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Politics & Prose

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Politics and Prose is a beloved and award-winning staple for book lovers around the nation's capital and the world. So Many Books, So Little Time.

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Upcoming Events

Nov14
Author EventWashington, DC

Saira Mohamed — What a Country Owes Its Soldiers - with Darin Johnson — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Saturday, November 14, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

A clarion call to recognize soldiers' rights, arguing that volunteering to fight and die for one's country does not mean consenting to exploitation in the process.American leaders endlessly profess their admiration for military service members. But these effusive declarations hardly comport with reality. Soldiers receive shoddy equipment and inadequate medical care; they are ordered to commit crimes and deployed to illegal wars. Such treatment is rarely recognized for what it is: a violation of the duty owed to soldiers by their government. When American service members are injured or killed during training, for example, they and their families are barred from suing the military for negligence or malfeasance. And when the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib came to light, the subsequent proceedings focused just on low-ranking perpetrators. The psychological harm done to the soldiers themselves by commanders who ordered them to commit torture in the first place went unacknowledged.Examining statutes, treaties, court cases, and congressional hearings, Saira Mohamed shows how the law encourages the treatment of soldiers as mere instruments, to be used and abused however the government wishes. She also unearths overlooked laws that point in the other direction, suggesting the possibility of robust protections for service members. Paradoxically, these get ignored in part because of the popular adulation of the military--the vision of service members as heroes who selflessly endure unlimited sacrifice. The all-volunteer nature of the force also promotes the misguided notion that soldiers have willingly accepted whatever mistreatment they might endure.What a Country Owes Its Soldiers shows how laws and mindsets can change, enabling genuine respect for soldiers' humanity. Acknowledging their rights can transform our understanding of those who fight America's wars, and of American warmaking itself.Saira Mohamed is Agnes Roddy Robb Chair in Jurisprudence, Ethics, and Social Responsibility and Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.Mohamed will be joined in conversation with Darin Johnson, who has served in the Pentagon, State Department, and White House. He is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School. A professor of law at Howard University, he is a scholar and commentator on international law, national security, foreign affairs, and human rights. He is the author of Digital Coup: The Conspiracy to Thwart Global Democracy (Broadleaf Books 2026). He lives in Washington, DC.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov15
Author EventWashington, DC

D.C. Frost — A Shadow of Jaguars (Detective DJ Arias Mystery #2) / Melanie S. Hatter — All the Pain We Endure - with Saul Gonzalez — at Conn Ave

3:00 PM • Sunday, November 15, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

A Shadow of JaguarsA Shadow of Jaguars by D.C. Frost is a gripping cross-border noir thriller that follows Detective DJ Arias as he navigates murder, Hollywood intrigue, and immigrant struggles across Mexico City and Los Angeles, blending fast-paced suspense and richly drawn characters.In Mexico City for a family funeral, Detective DJ Arias encounters a group of Robin Hood-style thieves who call themselves the Jaguars. Their activities reach across the border into Los Angeles with a Hollywood murder that entangles LA's elite and the nannies, housekeepers, and gardeners who serve them, and threatens DJ's own loved ones. A sequel to the mystery A Punishing Breed, A Shadow of Jaguars finds DJ and partner Bobby Talbot struggling to untangle a murder where Hollywood, wealthy powerbrokers, and an immigrant population struggle to coexist and survive. Throughout it all, his faithful dog Evidence is by his side.-All the Pain We EndureSet in Washington, D.C., All the Pain We Endure follows Raebelle “Rae” Johnson, a biracial massage therapist with an extraordinary ability to glimpse the pain carried by others—but who struggles to confront her own. Haunted by a volatile relationship with her father, Rae finds herself drawn to Kai, a martial artist with his own troubled past. As family tensions and buried wounds resurface, Rae must confront the ways trauma travels across generations and decide whether the pain she has inherited will define her future. Blending psychological realism with an imaginative exploration of empathy, Hatter's novel asks how we break cycles of suffering without losing our capacity for love and connection.-D.C. Frost is a second-generation Angeleno whose debut novel, A Punishing Breed (2024), was reviewed by The New York Times. She has also published several literary short stories in journals including Westwind, UCLA's literary magazine. Before turning to writing full-time, DC had a long career in nonprofit fundraising. She draws inspiration from Southern California's rich blend of class, culture, and natural beauty. Frost lives in Los Angeles with her husband and a pack of rescue dogs.Melanie S. Hatter is the author of Malawi’s Sisters, which was selected by Edwidge Danticat as the winner of the inaugural Kimbilio National Fiction Prize and published by Four Way Books in 2019. Her debut novel, The Color of My Soul, won the 2011 Washington Writers’ Publishing House Fiction Prize, and Let No One Weep for Me, Stories of Love and Loss was released in 2015. Melanie was a licensed massage therapist for fourteen years and currently serves on the Development team at My Sister’s Place, the first domestic violence shelter in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the writing faculty of New Directions in Writing training program and serves on the board of the Washington Writers’ Publishing House. When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time in nature with her dog, Roo.Frost and Hatter will be in conversation with Saul Gonzalez, a veteran television, radio, podcast host, reporter and producer covering local, national and international topics. Winner of multiple Emmy awards, RTNA Golden Mikes, and other journalism honors. Saul was the Los Angeles Radio Reporter of the Year two years in a row by the Los Angeles Press Club.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov15
Author EventWashington, DC

