DC Reads

A City-Wide Conversation with DC Writers

DC Reads is an annual series of workshops, book clubs, and one signature panel discussion with noted authors. Held in partnership with the DC Public Library, DC Reads fosters thoughtful conversations about fiction, builds community, and celebrates local writers. This year’s titles and authors are When She Left by E.A. Aymar, Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma, and Absolution by Alice McDermott.

For each selection, the DC Public Library will host a virtual book club, and each author will lead a two-hour session for community members at a DCPL branch library. Dates and locations for those events will be shared as soon as they are available.

DC Reads will culminate in a panel discussion featuring all three authors on Thursday, March 20 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. This conversation will be moderated by Hannah Oliver Depp, co-owner of Loyalty Bookstores. Afterwards, the authors will stay for a book signing.

REGISTRATION NOT CURRENTLY OPEN

Wednesday, Jan 15, 2025, 7 PM

DCPL hosts a virtual book club discussion of PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, Absolution, a shimmering novel about American women on the margins of the Vietnam War, complicity, and regret. 

All are welcome. Please bring your questions and curiosity!

Tuesday, Feb 4, 2025, 6:30 PM  |  Cleveland Park Library, 3310 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20008

Alice McDermott, author of PEN/Faulkner Award finalist Absolution, leads a creative writing workshop at Cleveland Park Library.

Wednesday, Feb 12, 2025, 7 PM

DCPL hosts a virtual book club discussion of When She Left, a cinematic thriller about a young couple on the run from a powerful criminal family—and the reluctant assassin hunting them down.

Join the conversation, and connect with other readers!

Thursday, Feb 20, 2025, 6:30 PM  |  Southwest Library, 900 Wesley Place SW, Washington, DC 20024

E.A. Aymar, author of When She Left, presents a history of crime fiction in the DMV, highlighting the local writers who used fiction to take a stand against forces that often seemed too powerful to resist, and whose work reached beyond our borders to find a global audience. He will be accompanied by celebrated jazz singer Sara Jones, who will provide musical interludes from each of the eras highlighted during the presentation.

Wednesday, Mar 12, 2025, 7 PM

DCPL hosts a virtual book club discussion of Casualties of Truth, a sweeping, incisive novel set between Washington, DC and Johannesburg, South Africa exploring vengeance, justice, and memory.

Read a great book, and join a rich conversation!

Thursday, Mar 13, 2025, 6:30 PM  |  Capitol View Library, 5001 Central Ave SE, Washington, DC 20019

Lauren Francis-Sharma, author of Casualties of Truth, traces her journey from lawyer to novelist, and explores how one of her book’s themes–South African Apartheid–provides insight into our current political divide.

Thursday, Mar 20, 2025, time TBD PM  |  Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, 901 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001

DC Reads will culminate in a panel discussion featuring all three authors on Thursday, March 20 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. This conversation will be moderated by Hannah Oliver Depp, co-owner of Loyalty Bookstores. Afterwards, the authors will stay for a book signing.

In 2023-24, DC Reads focused on authors Karin Tanabe (The Sunset Crowd), Tania James (Loot), and Morowa Yejidé (Creatures of Passage).

At the panel discussion in February, recorded live and archived here, moderator Lauren Francis-Sharma led Tanabe and James in a conversation about the inspirations for their historical novels, research, and the craft of grounding their stories in a particular time and place.

Our thanks to Shreve Williams Public Relations for making PEN/Faulkner’s participation possible.

A Celebration for Everyone Who Writes and Reads in the DC Region

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