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Set 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.
I 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.
It 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.
As 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.
An 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
Expansion 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.
Acclaimed 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.
Angie 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.
Just 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.
Gregory 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.
For 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.
The 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.
In 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.
Triangulations 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.
The Other Ones invites readers to an unfortunately believable and emotionally complex world, its story revolving around the ways that money can rule our lives.
“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.”
Baltimore Sons, Dean Bartoli Smith's new collection of intense, raw poetry, shows a side of the city of Baltimore that many haven't seen up close.
At the center of Leslie Pietrzyk’s story collection Admit This to No One loom two giant figures: a charismatic, larger-than-life, fictional Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Washington, D.C. itself.
Who is Hiram Larew? Ask a scientist and you’ll get one answer. Ask a poet, and you’ll get another. Ask those who are involved in the social justice movement, and you’ll get yet another.
Check out our holiday book recommendations—fiction, poetry, and nonfiction reviewed by DCTRENDING.
A newly released middle-grade children’s illustrated book series written by Brandt Ricca and illustrated by Matt Miller transports readers from New Orleans to dream worlds.
The City of Good Death opens with the discovery of a mysterious body by two boatmen on the Ganges river, in the holy Indian city of Kashi, where everyone knows three basic facts: dying in the holy city promises freedom from rebirth …
With sparkling prose and deeply built characters, Leila Rafei’s debut novel tells the story of Egypt’s 2011 revolution from three alternating perspectives.
Today, we share books of fiction and poetry written by Black authors. We’re inspired by the #BlackoutBestsellerlist movement, which aims to flood the bestseller lists with books by Black authors. (Your homework: Buy two books by Black authors. And buy them from a local, independent bookstore.)
In her latest novel, Redhead by the Side of the Road, no detail is too small for Anne Tyler. She’s at her best when she’s showing us the beauty in the ordinary, and reminding us how important it is to truly see ourselves.
“I think poetry is more relevant today than, perhaps, it's ever been,” Courtney told me. “We have so much going on in the world. I think it allows people an outlet, a way to express themselves…”
Carrie Callaghan’s historical novel Salt the Snow is so rich in detail that I found myself transported to the streets of 1930s Moscow. The frigid cold of the Russian winter is palpable—along with the stark living conditions, the nineteenth century mansion that’s been repurposed as a newspaper office …
To meet Gene Bruskin is to meet a titan of the labor movement. Talking with him opens up a world that most history books barely broach. A tall, burly man with a booming voice, wispy gray hair and a constant cough that interrupts just about every other sentence, Bruskin is the embodiment of what it means to be a grassroots labor organizer.