Judith Bowles — They Spoke of the River - with David Keplinger — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Sunday, November 15, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Drawing from narrative traditions and influences such as Mary Oliver and James Wright—two beloved poets of Ohio—as well as the ghazals of Rumi and the plain-spoken wisdom of Robert Frost and William Stafford, poet Judith Bowles traces back the voices and oral histories of her Ohio roots, following the river of their words. Her third collection of poetry, They Spoke of the River is less memoir-in-verse than reliquary of the American experience, one which uses history, childhood, marriage, and elegy as rite and container. In the manner of Thornton Wilder’s stage manager in Our Town, here the past, present, and future fold over each other, as Bowles offers tough attention, all culminating in a volume that feels a bit like myth, a bit like news, and a bit like the dream of a life, experienced by one Ohioan, whose whole vocation has been this act of listening.Judith Bowles is the author of two earlier collections of poetry, The Gatherer (2014) and Unlocatable Source (2019). She has been a resident at Bloedel Reserve, Breadloaf, and the Kenyon Summer Writers Retreat, and she earned her MFA in Creative Writing from American University in 1986, studying under poet Myra Sklarew and novelist Kermit Moyer, later teaching creative writing in the department of English. From 1978 until 1985 Bowles was the poetry program director of the then Iona House, producing three anthologies featuring the work of participants. Her poetry has appeared in Gargoyle, Innisfree Journal of Poetry, Ekphrastic Review, Delmarva Review, and other journals.Bowles will be in conversation with David Keplinger, poet, translator, professor, and certified teacher of mindfulness.David is the author of Ice (Milkweed Editions, 2023) and seven other collections of poetry, including The World to Come (Conduit Books, 2021), winner of the 2020 Minds on Fire Prize and Another City (Milkweed Editions, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 UNT Rilke Prize. He has taught at American University in Washington, D.C. since 2007.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov16
Author EventWashington, DC

Simon Sebag Montefiore — The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East - With James Kirchick — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Monday, November 16, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

An essential guide to the making of the modern Middle East from 1900 to the present: a spellbinding history by the New York Times bestselling author of Jerusalem and The RomanovsRenowned historian Simon Sebag Montefiore wades into the ideological battles and geopolitical tensions of the Middle East with a comprehensive and nuanced chronicle that situates the region in the context of its last one hundred and twenty-five years.Few understand the real history of the Middle East; fewer still understand its variety and cosmopolitanism, its complexity and interconnectedness. The Cauldron is a fresh and unique survey of the region in all its diversity. Taking the reader on a spectacular journey from the Ottoman sultanate to the Trump presidency, from Morocco to Iran, this is a dazzling panorama of faith and fanaticism, creativity and tolerance, dictatorship and democracy brought to life by an extraordinary cast of kings, warriors, poets, terrorists, and peacemakers.With his signature style of voice-driven history that made Jerusalem a national bestseller, Montefiore reveals a stunning portrait of the world we have inherited and interrogates the prevailing historical narratives. This is the essential story of how the Middle East of 1900 led to the Middle East of today—and tomorrow.Simon Sebag Montefiore is a historian whose bestselling books have been published in forty-eight languages and won numerous awards, including the Costa Biography Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His books include Catherine the Great and Potemkin; Stalin; Young Stalin; Jerusalem; The Romanovs; The World; and the acclaimed Moscow Trilogy of novels, as well as Written in History and Voices of History. He received his Ph.D. from Cambridge, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in London.Sebag Montefiore will be in conversation with James Kirchick, a journalist and the New York Times-bestselling author of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington and The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age. A contributing writer for The Atlantic, a writer at large for Air Mail, and a columnist for Commentary, he has reported from over 40 countries and his writing has appeared in many publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov17
Author EventWashington, DC

