Books to Help Make Giving Thanks a Habit

By Claire Handscombe
 
Thanksgiving is a chance to reflect on the good things we have and so often take for granted. Books are one thing we at The Writer's Center are thankful for—and they can, in turn, help us to cultivate an attitude of gratefulness. Here are some books that can help us keep a thankful mindset, not just on the fourth Thursday of November, but year round.

365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life, by John Kralik

In his fifties, John Kralik found himself at a low ebb in his life—personally, professionally, and financially. When he received a kind note from an ex-girlfriend thanking him for a Christmas gift, it inspired him to set himself a challenge. Every day of the following year, he would send one handwritten thank you note. To loved ones, to doctors, to past associates, to handymen. Soon after he began, he found unexpected benefits beginning to flood into life: friendship, financial gain, inner peace. Kralik chronicles for us his adventure in gratitude and inspires us to wonder how our lives might change if we took thankfulness seriously.


101 Ways to Say Thank You: Notes of Gratitude for All Occasions, by Kelly Browne

While Kralik delivers the why of thank you notes, Kelly Browne tells us how. This etiquette classic has been renewed and updated for the digital age to help us all with our gratitude manners, whatever the occasion.

What Makes You Grateful? Voices From Around the World, by Anne O. Kubitsky

In October 2011, Anne O. Kubitsky embarked on a social experiment. She placed postcards in public places—coffee shops, libraries, post offices—asking "what makes you grateful?"—encouraging people to draw or write something and return them to her. This book is a heart-warming collection of tributes to the small and not-so-small things that bring us joy.



The Book of Awesome, by Neil Pasricha

In a series of short essays about life’s simple pleasures, Neil Pasricha reminds us of the joys to be found in such things as snow days and bubble wrap, the smell of rain and new bed sheets.

The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin

The subtitle of this bestselling book is an excellent summary of its content: “Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun.” Gratitude is among the habits that the author chose to pursue with a daily one-sentence journal, “a place to record the fleeting moments that make life sweet but that so easily vanish from memory.” What if Thanksgiving became not just a once-a-year- event, but a life-changing habit?

Shop Independent Book Stores: Small Business Saturday

By Vanessa Mallory Kotz

When you’re checking off your holiday gift list this year, forget Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and think about going to  an indie bookstore in your neighborhood. 

If you haven’t ventured into the Petworth neighborhood in northwest D.C., you’re missing out. This thriving, diverse community is made up of young families just moving in, working-class folks who’ve been there for decades and millennials looking for a fun, less expensive, place to live in the city. New businesses and restaurants are popping up all over, as well as luxury condo buildings. For now (and hopefully forever), the neighborhood retains its own flavor—most of the new hotspots are independent, including Upshur Street Books, which opened just a year ago.

The 800-square-foot store is the latest venture from Paul Ruppert. The native Washingtonian has two successful restaurants on the same street, Crane & Turtle and Petworth Citizen. The latter includes a lending library and reading room in the back, where books for both children and adults line the walls and writers meet—like the Drink. Write. Read gatherings led by local author and Writer’s Center Instructor Willona Sloane. The success of Petworth Citizen may be, in part, why Ruppert became interested in starting a bookstore. “I’ve never worked in a bookstore,” he said in an interview for The Washington Post, “but I’ve always loved them. I’ve always thought of them as the focus of the cultural life in Washington and other cities.”


The store was funded with his own cash plus a Great Streets Small Business Capital Improvement grant for $80,000 and $20,000 he raised on Kickstarter by promising “the first new independent bookstore to open in Washington, D.C., in 10 years.”

Anna Thorn, general manager of Upshur Street Books, was formerly the programs manager at Politics and Prose, where she worked for four years. At P&P, she learned the nuts and bolts of the book industry. When she heard that an independent bookstore was opening up in Petworth, three blocks from her home, she was thrilled. A passionate advocate for the neighborhood’s diversity and “porch culture,” Thorn jumped at the chance to manage the new bookstore. “This was the ultimate way to create a community space,” she said.

