Steve Sheinkin — Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the
Secret History of the Vietnam War
Friday, September 25th at 10:30 am and 7 pm
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
(Children’s and Teens’ Dept)
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Was he a hero or a traitor? Daniel Ellsberg is one of history’s prime
examples of how a whistleblower can be seen as both the best and worst of
people. Working at the Pentagon, Ellsberg was involved in the American
government’s attempt to justify its involvement in the Vietnam War. Seven years
later, he leaked documents that did the exact opposite. Sheinkin examines what
changed Ellsberg from an instrument of the government into a crusader for the
antiwar movement. Free admission.
Confluence:
Translation in the Capital Area
Friday, September 25th at 6:30 pm to Saturday, September 26th
at 7.30 pm
Montgomery College Cultural
Arts Center
7995 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20910
A celebration of
International Translation Day bringing together translators and others
interested in the field of translation. The conference will offer workshops and
opportunities for discussion, networking and career development, and
celebration, focused on various aspects of translation, including literary,
practical, and philosophical dimensions. The conference will open Friday evening,
September 25, 2015, with a keynote address by Sen. Jamie Raskin,
"Translation and Representation," and a brief program on developments
in the profession of translation and translation education followed by a
reception with opportunities for informal networking. Saturday sessions will
feature a variety of workshops on translation and translation studies
throughout the day. Saturday evening, September 26, the D.C. Area Literary
Translators Network and The Writer’s Center will host their annual open mic
event in celebration of International Translation Day. Free admission.
John Lahr — Joy Ride: Show People
and Their Shows and Tennessee Williams
Friday, September 25th at 7 pm
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
The only critic ever to win a Tony Award, Lahr reviewed plays and
profiled playwrights for some two decades at The New Yorker. His nineteenth book, Joy Ride, is a selection of this work and ranges from interviews
with timeless American dramatists such as Arthur Miller and August Wilson to
intimate looks at international figures of the stature of Harold Pinter and
Ingmar Bergman. Lahr is also the author of the book-length study Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the
Flesh, which was nominated for the National Book Award and is now available
in paperback. Free admission.
Joe Urschel — The Year of Fear: Machine Gun Kelly and the
Manhunt that Changed the Nation
Saturday, September 26th at 1 pm
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Joe Urschel reconstructs, in great detail, the outlaw George “Machine
Gun” Kelly’s (1895-1954) most flamboyant crime, the kidnapping of a Texas
oilman in 1933. He charts the 20,000-mile chase that made J. Edgar Hoover a
household name and gave the country what amounted to a national police force,
with FBI agents permitted to cross state lines in pursuit of suspects. Urschel
is an award-winning journalist and former USAToday
managing editor who is now executive director of the National Law Enforcement
Museum Free admission.
Ira Chaleff — Intelligent
Disobedience: Doing Right When What You're Told to Do is Wrong
Saturday, September 26th at 3:30 pm
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Doing one’s duty is generally a point of
honor—but sometimes it’s more honorable disobey authority. Ira Chaleff uses the
model of guide dog training to understand when to follow and when to lead.
Service dogs are conditioned not merely to obey, but also to recognize when
obedience poses a risk and to figure out an alternative method to achieve the
goal. Chaleff is founder and
president of Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates and the author of The Courageous
Follower, The Limits of Violence, and other books in the field
of followership studies, which he has pioneered. Free admission.
Scott Shane — Objective Troy: a
Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone
Saturday, September 26th at 6 pm
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Scott Shane defines the technology, politics, and
moral challenge of the war on terrorism. His book chronicles dual transformations,
charting how the American Imam Anwar al-Awlaki first called for moderation
after 9/11, then for jihad, comparing it to Obama, who after initially
rejecting Bush’s policies, embraced the use of drones in targeted killings. The
two narratives meet when both feed into the country’s intensive hunt for
al-Awlaki and his eventual assassination. Shane is a veteran New York Times national security
reporter. Free admission.
Nerds! Trivia Night at Politics and Prose
Saturday, September 26th at 7 pm
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
How many rings were forged by Sauron in J.R.R.