Omekongo Dibinga, PhD — Trigger Words: How Political Language Has Made America Less Inclusive (And How to Bring Us Back Together) - with Dr. Nola Haynes — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Tuesday, November 17, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Trigger Words examines how language in the United States has been manipulated and politicized to sow division and dehumanization, rather than to encourage inclusion and equity. From “woke” to “DEI” to “CRT,” words that once emerged from marginalized communities to speak truth to power have been weaponized by conservative movements—especially the MAGA wing of the Republican Party—to stoke fear, shut down dialogue, and preserve systems of oppression. At the same time, however, language has been coopted by many in liberal spaces in watered-down ways that remove the overall message that was intended to be communicated by said language, such as switching terminology from “homeless” to “unhoused,” “African American” to “BIPOC,” or “Latino” to “Latinx.”This incisive and thoughtful look at how our language has been dangerously politicized by both sides of the aisle is not just a diagnosis—it is a roadmap. With experience as a university lecturer, community activist, award-winning poet, renown professional speaker, and author (Lies About Black People), Dr. Omekongo Dibinga charts a path forward to reclaim and reframe these terms in their original contexts and intent. Trigger Words is an urgent and hopeful call to action that shows that healing begins when we stop simply repeating these words like ideological mantras or rejecting them out of political fear. Instead, the book invites readers to understand the deeper histories behind our most loaded social vocabulary, challenge manipulation and misuse, and foster authentic dialogue that connects rather than divides.Dr. Omekongo Dibinga’s life has been devoted to challenging bias and smashing stereotypes for over 30 years since first getting involved as a community activist. Dr. Dibinga is Senior Professorial Lecturer of Intercultural Communication at American University. He is an award-winning poet and a world renown professional speaker working with corporations and school districts across the world on leveraging diversity. His undergraduate and doctoral work has centered around issues facing the Black community not only in America but across the globe, which has led Dr. Dibinga to live and work in almost 30 countries. Dr. Dibinga earned his Ph.D. in International Education Policy at The University of Maryland (UMD) where his dissertation centered on post-Civil Rights Era Black youth. He also worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Teaching Diverse Students Initiative” and provides leadership, educational and diversity empowerment as a consultant and motivational speaker for organizations, associations, and institutions around the world. He lives in Maryland.Dr. Dibinga will be in conversation with Dr. Nola Haynes, a formidable political voice, media presence, and national security expert redefining influence in the new media age. Now signed to a two-year contract with Find Out Media as the podcast host of Nola Haynes Is Not A Spy and as a DC Capitol Hill expert Correspondent, Dr. Haynes will cement her voice as a foreign policy and national security thought leader. With years of on-air experience across major networks, including NBC, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, Al Jazeera, Voice of America and as a weekly guest on Roland Martin Unfiltered and occasional guest co-host on the Reecie Colbert Show on Sirius XM, Urban Views. Dr. Haynes is trusted for her clarity, credibility, and command of complex issues.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov18
Author EventWashington, DC

Emily Galvin Almanza - Andromeda Diaz and the Reasonable Doubt - At Conn Ave

10:30 AM • Wednesday, November 18, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

About the Book: Andromeda Diaz knows a thing or two about fighting injustice--after all, she's the daughter of two public defenders. Andy just never anticipated putting her skills to the test in her fifth-grade class! But when she hears that popular classmate Benji Jones is suspended for stealing, something that just doesn't sound like him, Andromeda decides to investigate, especially when she hears that school officials have decided to take this matter to the District Attorney.Together with her best friend Danny, Andromeda revisits the events leading up to the theft, interviewing witnesses, finding holes in the evidence, and coming up with alternative theories for why Benji was accused. Unfortunately, school officials are convinced Benji is the culprit and changing their minds is going to be a challenge. Finding undeniable proof might be more than two fifth graders can handle. But one innocent kid's future lies in the balance....Emily Galvin Almanza has written an exciting, empowering novel that shows readers the importance of fighting for justice, no matter how young you are. Plus don't miss the scrumptious recipe for Andromeda's cuñapes (a beloved Bolivian snack bread)!About the Author: Emily Galvin Almanza is the co-founder and executive director of Partners for Justice, a nonprofit creating a new collaborative model of public defense designed to empower defenders nationwide. Prior to founding PFJ, Emily fought for clients inside the LA County Public Defender, Santa Clara County Public Defender, and Bronx Defenders, and with the Stanford Three Strikes Project. Galvin Almanza is the author of The Price of Mercy, and her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, and Time, among others.Ages 8-12