Readings and book signings by authors of every genre are on the menu of programmatic offerings at Upshur Street, but Thorn knew that for the bookstore to thrive it had to be an integral part of community life. Author dinners, beer tastings, children’s sing-a-longs, arts and crafts sessions in Spanish, critical conversations about current events and talks about art can all be experienced in the cozy, grass-green painted space accented by warm wooden floors and shelves.

Upshur Street Books is reaching out to the writers’ community as well. Earlier this year, the store and The Writer’s Center formed a partnership—giving members of the Center a 10% discount on all purchases. They also work with 826DC, an organization that primarily offers writing workshops for children, (826dc.org). These collaborations anchor the bookstore by garnering additional support and participation from D.C.’s literary residents.

“The community shapes the stock,” Thorn said. She pays close attention to what sells and what doesn’t, making adjustments particular to her buyers. The store carries about 3,300 titles in subjects varying from young adult novels to art books, cookbooks to graphic novels, history to fiction, regional titles to poetry, handmade prints, cards, and moleskin notebooks. At the back of the store, a large children’s book section displays colorful covers and offers wooden blocks for play. Folk music gently strums in the background. Coffee and pastries from a nearby bakery are available. Friendly, funny handwritten tags point out the merits of particular titles, one warning “N.S.F.W. … but very entertaining.” 

For a list of events and happenings at Upshur Street Books, visit their Facebook page.

*Find an indie bookstore in D.C. Virginia, and Maryland.

Aphorism and Ashleigh Brilliant

By Short Flights co-editor Alex Stein  

Ahporism: a pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.”
 

Short Flights: 32 Modern Writers Share Aphorisms of Insight, Inspiration and Wit is the first anthology of modern writers of aphorism. The seed of Short Flights was planted in the 1970s when, growing up in Seattle, I would read Ashleigh Brilliant’s syndicated Pot-Shots in the comics section of The Seattle Times. Alongside The Peanuts, Beetle Bailey, and Hagar the Horrible, Brilliant’s illustrated epigrams (as short, witty aphorisms are sometimes called) stood out:  “My life has a superb cast but I can’t figure out the plot,” I would read, or: “My opinions may have changed but not the fact that I am right.”

When, a few short decades later, I determined to create this anthology with co-editor James Lough, Ashleigh Brilliant was one of the first writers I contacted. Would he be interested in contributing? 

He wrote:

Ashleigh Brilliant is my real name. But, although I am in fact a Life Member of MENSA, there is only one truly brilliant achievement to which I lay claim. I always wanted to be a writer, but early in life I became aware that the field was overcrowded. “To be sure of winning” (as one of my lines says) “invent your own game, and never tell any other player the rules.” So I invented my own writing game. I did however take the risk of proclaiming the rules—as I am about to do once again on this page. But, after a career of more than 40 years, I still seem to be the only person playing this particular game. Here, then, are the most important rules for composing the epigrams which I call Pot-Shots or Brilliant Thoughts.

The length limit is 17 words. That is a maximum. There is no minimum.

·    They must be easy to translate into other languages and easily understood in other times and places—hence no rhyme, rhythm, idioms, puns, or other kinds of word-play, also, no topical or cultural references.

• Each epigram must be as different as possible from anything known to have ever been uttered before by anyone, including myself.
• Whatever is expressed must be really worth saying and said as well as possible.
• Although illustrations may be supplied, none is required for the meaning to be appreciated.

Brilliant has ultimately produced more than 10,000 of these Pot-Shots, which have been published as books and in newspapers, as well as post-cards, tee-shirts, and coffee mugs. He is one of the most quoted living writers (“Appreciate me now, and avoid the rush.”) and one of the highest paid—per word.

Other contributors to Short Flights include Charles Simic, James Richardson, Sharon Dolin, Stephen Dobyns, and Holly Woodward. 