Tolkein’s Middle Earth? Excluding monuments, what is the tallest building in
D.C.? Put on your thinking cap, grab a drink, and join us for our monthly
trivia night! Enjoy the grilled cheese sandwich special at the P&P
Coffehouse from 7 to 8 pm, grab a latte (with a lid!) and trek upstairs to four
rounds of mind-bending trivia questions. Prizes will be awarded. Trivia night
is open to all ages.
Poetry and Prose Open
Mic
Sunday, September 27th from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
2015 from 2 pm to 4 pm
The Writer’s Center
4508 Walsh Street
Bethesda, MD 20815
Sign-up for readers begins at 1:30, and the reading starts at 2:00 p.m.
The reading will be followed by a reception. Free admission.
Liz Pichon — Tom Gates: Everything's Amazing (Sort Of)
Sunday, September 27th at 2 pm
Takoma Park Library
101 Philadelphia Ave
Takoma Park, MD 20912
Liz Pichon reads from her children’s book. Tom
Gates’s journal is full of doodles and drawings. He illustrates the ups
(annoying his sister Delia) and downs (math class) of his daily life, as well
as the mystery of why his list of desired birthday presents appears to be
invisible as far as his family is concerned. What’s a mischievous boy to do?
Ages 8 – 12.
Thomas Mallon — Finale: a Novel of the Reagan Years
Sunday, September 27th at 5 pm
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Famously called the “Teflon President,” Reagan may be less elusive to
historical fiction than he was to the day’s headlines. If anyone can pin him
down, it’s Thomas Mallon. Focusing closely on the months between August 1986
and January 1987, Mallon recreates the Cold War’s final, treacherous days,
recreating the Soviet-American negotiations in Iceland as well as the rising panic
and anger surrounding AIDS. He reimagines each of these events from the
perspectives of the Reagans, Nancy’s astrologer, Margaret Thatcher, Christopher
Hitchens, and a host of others. Mallon is the author of nine novels, most
recently Watergate, and seven books
of nonfiction. Free admission.
Elizabeth Poliner — What You Know in Your Hands & Kim
Roberts - Fortune’s Favor: Scott in the
Antarctic
Sunday, September 27th at 6:30 pm
Busboys and Poets (14th & V location)
2021 14th St, NW
Washington, D.C. 20009
A teacher at Hollins University’s Jackson Center for Creative Writing, Elizabeth
Poliner has published stories and poems in many literary journals, in addition
to Mutual Life & Casualty, a
novel in interlinked stories, and Sudden
Fog, a collection of poetry. Poliner’s second gathering of poems looks back
to her prose, recording her characters’ valediction to their creator at the end
of the writing.
Editor of the on-line journal Beltway
Poetry Quarterly, Kim Roberts has published her poems throughout the U.S.,
Canada, Brazil, and France. Her work has been included in American Poetry: The Next Generation and she is the author of The Wishbone Galaxy and The Kimnama, based on travels through
northern India. Always drawn to the exotic, in her third book, Roberts
reimagines Scott’s second, tragic expedition to the South Pole. Free admission.
Ron Rash — Above the Waterfall
Monday, September 28th at 6:30 pm
Busboys and Poets (14th & V location)
2021 14th St, NW
Washington, D.C. 20009
Through several collections of poetry and short
stories along with longer fiction—notably Serena, the basis for the movie—Ron Rash has made the isolated,
economically depressed communities of Appalachia his fictional territory. In
his fifth novel, this skillful nature writer combines astute social commentary
with a compelling plot, following a sheriff who is nearing retirement and all
but burnt-out from battling the dire effects of crystal meth abuse. Working
with a park ranger, he tries to resolve a dispute over a poisoned trout stream
and get to the bottom of a series of violent incidents. Free admission.
Kate Harding — Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape
Culture—and What We Can Do about It
Monday, September 28th at 6:30 pm
Kramerbooks
1517 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
In Asking for It, Kate Harding
combines in-depth research with an in-your-face voice to make the case that
twenty-first-century America supports rapists more effectively than it supports
victims. Drawing on real-world examples of what feminists call "rape
culture" — from politicos' revealing gaffes to institutional failures in
higher education and the military — Harding offers ideas and suggestions for
how we, as a society, can take sexual violence much more seriously without
compromising the rights of the accused. Free admission.
