Readings and Lectures

BORDERS BOOKSTORES

Various locations
borders.com

Chelsea Handler — Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (3/27, 18th & L Streets NW)
Lloyd Constantine — In Journal of the Plague Year, this senior advisor to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer offers an intimate account of the revelations that brought about Spitzer’s resignation (4/14, 18th & L Streets NW)
Jennifer Gilmore — The powerful and engaging novel Something Red is about a Jewish-American family in D.C. in 1979 (4/18, Baileys Crossroads)
Sarah Silverman — The Bedwetter (4/22, 18th & L Streets NW)
Rosalynn Carter — In Within Our Reach, the former first lady and coauthor Susan Golant render an insightful, unsparing assessment of the state of mental health (5/5, Baileys Crossroads)
Dave Barry — I’ll Mature When I’m Dead (5/6, 18th & L Streets NW)
Kirk Franklin — The seven-time Grammy Award-winning artist offers powerful, streetwise advice for building a fulfilling life in the face of adversity in The Blueprint (5/19, Largo)

FOLGER

201 East Capitol St. SE
202-544-7077
folger.edu

E.L. Doctorow & Ivy Meeropol — The novelist Doctorow and documentary filmmaker Meeropol, granddaughter of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, discuss their respective treatments in novel and film of the Rosenberg affair and its aftermath (3/15, Washington DCJCC)
Walter Mosley — The mystery writer and recipient of PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award reads from The Long Fall (3/26)
Ian McEwan — In one of only four scheduled U.S. appearances, the author of Atonement reads from his forthcoming novel, Solar (4/7)
Vendela Vida and Heidi Julavits — The authors and co-editors of The Believer magazine, published by McSweeney’s, read from new works of fiction and discuss the magazine (4/12)
James Shapiro — The Shakespeare scholar reads from and discusses his new book, Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (4/16)
Isabel Allende — An evening of readings and conversation with the Chilean-American author of The House of Spirits and The Sum of Our Days (4/30, Washington National Cathedral)
W.S. Merwin — The poet of The Lice and The Carrier of Ladders reads from his latest collection about the power of memory, The Shadow of Sirius, for which he received the 2009 Pulitzer Prize (5/3)
30th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony — A celebration of literary excellence, featuring readings by this year’s finalists: Sherman Alexie for War Dances, Barbara Kingsolver for The Lacuna, Lorraine M. López for Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories, Lorrie Moore for A Gate at the Stairs and Colson Whitehead for Sag Harbor (5/8)
Richard Wilbur — This Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate reads from his body of work (5/18)

LISNER AUDITORIUM AT GWU

730 21st St. NW
202-994-6800
lisner.org

Alexander McCall Smith — Best-selling author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the Zimbabwean-Scottish author is commonly called the new P.G. Wodehouse (4/24)
Poetry Out Loud — A National Endowment for the Arts & Poetry Foundation event (4/26-27)
Laura Bush — At this Smithsonian Resident Associates Program, the former First Lady speaks about her life story, as documented in Laura Bush: Spoken from the Heart (5/6)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE!

Grosvenor Auditorium
1600 M St. NW
202-857-7700
nglive.org

Rare: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species — Veteran photographer Joel Sartore’s new National Geographic book offers 80 images of threatened life forms and discusses the Endangered Species Act (4/20)
An Evening with Pico Iyer — National Geographic Traveler’s Don George interviews Iyer, author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction focused on globalism and the new age of travel, for a wide-ranging discussion (4/29)

POLITICS AND PROSE

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
202-364-1919
politics-prose.com