 

"Editors Lough and Stein prove that good things come in small packages with this collection of modern aphorisms—short but sweet nuggets of wisdom, humor, insight, and clever turn of phrase . . . something for everyone in this proverbial box of chocolates." —Publishers Weekly

Alex Stein teaches at the University of Colorado–Boulder. He is the author of two books of interviews, The Artist as Mystic: Conversations with Yahia Lababidi and Made-Up Interview with Imaginary Artists, as well as a book of aphorisms, Weird Emptiness. 

 

James Lough is a professor and graduate coordinator at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He is the author of This Ain’t No Holiday Inn: Down and Out at the Chelsea Hotel, 1980–1995. He has published more than 70 articles, short stories, and book reviews, and has served as an editor with several literary journals, including Bastard Review, Denver Quarterly, and Divide. His collection of essays, Sites of Insight won the Publications Prize from the Colorado Endowment of the Humanities, and his stories have won the 2011 America’s Got Stories Award and the Frank Waters Southwestern Writing Award for short fiction.  

 

To purchase Short Flights, visit http://www.amazon.com/Short-Flights-Thirty-Two-Aphorisms-Inspiration/dp/1936182882

Spotlight on Literary Events: November 20-26

Jesse Eisenberg - Bream Gives Me Hiccups

Friday, November 20^th at 7 pm

Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20008

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/jesse-eisenberg-bream-gives-me-hiccups

Jesse Eisenberg now adds a lively collection of short fiction to his many accomplishments, which include writing and acting in play, publishing in The New Yorker, and being nominated for an Academy Award for his role in The Social Network. As likely to take place in a college dorm as in ancient Pompeii, the stories feature a diverse cast of characters and their miscommunications, from Alexander Graham Bell frustrated in reaching someone by phone, to a couple whose email exchange is hijacked by a relative obsessed with Bosnia. Free admission.

LIVE! From Busboys Talent Showcase Open Mic hosted by Angie Head

Friday, November 20^th from 10 pm to 12 am

Busboys and Poets (Hyattsville location)

5331 Baltimore Ave

Hyattsville, MD 20781

http://busboysandpoets.com/events/2015/11/20

LIVE! from Busboys is an open mic talent showcase that offers a platform for all performers, not just poets. Whether you are a musician, comedian, dancer, actor, magician or any other type of performer, we want to see what you got! Come out and showcase your talents! $5 cover.

Serwa Kenyetta Agyeman - Rebirth of Me: Embracing the Journey

Saturday, November 21^st from 9 am to 11 am

Busboys and Poets (Hyattsville location)

5331 Baltimore Ave

Hyattsville, MD 20781

http://busboysandpoets.com/events/2015/11/21

Serwa Kenyetta knows that many women struggle with self-esteem. Sometimes knowing there are others who share your struggle gives you the encouragement to press on. Rebirth of Me: Embracing the Journey is the beginning of a new chapter in her life; committed to the motivating and providing developmental tools to assist young women to become all that they desire to be. Free admission.

Tanya Golash-Boza - Deported: Policing Immigrants, Disposable Labor and Global Capitalism

Saturday, November 21^st at 1 pm

Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20008

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/tanya-golash-boza-deported-policing-immigrants-disposable-labor-and-global-capitalism

Since 1997, the U.S. has deported five million people—double the number prior to 1996. The statistics speak for themselves—almost. The individuals behind these numbers have real lives and real stories, and in her fifth book, Tanya Golash-Boza presents details of nearly 150 deportees, the vast majority of them Latin American and Caribbean men. From this basic profile, Golash-Boza explores the wider socio-economic conditions at work, from race and employment status to a criminal justice system whose only way out for immigrants is deportation. Golash-Boza is an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Merced, author of Immigration Nation, and a contributor to media outlets including Al Jazeera and The Nation. Free admission.