JAY WINIK — 1944: FDR AND THE YEAR
THAT CHANGED HISTORY
Monday, September 28th at 7 pm
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
What Jay Winik did for the Civil War in his detailed focus on April 1865 he does on a larger and more complex
scale in his third book, a close look at the penultimate year of World War II.
As he traces events including FDR’s re-election, D-Day, and the Soviet
liberation of the death camp at Majdanek, Winik recreates the suspense of those
moments when the course of events was anything but clear and the outcome of
many pivotal battles and decisions could as well have taken history in a
different direction. Winik is also the author of The Great Upheaval and a frequent public speaker and media
commentator Free
admission.
Katherine Applegate —
Crenshaw
Monday, September 28th at 7 pm
Maret School
3000 Cathedral Ave NW
Washington, DC 20008
Jackson has a sidekick unlike any other: a giant
cat named Crenshaw who enjoys skateboarding, surfing, and bubble baths. After a
prolonged absence from being Jackson’s imaginary friend, Crenshaw has
reappeared in the boy’s life—but why? Perhaps it has something to do with the
fact that Jackson’s family is once again in danger of being evicted. What
remains to be seen is whether a cat who is not even supposed to exist can come
to Jackson’s rescue. Doors open at 6 pm. Ages 10 – 14.
Purchase of the book ($18.57, with service fee)
includes up to four tickets.
Monday Night Open Mic
Poetry hosted by Shelly Bell
Monday, September 28th from 8 pm to 10 pm
Busboys and Poets (Shirlington location)
4251 South Campbell Avenue
Arlington, VA 22206
For two hours, audiences can expect a diverse chorus of voices and a
vast array of professional spoken word performers, open mic rookies, musicians,
and a different host every week. $5 cover.
Monday Night Open Mic
hosted by Drew Law
Monday, September 28th from 9 pm to 11 pm
Busboys and Poets (Brookland location)
625 Monroe St. NE
Washington, D.C. 20017
For two hours, audiences can expect a diverse chorus of voices, and a
vast array of professional spoken word performers, open mic rookies, musicians,
and a different host every week. $5 cover.
Ed Vere — Max the Brave
Tuesday, September 29th at 10:30 am
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Max is on a mission to do what all cats must do: chase mice. The only
hitch is that Max does not know what this Mouse looks like. Will Max’s
determination be a match for Mouse’s cunning? Ages 4 – 7. Free admission.
International
Literature: Swedish Literature
Tuesday, September 29th at 4 pm
Library of Congress
James Madison Building (Montpelier Room – Sixth floor)
101 Independence Ave SE
Washington, DC 20540
Editors and translators Malena
Mörling and Jonas
Ellerström read
in English and Swedish from their new book The Star by My Head: Poets from
Sweden. Free
admission.
Tim Denevi — Hyper: A Personal History of ADHD
Tuesday, September 29th at 6:30 pm
Kramerbooks
1517 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
This compelling and moving memoir about what it's
like to be a child with ADHD also explains the history of the diagnosis and how
we have come to medicate more than four million children today. Riveting,
thought-provoking, and deeply intelligent, this is a remarkable book both for
its sensitive portrait of a child's experience as well as for its ability to
illuminate a remarkably complex and controversial mental condition.
Marianne Bohr — Gap Year Girl: a Baby Boomer Adventure across
21 Countries
Tuesday, September 29th at 6:30 pm
Busboys and Poets (Takoma location)
235 Carroll St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20012
Thirty-three years after backpacking across Europe, Bohr and her husband
quit their jobs and retraced their steps. Avid travelers throughout their
lives, the couple were well prepared for this “senior year abroad,” and Bohr’s
chronicle is full of seasoned insights into both the bucolic French countryside
and the exotic whirl of Moroccan bazaars. Along the way, Bohr also finds
moments to reflect on the variety of experiences travel affords, from the
thrill of exploration to disorientation to the delight of finding something familiar
in a strange place. Free admission.
