David A. Taylor’s fiction has appeared in Potomac Review, Gargoyle, Jabberwock, Barrelhouse, Washington City Paper, Rio Grande Review, and Baltimore Review, and in several anthologies. His collection, Success: Stories, received the Washington Writers’ Publishing House fiction prize and was a People’s Choice finalist in the Library of Virginia Literary Awards. His nonfiction book Soul of a People (2009), about the WPA writers of the 1930s, was made into a Smithsonian documentary film that he wrote and co-produced, and ranked among Best of the Month by Amazon.com and the year’s best books by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His other nonfiction books include Ginseng, the Divine Root (2006), a plant’s odyssey, and Cork Wars: Intrigue and Industry in World War II (2018), which won an Ippy Award for World History. He's creating a podcast revisiting the writers and books of the Federal Writers' Project called "The People's Recorder," and writes for the Washington Post and other outlets. He teaches at Johns Hopkins University and lives in DC.
14 entries by David A. Taylor
Song Noir
By Alex Harvey
How the gravel-voiced singer was birthed by the City of Angels.
The Garretts of Columbia: A Black South Carolina Family from Slavery to the Dawn of Integration
By David Nicholson
Piecing together a story that started in the antebellum era.
To Walk About in Freedom
By Carole Emberton
A formerly enslaved person shares her gripping yet incomplete story.
Song Noir: Tom Waits and the Spirit of Los Angeles
By Alex Harvey
How the gravel-voiced singer was birthed by the City of Angels.
To Walk About in Freedom: The Long Emancipation of Priscilla Joyner
By Carole Emberton
A formerly enslaved person shares her gripping yet incomplete story.
The Nazi Spy Ring in America
By Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones
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A fascinating look at the 1938 trial that tipped the U.S. into the Allies’ corner.
What happens when a dystopian police state methodically erases everyday objects?
The Nazi Spy Ring in America: Hitler’s Agents, the FBI, & the Case that Stirred the Nation
By Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones
A fascinating look at the 1938 trial that tipped the U.S. into the Allies’ corner.
Warlight
By Michael Ondaatje
An immersive post-WWII tale of intrigue from a true master.
Sacrifice
By Alessandro Orsini; translated by Sarah Jane Nodes
An Italian sociologist goes undercover to infiltrate a militant hate group.
Warlight: A Novel
By Michael Ondaatje
An immersive post-WWII tale of intrigue from a true master
Sacrifice: My Life in a Fascist Militia
By Alessandro Orsini; translated by Sarah Jane Nodes
An Italian sociologist goes undercover to infiltrate a militant hate group.
Two authors give distinct voice to the people of one city — Baltimore.
Defying Gravity
Edited by Richard Peabody
Anthology of D.C. women writers ignores boundaries in favor of strong voices and strong characters.