The House on Sun Street is a lyrical, nuanced novel that brings the Iranian Revolution of 1979 to life. Author Mojgan Ghazirad is a native of Iran who now lives in the D.C. area. She’s waded through her childhood memories to show us the human dimension of a country in turmoil.
Read MoreMaryland-based author Liza Achilles has written an intimate, often hilarious, always relatable debut. Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ‘n’ Sex in Sonnets was published this month by the hyperlocal press Beltway Editions, which is based in Rockville, Maryland.
Read MoreAs summer approaches, we turn our thoughts to beach reads and poolside companions. We’ve created our first summer reading list, sharing with you the best new books by D.C. area authors. When looking for the next great read, we value recommendations from real people, and especially from independent booksellers. These are thoughtful, dedicated readers who have a finger on the pulse of new stories and voices. This summer we reached out to bookstores in Northern Virginia and Maryland.
Read MoreSet in the D.C. suburbs in 1971, Len Kruger’s debut novel Bad Questions is a compelling coming-of-age story that follows a year in the life of twelve-year-old Billy Blumberg, who is adrift after his father’s death by suicide.
Read MoreI sat down with Donna Hemans to discuss her new novel, The House of Plain Truth, her fascination with Jamaican culture and history, and the themes she keeps returning to—including migration, colonialism, home, and belonging.
Read MoreIt was standing room only at Politics and Prose on Sunday for an event with Emily Wilson, acclaimed translator of Homer’s Odyssey and, most recently, The Iliad.
Read MoreAs we contemplated our third annual holiday booklist, which features favorite books by D.C. area authors, we decided to reach out again to members of the D.C. area literary community.
Read MoreAn event review of author David Brook’s new book release, How to Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
Read MoreExpansion of women’s possibilities, the joys and fears of pregnancy, a transhuman future: Three recent books of poetry by DC-connected poets explore these and other topics.
Read MoreAcclaimed author Tim O’Brien sat down with Claiborne Smith, the literary director of the Library of Congress, at Arena Stage to discuss his new novel, America Fantastica.
Read MoreAngie Kim’s second novel, Happiness Falls, is a mystery novel, and a compassionate story of a family in crisis. Mia’s father, Adam Parson, has disappeared.
Read MoreJust in time for baseball season, Sandra Marchetti has published her second full-length poetry collection, Aisle 228, about the 2016 Chicago Cubs, going to ball games with her father, and listening to baseball on the radio.
Read MoreGregory Luce reviews three poetry collections by D.C. area writers: Let’s Call It Paradise by Mike Maggio, Ordinary Time by Sarah deCorla-Souza, and Having a Baby to Save a Marriage by CL Bledsoe.
Read MoreFor our second annual holiday book recommendation list, we reached out to key players in the D.C.-area literary community. We wanted to find out which books, written by local authors, they loved reading in 2022, and add those to our own favorites to create this list.
Read MoreThe work to better Latinx representation in literature is ongoing, and Afro-Latinx voices in poetry are being heard thanks to publications like Diaspora Cafe: D.C., a new anthology of poetry on the Afro-Latinx experience published by DC-based Day Eight.
Read MoreIn her 40s Nella, the protagonist of Joyce Kornblatt’s remarkably subtle novel Mother Tongue, discovers that her entire life is a lie. Her mother is not her mother, so much as a woman who kidnapped her, as a newborn, from a Pittsburgh hospital nursery.
Read MoreTriangulations is eerily of this moment, as it examines pregnancy both accidental and deliberate, a woman’s determination to control her future, the relationship between motherhood and career, and men feeling possessive of women’s bodies.
Read MoreThe Other Ones invites readers to an unfortunately believable and emotionally complex world, its story revolving around the ways that money can rule our lives.
Read More“Even if [the subject matter of the poem I’m sharing] is something that someone in the audience didn't go through, they know someone who went through it. It helps them change their perception. So I really feel like this is my purpose.”
Read More