Ed Vere — Max the Brave
Tuesday, September 29th at 7 pm
Takoma Park Library
101 Philadelphia Ave
Takoma Park, MD 20912
Max is on a mission to do what all cats must do: chase mice. The only
hitch is that Max does not know what this Mouse looks like. Will Max’s
determination be a match for Mouse’s cunning? Ages 4 – 7. Free admission.
David Maraniss — Once In a Great City: A Detroit Story
Tuesday, September 29th at 7 pm
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Journalist, historian, biographer, and a Washington Post associate editor, the award-winning David Maraniss
has written critically acclaimed books on events including the Vietnam War and
the 1960 Rome Olympics. He has also turned out thorough, even definitive
telling of the lives of figures ranging from Clinton and Obama to Clemente and
Lombardi. Born in Detroit, Maraniss devotes the same wide-ranging consideration
to this profile of his hometown in 1963, at the peak of its economic and
socio-cultural promise, when both the auto industry and the UAW were strong.
Motown and Aretha Franklin were poised to become national icons—and yet already
strife and breakdown were in the air. Free admission.
Tuesday Night Open
Mic hosted by Matt Gallant
Tuesday, September 29th from 9 pm to 11 pm
Busboys and Poets (Takoma location)
235 Carroll St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20012
For two hours, audiences can expect a diverse chorus of voices, and a
vast array of professional spoken word performers, open mic rookies, musicians
and a different host every week. $5 cover.
Tuesday Night Open
Mic hosted by Khadijah Moon
Tuesday, September 29th from 9 pm to 11 pm
Busboys and Poets (14th & V location)
2021 14th St, NW
Washington, D.C. 20009
For two hours, audiences can expect a diverse chorus of voices, and a
vast array of professional spoken word performers, open mic rookies, musicians
and a different host every week. $5 cover.
Beltway Poetry Slam
Tuesday, September 29th from 9 pm to 11 pm
Busboys and Poets (Brookland location)
625 Monroe St. NE
Washington, D.C. 20017
DC's only Poetry Slam, Inc certified slam event meets the last Tuesday
of every month at Busboys and Poets' Brookland location. $5 cover.
Nicola Davies — I (Don't) Like Snakes
Wednesday, September 30th at 10:30 am
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
What’s a girl to do when her family loves snakes not wisely, but too
well? This young lady simply cannot understand her relatives’ penchant for the
slithery, spooky creatures. When they begin to explain to her why snakes do
what they do, however, a revolution may be in the offing. Davies mixes
scientific fact into this story of one girl’s change of heart. Ages 5 – 7. Free
admission.
Theresa Brown —The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four
Patients’ Lives
Wednesday, September 30th at 6:30 pm
Kramerbooks
1517 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
A moving story unfolds in real time as practicing nurse and New York Times columnist Theresa Brown
reveals the individual struggles as well as the larger truths about medicine in
this country. She lets us experience all the life that happens in just one day
in a busy teaching hospital's oncology ward. In the span of twelve hours, lives
can be lost, life-altering treatment decisions made, and dreams fulfilled or
irrevocably stolen. Every day, Theresa Brown holds these lives in her hands.
Free admission.
Paul Fleischman — Eyes Wide Open: Going behind the Environmental
Headlines
Wednesday, September 30th at 6:30 pm
Busboys and Poets (Takoma location)
235 Carroll St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20012
Everyone knows climate change is one of the
biggest challenges facing the world today. How did our modern lifestyle lead to
our current precarious situation, and what needs to happen in order to save our
planet— and ourselves? By showing readers how to read between the headlines,
Fleishman teaches young readers the critical thinking skills that they will
need to give our world a brighter future. Ages 11 and up. Free admission.
Paul Theroux — Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads
Wednesday, September 30th at 7 pm.
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Paul Theroux’s long writing career has encompassed both fiction and
nonfiction and he’s produced some of the classics of travel literature,
including The Great Railway Bazaar,
chronicling his train trip from Britain to Japan, and Dark Star Safari, about his journey from Cairo to Cape Town. Other
adventures have taken him through Patagonia and China, but only now, in his
tenth travel narrative, has this award-winning writer covered the U.S.
