1. The 2024 Washington Writers Conference. “Agents. As always, the centerpiece of our annual conference is one-on-one pitch sessions with literary agents from across the country, and this year is no exception! Expert sessions with publishing pros on the craft of writing and paths to publishing. Filled with authors, agents, editors, and others, our sessions are designed to support your literary endeavors!” Thinking of attending? It’s THIS WEEKEND, so REGISTER NOW!


2. “The German Enigma” by Darrell Delamaide. “Germany remains wary of its Nazi history and condemns far-right movements, but they crop up periodically. The so-called Alternative for Germany, AfD, openly espouses a combination of nationalism and triumphalism. This right-wing party has fallen lately into disrepute due to its members taking part in a conspiracy redolent of the Final Solution and, most recently, from the staffer of an AfD candidate for the European Parliament being linked to Chinese espionage. It may all seem remote from American concerns, but U.S. involvement in the defeat of the Nazis, the aftermath of the war, the history of West Germany, and the role of the first President Bush in that country’s reunification, not to mention America’s ongoing military presence in Germany, make it relevant.”


3. Bareerah Y. Ghani’s review of The Jinn Daughter: A Novel by Rania Hanna (Hoopoe). “Beyond the name-calling, though, the townsfolk cannot harm the two, protected as they are by their association with the village sheikh, Hamadi, Layala’s grandfather and, ironically, the man responsible for the persecution and imprisonment of jinns that started the Jinn Wars. The novel is rich with such backstory, offering it in the form of short, folkloric fables that strike an eerie, mystical mood. Much to the reader’s dismay, however, these are the extent of the book’s play with the uncanny.”


4. Kitty Kelley’s review of An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Simon & Schuster). “Most historians could never have survived such public humiliation but, as Goodwin writes in this winning memoir, ‘I’ve been born with an irrepressible and optimistic temperament.’ She charms when she talks about the books she’s written on ‘my guys’ — Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Johnson — and delights as she holds forth on ‘my Brooklyn Dodgers.’ This memoir presents Goodwin’s deepest love as she writes about her husband and the commitment they shared to an era that has yet to fulfill its promise.”


5. “My Brilliant Friend” by Ellen Prentiss Campbell. “And naturally, Karen was an early, avid, and adept user of social media. She time-traveled to the past at least once a week on Facebook, creating brief memoirs on Throwback Thursdays illustrated with vintage snapshots. Her posts about happenings in her family sometimes approached serialized flash fiction, such as the saga-in-miniature when their beagle, Cosmo, ran away. At last, he came home. A happy ending. Last month, Karen’s own story came to an end too soon. She’d known for a time that her cancer was unbeatable. Clearsighted and realistic, looking ahead into her own foreshortened future, she endeavored to prepare her family for her absence.”

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