Nov18
Author EventWashington, DC

Jordan Fontheim — The Boy Who Vanished: A Holocaust Survival Story - with David Litt — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Wednesday, November 18, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

The incredible true account of a young Jewish student who, in a desperate gambit to escape the Nazis, went underground in his hometown of Berlin, posing as an Aryan with another young escapee—a harrowing ordeal that he would miraculously escape not only with his life, but also with a love that would last a lifetime.In 1933, the year that Hitler seized power in Germany, Ernest Fontheim was a bookish and playful 11-year-old, leading a charmed existence in Berlin with his assimilated upper-class Jewish family. In less than a decade, the Fontheims’ fortunes irrevocably changed: By 1941, Ernest’s father had been stripped of his law license, their luxurious apartment had been usurped by a Nazi official, and Ernest, now 19, had been forced into labor at the Siemens munitions factory. First his girlfriend, then his best friend, and then his entire immediate family were “deported to the East,” sent to fates unknown.Finally, in desperation, Ernest approached his friend at Siemens, the charming Margot Hass, with a plan: along with her parents, they would go underground, posing as an Aryan family in order to avoid the roundups. Ernest and the Hasses soon joined the ranks of the roughly 6,500 Berlin Jews who went into hiding after deportations to the camps began. Most of the invisibles were caught within the first few weeks or months. But incredibly, this little group—joined by fate and by choice—would survive not only the terror of the war but also the chaos of its aftermath, when Ernest found himself facing death on numerous occasions at the hands of their Soviet liberators.An instant classic, The Boy Who Vanished is the stunning tale of a young man’s struggle to hold onto his humanity in a country gone mad—and his unlikely triumph over the forces of darkness.Jordan Fontheim, Ernest’s grandson, is a senior consultant in the healthcare industry and an active member of the Jewish community of Washington, DC — where he was born and raised. Deeply involved in Jewish culture throughout his life, he grew up hearing his family’s survival story and joined the project to carry his grandfather’s legacy into print for the next generation. A book more than 80 years in the making, Jordan spent over four years carefully and lovingly editing the text for publication. He is a graduate of the Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School (fka JPDS; Washington, DC) and the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (Rockville, MD),. He holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Rochester, where he was member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) Jewish fraternity, and both an M.B.A. and an M.H.A. from Tulane University. He currently resides in Washington, DC with his wife.Fontheim will be in conversation with David Litt,a New York Times bestselling author of "Thanks, Obama," "Democracy in One Book or Less," and "It's Only Drowning," as a well as a semi-finalist for the James Thurber Prize for American Humor. A former senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama, he was described as “the comic muse for the president” for his work on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. His freelance work also appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, TIME, and The Guardian, among others, and he served as a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. He has appeared frequently on CNN and MSNOW, very occasionally on Fox, and has exactly once on Newsmax. This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov19
Author EventWashington, DC