Exploring the American South, Theroux discovers wonderful music and food, as
well as lamentable education systems and economic conditions. As he visits
fairs and churches, gun shows, and state houses, Theroux talks to everyone he
encounters and paints a vivid portrait of the place today. Free admission.
Dana Suskind, M.D.,
with Arne Duncan — Thirty Million Words:
Building a Child's Brain
Wednesday, September 30th at 7 pm
Sidwell Friends Meeting House
3825 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20016
Dr. Dana Suskind titled her book Thirty
Million Words: Building a Child's Brain based on research showing the more
words children are exposed to in their first four years, the higher their
achievement level will be on a wide range of developmental skills. With this in
mind, as well as her knowledge of brain plasticity, Dr. Suskind has formulated
ways parents can be more attentive and descriptive when talking with their
children. Dr. Suskind will be in conversation with Arne Duncan, Secretary of
Education and former chief executive officer of the Chicago public schools.
Suskind is a Chicago cochlear implant surgeon.
Student Ticket: $5; 1 Ticket: $10; 1 Book and 1 Ticket: $30; $28 for P
& P members; 1 Book and 2 Tickets: $35; $33 for P & P members
Eoin Colfer and
Oliver Jeffers — Imaginary Fred
Thursday, October 1st at 10:30 am
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Fred is an imaginary friend by nature: he becomes a companion to lonely
children, one by one, until they no longer need him. Eventually, though, Fred
begins to long for a friend who will stick around. When he meets Sam, has he
found his kindred spirit? Ages 4 – 8.
Free admission.
Anne-Marie Slaughter — Unfinished
Business: Women Men Work Family
Thursday, October 1st at 7 pm
Sixth and I Historic Synagogue
600 I St NW
Washington, DC 20001
In the July/August 2012 issue of The
Atlantic, Anne-Marie Slaughter published an article exploring “Why Women
Still Can’t Have It All.” The piece quickly drew more readers than any other in
the magazine’s history. In Unfinished
Business: Women Men Work Family, Slaughter makes a compelling case for
gender equality in the workplace and for a balance of the personal and the
professional in each working woman’s life. Slaughter is President and CEO of
New America and former director of policy planning at the State Department and
dean of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson Center.
1 Ticket: $18; 1 Book and 1 Ticket: $30; $28 for P & P members; 1
Book and 2 Tickets: $40; $38 for P & P members
Eoin Colfer and
Oliver Jeffers — Imaginary Fred
Thursday, October 1st at 7 pm
Takoma Park Library
101 Philadelphia Ave
Takoma Park, MD 20912
Fred is an imaginary friend by nature: he becomes a companion to lonely
children, one by one, until they no longer need him. Eventually, though, Fred
begins to long for a friend who will stick around. When he meets Sam, has he
found his kindred spirit? Ages 4 – 8.
Free admission.
Ian W. Toll — The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific
Islands, 1942-1944
Thursday, October 1st at 7 pm
Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
There are thousands of islands in the Pacific, and in the Second World
War, many of these were held by Japan. Pushing the Japanese back to Tokyo was
crucial to Allied success, and in his third work of military history, Ian W. Toll
draws on letters, journals, and other accounts of the time to vividly recreate
pivotal air, sea, and land battles, as well as to chart the strategic planning
by leaders of both sides. Toll is the author of Six Frigates (winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison and William E.
Colby awards) and Pacific Crucible,
Free admission.
Thursday Open Mic
hosted by DJ Tao
Thursday, October 1st, from 9 pm to 11 pm
Busboys and Poets (Hyattsville location)
5331 Baltimore Avenue
Hyattsville, MD 20781
For two hours, audiences can expect a diverse chorus of voices, and a
vast array of professional spoken word performers, open mic rookies, musicians,
and a different host every week. Expect to be moved, expect a packed house,
expect the unexpected, but above all come with an open mind and ear. $5 cover.