Claire Vaye Watkins – Gold Fame Citrus

Saturday, November 21^st at 3:30 pm

Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20008

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/claire-vaye-watkins-gold-fame-citrus

Named one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Best Writers Under 35, Claire Vaye Watkins made a dazzling debut with the stories of Battleborn, which won the Story Prize and appeared on numerous Best of the Year lists. Her first novel is a vivid, gritty love story set in a drought-stricken southern California of the near future. While most residents of the Central Valley relocate to government camps, Luz and Ray refuse to be corralled; survivors, they rely on instinct, looting, and any means necessary to get by. Watkins will be in conversation with Annie McGreevy, author of the novella Ciao Suerte, and a senior lecturer at Ohio State. Free admission.

Youth Open Mic presented by Busboys and Poets

Saturday, November 21^st from 5 pm to 7 pm

Busboys and Poets (5^th and K location)

1025 5th St NW

Washington, DC 20001

http://busboysandpoets.com/events/2015/11/21

Youth-focused and youth-led, Youth Open Mic is a monthly series that features student poets, singers, musicians and actors from the DC/Maryland/Virginia area. Middle school and high school students are encouraged to come share their art in our supportive, progressive, artistic atmosphere. $5 cover.

James Rosen - Cheney One On One: Candid Conversations with America's Most Controversial Statesman

Saturday, November 21^st at 7 pm

Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20008

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/james-rosen-cheney-one-one-candid-conversations-americas-most-controversial-statesman

The Washington correspondent for Fox News, Rosen is an experienced journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic Monthly. He is a contributing editor at Playboy, for which he conducted an extensive series of interviews with Dick Cheney. Presented here in their entirety, these wide-ranging conversations present the former vice president’s views on domestic politics, foreign affairs, and much more. Free admission.

Victoria McKernan - Shackleton's Stowaway

Monday, November 21^st at 7 pm

Upshur Street Books

827 Upshur St NW

Washington, DC 20011

https://www.facebook.com/events/959992404039863/

This is the incredible tale of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated journey attempting to sail across the Antarctic one century ago, as told through by an 18-year-old stowaway. On October 26, 1914, Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance set sail from Buenos Aires in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in exploration: the crossing of the Antarctic continent. Within months, the Endurance, trapped and crushed by ice, sank. And even Perce, the youngest member of the stranded crew, knew there was no hope of rescue. If the men were to survive in the most hostile place on earth, they would have to do it on their own. Victoria McKernan deftly weaves the hard-to-fathom facts of this famous voyage into an epic, edge-of-your-seat survival novel. Free admission.

Nerds! Triva Night

Friday, November 21^st at 8 pm

Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20008

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/nerds-trivia-night-17

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 p.m., 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. Free admission.

Michelle Chan Brown - Motherland with Wolves & Patricia Schultheis - St. Bart’s Way

Sunday, November 22^nd at 1 pm

Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20008

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/michelle-chan-brown-motherland-wolves-patricia-schultheis-st-bart-s-way

Washington Writers Publishing House sponsors annual prizes in poetry and fiction for area writers. The 2015 Jean Feldman Award goes to Michelle Chan Brown, editor of Drunken Boat, for her second full-length collection of poems. Brown is also the author of Double Agent, honored with the 2012 Kore First Book Award, and the chapbook The Clever Decoys. Patricia Schultheis has won the WWPH fiction prize for her collection of stories. A finalist for the 2008 Flannery O’Connor Award, Schultheis has published short fiction in a wide range of literary journals; she’s also a voting member of the National Book Critics Circle and has served on the editorial boards of The Baltimore Review and Narrative magazine. Free admission.

Elisavietta Ritchie and Richard Harteis

Sunday, November 22^nd from 2 pm to 4 pm

The Writer's Center

4508 Walsh Street

Bethesda, MD 20815

https://www.writer.org/calendar?cid=1&ceid=1889&cerid=0&cdt=11%2f22%2f2015

Join us for New Beginnings, a Literary Afternoon with debut novelist Johnes Ruta, poets Tom Kirlin, Elisavietta Ritchie, Grace Cavalieri and Daniel Levanti. We'll celebrate new publications and the 2015 William Meredith Award for Poetry given to Andrew Oerke. Visual artists Deborah Curtis, Katia Jirankova and Nancy Frankel will exhibit their paintings and sculptures. The program is hosted by William Meredith Foundation President Harteis and sponsored by the William Meredith Foundation and Poets Choice. Free admission.