Annie Leonard — The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities and Our Health – and a Vision for Change (3/14)
Michael Lewis — Lewis presents how and why the American economy has tanked in The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, which he discusses with The Washington Post’s Joel Achenbach (3/18)
David Maraniss — Into the Story: A Writer’s Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss (3/19)
Nell Irvin Painter — The History of White People (3/23)
Martha Nussbaum — The University of Chicago professor presents a passionate case for sexual freedom, especially same-sex relationships, in Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame and the Law (3/25)
Nicholas Schou — Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World (4/3)
John McPhee — Silk Parachute collects prose published in The New Yorker, where McPhee is a staff writer (4/12)
Bill McKibben — One of the earliest to warn about global warming, McKibben now sees a need for fundamental change, which he lays out in Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (4/14)
Jennifer Gilmore — The powerful and engaging novel Something Red is about a Jewish-American family in D.C. in 1979 (4/15)
Roger Lowenstein — The renowned business journalist traces the roots of the mortgage bubble and the story of the economy’s collapse and government’s response in The End of Wall Street (4/20)
Jeff Shesol — The Washington Post’s EJ Dionne moderates a conversation with the author about his new book, Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court (4/22)
Chester Hartman and Gregory D. Squires — The Integration Debate: Competing Futures for American Cities (4/25)
Andrew Young and Kabir Seghal — Walk in My Shoes: Conversations between a Civil Rights Legend and His Godson on the Journey Ahead (4/29)

SIXTH & I HISTORIC SYNAGOGUE

600 I St. NW
202-408-3100
sixthandi.org

Etgar Keret — This Israeli writer and filmmaker will speak with The New Republic’s Franklin Foer about moving between literature and film, as well as the differences between Israeli and American humor, to be followed by a book signing (4/7)
Yann Martel — Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for The Life of Pi, Martel returns with an equally whimsical and philosophical novel, Beatrice and Virgil (4/14)
Ayelet Waldman — In Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace, Waldman encourages mothers to cut themselves some slack (5/12)

THE WRITER’S CENTER

4508 Walsh St.
Bethesda
301-654-8664
writer.org

Katie Bowler and John Murillo — Bowler reads from State Street and Murillo reads from Up Jump the Boogie (3/14)
Kathleen Flenniken and Anthony Varallo — At this Emerging Writers’ Series event, Flenniken reads from her first book of poetry, Famous, and Varallo reads from his collection of short stories Out Loud (3/19)
33rd Birthday Celebration with Pagan Kennedy and Carolyn Forché — These two authors will take part in a birthday celebration for the center (3/21)
Collin Kelley and Susan Tichy — Novelist Kelley reads from Conquering Venus, and Tichy reads from Gallowglass, her forthcoming collection of poems (3/28)
Tom Healy and John Koethe — The poet Healy reads from What The Right Hand Knows and Koethe reads from Ninety-fifth Street (4/18)
Sarah Blake and Dominique Paul — Novelist Blake reads from The Postmistress and Paul reads from her book The Possibility of Fireflies (4/26)
Geraldine Connolly and Grace Cavalleri — Connolly reads from her new collection of poems Hand of the Wind and Cavalieri reads from Sounds Like Something I Would Say (5/2)
Special Mother’s Day Celebration with Susan Shreve and Barbara Graham — Shreve and Graham compiled the anthology Eye of My Heart, in which 27 writers reveal the pleasures and perils of being a grandmother (5/9)
Ann McLaughling and Myra Sklarew — Novelist McLaughlin reads from Leaving Bayberry House and Sklarew reads from Harmless, her new collection of poems (5/16)
William Archila and Allison Amend — At this Emerging Writers’ Series event, poet Archila reads from The Art of Exile and Amend from Stations West (5/20)
Ramola D. and Dan Gutstein — D. reads from her short-stories collection Temporary Lives and Gutstein reads from non/fiction, a collection of fiction, memoir and poetry (5/23)
M.L. Liebler and Cliff Bernier — Poet and performance artist Liebler reads from Wide Awake on Someone Else’s Dream and Bernier reads from his most recent poetry chapbook Earth Suite (6/6)
Nicole Cooley and Dawn Potter — At this Emerging Writers’ Series event, poet Cooley reads from Breach and Potter reads from Tracing Paradise: Two Years in Harmony with John Milton (6/17)