harris wouldn’t be the first politician to simplify…
It’s Hard for Me to Live with Me
It’s Hard for Me to Live with Me
How did the female body drive 200 million years of human evolution? Why do women live longer than men? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer's? Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet? Is sexism useful for evolution?…
Behind You Is the Sea
March is here, and while spring hasn’t officially arrived yet, the frigid February temperatures have made me more than ready to swap the freezing, dreary days for sunshine and flowers. With warmer weather on the horizon, I’m also refreshing my TBR pile, swapping out those cold-weather romances — and yes,…
The Immortal Woman: A Novel
Thousands of books are published each month. And as much as we’d like to, we can’t read (or review) them all. But what we can do is point out a few we think you might enjoy. In that spirit, here’s a rundown of forthcoming titles that caught our eye and…
The Violence of Love: Race, Family, and Adoption in the United States
The Violence of Love: Race, Family, and Adoption in the United States
Where the Bones Lie
The Washington Writers Conference Presents Lauren Francis-Sharma
Lauren Francis-Sharma is the author of the critically acclaimed novels ‘Til the Well Runs Dry, Book of the Little Axe, and her latest, Casualties of Truth, inspired by her attendance at South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Amnesty Hearings. What advice can she offer about telling the truth in your…
Join us to launch Maggie Master’s first YA novel, The Hopeling, into the world! We’ll have a reading, conversation, Q&A, and book signing – with plenty of refreshments from the Bird in Hand cafe and bar. The Hopeling brings together the human and the more-than-human, the kids searching for hope…
An Interview with W. Ralph Eubanks
Along with authoring several books, including The House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations of an Interracial Family in the American South and Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey into Mississippi’s Dark Past, W. Ralph Eubanks is a respected essayist, editor, and academic. Currently…
Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare
Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare
Our 7 Most Favorable Reviews in February 2025
The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North by Michelle Adams (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Reviewed by William Rice. “Reasoned argument promising broadscale government remediation of public ills seems so alien to our current political moment as to be almost incomprehensible. Yet that’s…
Theory & Practice: A Novel
Our 5 Most Popular Posts: February 2025
Teddy Duncan Jr.’s review of Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church by Philip Shenon (Knopf). “Although the book begins with Pius XII, infamous for his papal silence and even passive collaboration during the Nazi regime, its true nucleus is Vatican II and…
What accounts for a book that has been sold over 65 million times and translated into 30 languages? When J.D. Salinger’s classic, The Catcher in the Rye, was first published to acclaim and controversy in 1951, it seized on a cultural mood. Similar to how Charles Dickens is credited with…
Sleepless
The Bullet Swallower
When Charlie Met Joan: The Tragedy of the Chaplin Trials and the Failings of American Law
When Charlie Met Joan: The Tragedy of the Chaplin Trials and the Failings of American Law
Alexander Vindman in Conversation with Sharon L. Davies
This event is in partnership with the Kettering Foundation. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, six U.S. presidential administrations of both parties pursued policies for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia that emboldened Russia, playing into its imperialist, centuries-long mythos of regional hegemony. The result: military aggression and full-scale invasion. It…
Three Days in June: A Novel
Our Early Bird Rate Ends Tomorrow
Don’t miss your last chance to attend the 2025 Washington Writers Conference at the Early Bird Rate of $409! This entitles you to: Face-to-face pitches with three literary agents. A Friday-evening reception and “How to Pitch an Agent” tutorial. Saturday panels featuring some of your favorite publishing pros. A lunchtime…
E. Ethelbert Miller to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award
If you don’t know E. (Eugene) Ethelbert Miller, it’s likely you’ve been living deep in the Amazon rainforest. Though slim and soft-spoken, Miller is a giant across the DC region and throughout the literary community. A much-celebrated poet, he is also known for his advocacy, his sharp wit, and his…
You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon’s Fight for Free Speech
You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon’s Fight for Free Speech
Louie on the Rocks: A Novel
An Interview with Gioia Diliberto
Gioia Diliberto’s Firebrands: The Untold Story of Four Women Who Made and Unmade Prohibition is notable for many reasons, but one that stands out is its portrayal of the polarization in America around Prohibition. You were either for it or against it, a Wet or a Dry. Diliberto homes in…
Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families
Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families
What We Talked About When We Talked About Books
For the past 15 years, I’ve run a book group for Fairfax County Public Library that began by reading the classics. Ten years in, during the pandemic, we moved online with more popular selections. After returning to in-person meetings, we switched our focus to literary award-winners. Now that I’m spending…
Join us for this very special evening with former congressional staffer turned politics professor and now author Casey Burgat as he discusses his new book, We Hold These “Truths”: How to Spot the Myths that are Holding America Back. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for an informal meet-and-greet with the…
Medgar & Myrlie
The Night of the Storm
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” The Wall Street Journal reporter who’d written the feature I was fact-checking for the American Journalism Review insisted he had spelled his source’s name correctly. “But I called him,” I replied. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he repeated. I believe he…
Fagin the Thief: A Novel
Brittany Friedman in Conversation with Toluse Olorunnipa and Kris Marsh
It is impossible to deny the impact of lies and white supremacy on the institutional conditions in U.S. prisons. There is a particular power dynamic of racist intent in the prison system that culminates in what Dr. Brittany Friedman terms carceral apartheid. Prisons are a microcosm of how carceral apartheid…
Reading Blas Falconer’s Rara Avis (Four Way Books) is like listening to an orchestra tuning up, the care of each (lyrical) instrument searching for the slight variances that bring harmony, insight, understanding, and, dare I say, awe. But it’s an awe made of subtext to be sure, or as Sandra…
Fearless and Free: A Memoir
Bestselling biographer Kitty Kelley has long been the backbone of the Independent, and now she’s the face of it, too! We’re thrilled to reveal our new “Read and Write Fearlessly” tote bags, one of which can be yours for a donation of $100! This is about more than carrying your…
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