Victoria Kelly - When the Men Go Off To War & Sue Ellen Thompson – They

Sunday, November 22^nd at 5 pm

Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20008

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/victoria-kelly-when-men-go-to-war-sue-ellen-thompson-they

Victoria Kelly is a widely published poet whose work was selected for The Best American Poetry 2013. A U.S. Mitchell Scholar at Trinity College, Dublin and a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, Kelly is a military spouse, and her first full collection combines the emotional intensity of lyric with the momentum of narrative to convey the spectrum of hope, fear, frustration, and, most of all, the abiding love, that is the experience of a woman whose husband is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Editor of The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, a collection used in many college courses, Sue Ellen Thompson has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and has won the Samuel French Morse Prize, the Pablo Neruda Prize, and several others; in 2010 the Maryland Library Association selected her as winner of its prestigious Maryland Author Award. Her fifth book of poetry has the immediacy of headlines and the narrative depth of a novel as Thompson evokes the experience of three generations of a family coping in their different ways with the gender transition of a child. Free admission.

John Vartoukian - The Adventure Sarkis and Hagop

Sunday, November 22^nd from 5 pm to 6:30 pm

Busboys and Poets (Hyattsville location)

5331 Baltimore Ave

Hyattsville, MD 20781

http://busboysandpoets.com/events/2015/11/22

One sunny, Sunday morning Sarkis Levonian, a 50-year-old tailor heads toward the neighborhood newsstand to buy the Sunday paper as he has for the past 18 years. This time, however, he encounters 10 year-old Jack Silveri, a neighborhood friend of the family, and the Sunday papers would just have to wait. In the spirit of adventure our two unlikely heroes set out for parts unknown. The story covers a period of almost four days until local authorities and family members are able to track down the two runaways. The confrontational ending involving Sarkis, his wife, the boy's parents and the local police, pits the world of innocence and wonder against the world of adult responsibility." Free admission.

Azar Nafisi - The Republic Of Imagination: A Life in Books

Sunday, November 22^nd at 6:30 pm

Busboys and Poets (14^th & V location)

2021 14^th St, NW

Washington, D.C. 20009

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/azar-nafisi-republic-of-imagination-life-books

Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran showed how essential literature is to life in a repressive culture. Does fiction play a similar role in a free society? Arguing passionately that it does, Nafisi, a past visiting fellow at Hopkins SAIS and the author of Things I’ve Been Silent About, combines memoir with close readings of works by Twain, McCullers, and Sinclair Lewis to demonstrate fiction’s power to keep minds open and resistant to conformity. Join us for the paperback release of this tribute to great books. Free admission.

Ada Calhoun - St. Marks is Dead: the Many Lives of America's Hippest Street & Preston Lauterbach - Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis

Monday, November 23^rd at 6:30 pm

Busboys and Poets (14^th & V location)

2021 14^th St, NW

Washington, D.C. 20009

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/ada-calhoun-st-marks-dead-many-lives-of-americas-hippest-street-preston-lauterbach-beale

The stomping ground of poet Frank O’Hara, radical Emma Goldman, legendary band The Velvet Underground, and myriad other leaders, cultural figures, and vivid personalities, St. Marks Place has fostered one avant-garde after another. Calhoun, a native of this distinctive slice of Manhattan, is a journalist who has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, The New York Post, and other publications; for this vivid history of a legendary neighborhood she has interviewed a wide range of St. Marks’s denizens, combed archives, and gathered telling images and many stories.

From the end of the Civil War through the 1940s, Beale Street was the center of cultural, political, and criminal life in Memphis. Lauterbach, whose first book, The Chitlin’ Circuit, chronicled the rise of rock-and-roll as a history of black juke joints, tells Beale Street’s lively story by following some of its most colorful characters, including W.C. Handy, “Father of the Blues,” the political boss, E.H. Crump, activist and journalist Ida B. Wells, and Robert Church, the South’s first black millionaire. Free admission.

