Sick of big-name publishers and authors getting all the literary buzz? So's Barrelhouse, a thoughtful D.C.-based literary magazine with a penchant for pop culture (think Mr. T and The Hills). Tonight Barrelhouse is bringing our attention to small presses and lit mags at Wonderland Ballroom, kicking off a series designed to spotlight new literary voices.
Publishing [...]
LitArtlantic kicks off tonight in Bethesda with a host of events dedicated to the local arts. The event is organized by The Writer’s Center, Round House Theatre, Songwriters’ Association of Washington, Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Docs in Progress, and American Independent Writers. LitArtlantic’s free events include a discussion on creativity with 9:30 [...]
In the two years she’s been the United States' poet laureate, Kay Ryan has published a book of poetry (The Best of It: New and Selected Poems) and supported community colleges (Poetry for the Mind’s Joy, a project focusing on work by community college students)—not to mention held readings and talks across the country. Before [...]
The Library of Congress’ National Book Festival just got a big financial boost. The Library announced this afternoon that David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group, has donated $5 million ($1 million per year for the next five years) to support the festival.
This year marks the festival’s 10th anniversary, and the [...]
Memory is a tricky thing, as poet W.S. Merwin explores in his poetry. “I have only what I remember,” he writes in “A Likeness,” a poem in his 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning collection, The Shadow of Sirius. Merwin, a former poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, discusses his work tonight at the Folger Elizabethan [...]
Lit lovers should head to Bethesda this weekend for the suburban center’s annual Literary Festival, which kicks off tonight at 7 p.m. and runs through Sunday. Organized by the Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc., the festival includes readings and signings from local and national authors along with other events, including—inexplicably—improv from the Washington Improv Theater.
Events of [...]
She’s best known as the author of The Color Purple, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1983 (before becoming a movie and a touring musical). But Alice Walker is also a renowned essayist and activist. She’ll be discussing several recent nonfiction works tonight at Busboys & Poets on 14th Street.
Walker’s [...]
Self-published and first-time authors don’t often tour to support their works, so take advantage of the Howard University Bookstore’s Independent Authors Fair this evening and see 20 local and national names. The authors, whose books focus on everything from entrepreneurship to African American culture to relationships, include Howard alum Shayna Rudd, who founded the LadyDiva [...]
The F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference has announced the details of its 2010 conference. The event, to be held Oct. 16 on the campus of Montgomery College in Rockville, will honor author Alice McDermott with its Award for Outstanding Achievement.
McDermott, writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University, is best known for Charming Billy, which won the National [...]
Jane Austen's popularity continues to grow, yet in recent years interest in her work has taken a new turn—a monstrous turn. Take last year's hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and its follow-up, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, both published by Quirk Books. Respective authors Seth Grahame-Smith and Ben H. Winters will chat tomorrow [...]