Dr. Brandie Smith — In the Company of Pandas: My Life with the World's Favorite Bear - with Annalisa Meyer — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Thursday, November 19, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Spend time in the company of giant pandas with this delightful collection of stories and first-person insights about their behavior, biology, and conservation from panda expert Dr. Brandie Smith, director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.What is it about giant pandas that makes them nearly impossible to resist? Brandie Smith, director of the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, and a true expert in giant pandas, gives readers a front-row seat to these miracles of nature, these bamboo-devouring carnivores, describing what it’s like to feed them, train them, cherish them, and help them survive.Pandas, like people, have strong individual personalities, quirks, habits, likes, and dislikes. Through Smith’s eyes, we get to meet several generations of pandas who have called the National Zoo home. Smith addresses many misconceptions about giant pandas, revealing surprising truths about their biology, evolution, and the challenges involved with taking care of them. Giant pandas have a unique reproductive style that has worked perfectly for millions of years in the wild but has made it challenging for them to respond to climate change and habitat destruction, and makes propagating them in zoos extremely difficult.With chapters on raising baby pandas, the diplomacy involved in exchanging pandas with China, and the ongoing quest to keep giant pandas from going extinct, In the Company of Pandas is the ultimate guide to these irresistible creatures and why we love them, written by one of the world’s leading experts.Dr. Brandie Smith is the director of the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute at the Smithsonian Institution. With decades of experience in animal care, conservation, and zoo management, she has overseen critical breeding programs for endangered species and has personally witnessed some of the most dramatic moments in panda conservation history, including multiple births and rescue operations at one of America’s premier zoological institutions. Originally from Indiana, Pennsylvania, she grew up around animals and began her professional career as an intern at the Pittsburgh Zoo and the National Zoo. Dr. Smith will be in conversation with Annalisa Meyer, Director of Brand Management and Communications at Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. She leads enterprise-wide marketing, communications and public affairs strategy for the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. She oversees integrated media, digital, content and stakeholder strategy and engagement efforts that expand global reach, strengthen brand visibility and drive audience growth, visitation and philanthropic support. Meyer leads a multidisciplinary communications team that translates complex science into clear, compelling narratives that position the Zoo as a leader in animal care, research and global conservation. Meyer holds a Bachelor of Arts in visual media from American University and is a graduate from the Smithsonian’s Palmer Leadership Program and the recipient of national honors for excellence in communications, including a PR News Platinum Award, Public Relations Society of America Silver and Bronze Anvil Awards, an Association of Zoos and Aquariums Marketing Award and a Bronze Clio.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov20
Author EventWashington, DC

Dan Jones — Castles: A Fortified History of the World from the Bronze Age to the Nuclear Age — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Friday, November 20, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Castles have been built to defend humanity for millennia—from the walls of Troy in the Bronze Age and the desert bastion of Krak des Chevaliers in Syria; to Windsor Castle and the Tower of London; to Himeji in Japan and Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. They have inspired terror and passion, foiled conquering forces, and been deployed as the ultimate expression of wealth, status, and supremacy.In Castles, Jones leads readers on a journey through the many eras of castle-building and across continents as each stronghold tells a unique story of power, politics, and survival, revealing the shifting tides of warfare, the rise and fall of empires, the resilience of people under siege, and the flourishing of new ideas.Blending rich storytelling, deep research, and beautiful original illustrations, Castles is an epic story of why humans build fortifications and how they powerfully capture our imagination. With Jones’s trademark scholarship and flair, he shows how defiance, endurance, and ambition have been carved into the landscapes we’ve inherited.Dan Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of Powers and Thrones, Crusaders, The Templars, The Plantagenets, Wars of the Roses, and Magna Carta, as well as the novel Essex Dogs. He is the host of the podcast This is History: A Dynasty to Die For and has produced, written, and presented dozens of TV shows, including the popular Netflix series Secrets of Great British Castles.

Nov21
Author EventWashington, DC

Matthew Cole — Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East — at Conn Ave

1:00 AM • Saturday, November 21, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

A groundbreaking exposé of the secret conspiracy between Jared Kushner, the UAE’s Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ), and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to fund a hidden policy agenda, influence the Trump White House, and reshape the Middle East—from the author of the “remarkable” (James Risen, Pulitzer Prize winner) Code Over Country.Two crown princes, MBZ and his junior partner MBS, have long wielded great power and unfathomable amounts of money to forge their states as new powers in the Middle East. But to execute on their ambitions, they needed partners—which they found in the wildly ambitious son-in-law of President Donald J. Trump, Jared Kushner; notorious former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, who was gathering mercenary armies for rent; and a former CIA assassin, among other allies.At the heart of this shocking story is a tenuous relationship with Israel to confront Iran and marginalize Palestine, and secrets the conspirators want to remain hidden, including bank accounts for Kushner’s use to advance his own agenda in the Middle East. The actions of MBZ and MBS have already resulted in a trail of disparate wreckage, both domestically and globally, encompassing interference in US presidential elections, Israel’s war of annihilation in Gaza, and the Israeli-US war with Iran. These consequences beg the question: Did the president himself know what was happening in his own White House?Impeccably reported in his signature “searing and unvarnished” (Jeremy Scahill, New York Times bestselling author) voice, Matthew Cole reveals these secret and dangerous relationships and the damage they have wrought to our democracy, providing an urgent and startling understanding of our recent history and foreign policy.Matthew Cole is an investigative journalist and the author of Code Over Country: The Tragedy and Corruption of SEAL Team Six. He has covered national security for more than two decades, much of it focused on America’s clandestine wars and covert programs. He was previously an investigative producer for ABC and NBC News, and a longtime national security reporter for The Intercept. His other work has appeared in The New York Times, GQ, New York magazine, Salon, and ESPN. He has reported from more than twenty countries, across five continents.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov21
Author EventWashington, DC

