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. All events are free, but please be sure to register using the links below.
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.
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 25, 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 “Is This As Good As You Can Make It?” Revision can be illuminating, but it can also be deadening: when does not good enough become not bad, when does not bad become brilliant, and when does the pursuit of brilliance become the dawn of despair? A discussion about the endless challenge to write better sentences, better scenes, better characters, better stories.
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 “Crime Fiction in the DMV: A Story of Rebellion,” 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, presents “Reading the Signs,” where she 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, 7 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.
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