An Evening of Independent Fiction with Curbside Splendor

Monday, November 23rd 6:30 pm

Kramerbooks

1517 Connecticut Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20036

http://kramers.com/evening-independent-fiction-curbside-splendor

Curbside Splendor was conceived as a punk rock band in the early 1990s in an apartment in Urbana, Illinois. The band never really went anywhere, but Curbside was re-founded as an independent press in the fall of 2009. They publish fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry that celebrate art, urban life, and extraordinary voices. Three authors will read from their work. Free admission.

Alexander Wolff - The Audacity of Hoop: Basketball and the Age of Obama

Monday, November 23^rd at 7 pm

Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20008

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/alexander-wolff-audacity-of-hoop-basketball-and-age-of-obama

In this unique analysis of Obama’s presidency, Alexander Wolff, a Sports Illustrated senior writer and the author of Big Game, Small World, studies how the Chief Executive plays basketball. Wolff uses Obama’s on-court technique as a key to understanding how he leads the nation. With photos of the president in pick-up games, a detailed “Baracketology,” and timelines showing the parallel developments in Obama’s political and athletic styles, this book is a tribute to how sports can build character. Free admission.

Mary-Louise Parker – Dear Mr. You

Monday, November 23^rd at 7 pm

Sixth and I Historic Synagogue

600 I St NW

Washington, DC 20001

https://www.sixthandi.org/event/mary-louise-parker/

Dear Mr. You renders the singular arc of a woman’s life through letters Mary-Louise Parker composes to the men, real and hypothetical, who have informed the person she is today. The literary debut from the award-winning actress is as unconventional in its form as in its telling. Parker writes to a co-worker in a loincloth at her co-op; to a taxi driver she screamed at during a dark period; to the orderly assigned to her after the birth of her son; to the grandfather she never knew; to the uncle of the infant daughter she adopted, and the future man who will love that daughter. Her letters reveal the complexity and power to be found in relationships both loving and fraught. Parker’s writing has appeared in Esquire, The Riveter, Bust, and The Bullet. In conversation with David Plotz. CEO of Atlas Obscura and former Editor of Slate. Free admission. Book signing to follow.

1 ticket: $18; 1 ticket + 1 book: $28; 2 tickets + 1 book: $35

Monday Night Open Mic Poetry
Monday, November 23^rd from 8 pm to 10 pm
Busboys and Poets (Shirlington location)
4251 South Campbell Avenue
Arlington, VA 22206
http://busboysandpoets.com/events/2015/11/23

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.

Monday Night Open Mic hosted by Drew Law
Monday, November 23^rd from 9 pm to 11 pm
Busboys and Poets (Brookland location)
625 Monroe St. NE
Washington, D.C. 20017 

http://busboysandpoets.com/events/2015/11/23

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.

Making the Case: Critics on Literature

Tuesday, November 24^th at 12 pm

Library of Congress

Thomas Jefferson Building (Whittall Pavilion – Ground Floor)

101 Independence Ave SE

Washington, DC 20540

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/events/index.html#nov24

The launch of a new series with the National Book Critics Circle, poet and critic Stephen Burt will give a lecture titled “The Poem Is You.” This event is free and open to the public. Book sales and signing to follow. Free admission.

David Black – Fast Shuffle

Tuesday, November 24^th at 6:30 pm

Busboys and Poets (14^th & V location)

2021 14^th St, NW

Washington, D.C. 20009

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/david-black-fast-shuffle

For his third work of fiction, David Black has created a modern version of Don Quixote, the man who was so enchanted with tales of knights that he thought he was one. Black’s Quixote is Harry, who sells cars for a living but acts like he’s a 1940s private eye. When he claims to have discovered a cache of bank documents indicating foul play involving a woman who has disappeared, who can say whether he’s on to a real crime? Black will be in conversation with James Grady, author of Six Days of the Condor and Last Days of the Condor. Free admission.

Forrest Pritchard - Growing Tomorrow: A Farm-To-Table Journey in Photos and Recipes behind the Scenes with 18 Extraordinary Sustainable Farmers Who Are Changing the Way we Eat

Tuesday, November 24^th at 6:30 pm

Busboys and Poets (Takoma location)

235 Carroll St. NW

Washington, D.C. 20012

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/forrest-pritchard-growing-tomorrow-farm-to-table-journey-photos-and-recipes-behind-scenes

Pritchard’s Gaining Ground told the spirited story of how he took over his family’s struggling farm. Now a full-time organic farmer, Pritchard regularly speaks, writes, and blogs on “I Support Farmers’ Markets,” about running Smith Meadows, one of the nation’s first sustainable, free-range enterprises. His new book travels throughout the country, celebrating the lives and work of eighteen people who have made invaluable contributions to this eco-friendly food movement; here are their visions, their challenges—their recipes. Free admission. 

David Baldacci – The Guilty

Tuesday, November 24^th at 7 pm

Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20008

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/david-baldacci-guilty

Starting with The Innocent, Will Robie staked his claim as one of the most coldly efficient professional killers any government could have on retainer. On his fourth international mission, however, Robie chokes. He can’t pull the trigger. To go forward, Robie must go back—back to the Mississippi town he escaped after high school. There he finds his estranged father accused of murder, and to resolve his own issues, he has to solve his father’s case. In this deft thriller, Baldacci tells a rich tale of psychological suspense. Free admission.

Gabe Klein – Start-Up City

Wednesday, November 24^th at 7 pm

Upshur Street Books

827 Upshur St NW

Washington, DC 20011

https://www.facebook.com/events/1677855452430829/

Join the clever and delightful Gabe Klein, author of Start-Up City, for an exciting discussion of urban trends in business, transportation and more - including some happening now and some we may see in the near future. With the advent of self-driving vehicles and other technological shifts upon us, Gabe Klein asks how we can close the gap between the energized, aggressive world of start-ups and the complex bureaucracies struggling to change beyond a geologic time scale. From his experience as a food-truck entrepreneur to a ZipCar executive and a city transportation commissioner, Klein’s career has focused on bridging the public-private divide, finding and celebrating shared goals, and forging better cities with more nimble, consumer-oriented bureaucracies. This book is for anyone who wants to change the way we live in cities without waiting for the glacial pace of change in government.  Free admission.

Beltway Poetry Slam

Tuesday, November 24^th from 8 pm to 10 pm

Busboys and Poets (Brookland location)

625 Monroe St. NE

Washington, D.C. 20017

http://busboysandpoets.com/events/2015/11/24

Each open slam will be two rounds. Standard rules apply (3 minutes, own work, no props, etc). The first round will have a maximum of twelve poets and the order will be by random draw. The top eight poets from the first round will move on to the second round and the order will be high to low from the first round. The two poets with the highest cumulative scores will move on to semi-finals (see below). $5 cover.

Tuesday Night Open Mic Hosted by Drew Anderson

Tuesday, November 24^th from 9 pm to 11 pm

Busboys and Poets (Takoma location)

235 Carroll St. NW

Washington, D.C. 20012

http://busboysandpoets.com/events/2015/11/24

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.

Tuesday Night Open Mic Hosted by Gowri K

Tuesday, November 24^th from 9 pm to 11 pm

Busboys and Poets (14^th & V location)

2021 14^th St, NW

Washington, D.C. 20009

http://busboysandpoets.com/events/2015/11/24

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.

 

Wednesday Night Open Mic Hosted By Dwayne B

Wednesday, November 25^th from 9 pm to 11 pm

Busboys and Poets (5^th and K location)

1025 5th St NW

Washington, DC 20001

http://busboysandpoets.com/events/2015/11/25

                                                                                                             

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.