Alice Miranda Ollstein — Side Effects: How Abortion Bans Impact Everyone’s Health - with Eugene Daniels — at Conn Ave

3:00 PM • Saturday, November 21, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

In the turbulent aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the loss of abortion access created ripple effects that washed over the entire U.S. health system, making care both less accessible and of lower quality for millions of people. Alice Miranda Ollstein’s explosive reporting offers an urgent, on-the-ground look at a medical system under pressure, at the patients and providers caught up in the dragnet of the new abortion restrictions, and at the impacts on both reproductive care and completely unrelated services.Ollstein, Politico’s senior health care reporter and one of News Media Alliance’s “Rising Stars,” spent years traveling around the country exploring the unexpected ways in which the Dobbs decision is disrupting the already fraught experience of pregnancy and birth, as physicians withhold or delay medically necessary procedures for fear of being prosecuted. A work of deep reporting and profound humanity, Side Effects chronicles the experiences of real people who have lost access to other forms of reproductive health care, including contraception and IVF, as well as those of all ages, genders, and geographic locations hit by the spillover effects to medical research, hospital staffing, wait times, management of chronic illnesses, and more.Side Effects also reveals how patients, physicians, researchers, and pharmacists are fighting back in unprecedented ways, upending both the political and medical landscape in the process. By investigating the erosion of abortion access as a health care crisis rather than a culture war, Ollstein sparks a desperately needed debate on what it means for a society to be “pro-life.”Alice Miranda Ollstein is a senior health care reporter for Politico. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, La Opinión, and Talking Points Memo. In 2017, she was named one of the New Media Alliance’s “Rising Stars” under thirty; she is also a winner of the Association of Health Care Journalists Fellowship. The author lives in Washington, DC.Ollstein will be joined in conversation with Eugene Daniels, an MS NOW Senior Washington Reporter and co-anchor of MS NOW’s “The Weekend” from 7 to 10 a.m. ET on Saturdays and Sundays. He is also the co-host of the MS NOW original podcast, “Clock It with Symone & Eugene." Throughout his career, Daniels has interviewed countless political leaders and policy experts, and was one of the few reporters to have interviewed former Vice President Kamala Harris during her run for president in 2024. He has covered midterm elections, the Democratic presidential primary, and general elections through print, video journalism, podcasts, and live events.

Nov21
Author EventWashington, DC

Walter Stahr — William Howard Taft: A Great American Life - With David O. Stewart — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Saturday, November 21, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

William Howard Taft was perhaps not a great president, although his limited view of the president’s role looks better today than it did at the time. But Taft’s true claim to greatness lies in his work before and after the White House: five decades of selfless public service culminating as one of the most transformational chief justices in American history.Taft was the only president to have spent much of his career as a judge, first in the state court system in Ohio, then as a federal judge on the Sixth Circuit. He dreamed of serving on the United States Supreme Court and yet, more than once, he declined a seat in order to continue his work as America’s first civilian governor in the Philippines. When he returned to Washington, he took a place in Roosevelt’s cabinet, effectively serving as deputy president before winning the presidency in his own right in 1908.Tariffs. Immigration. Labor unrest. Colonial possessions. Free trade with Canada. Civil war in Mexico. The national deficit. Government efficiency. These were just some of the issues Taft faced in the White House. After his disastrous defeat in the 1912 election, due in part to Roosevelt’s decision to challenge him for the Republican nomination, Taft returned to private life, although often involved in public causes, such as the fight for the League of Nations. But all this was only a prelude to a second act as the most important chief justice since John Marshall, changing the very way the Court worked by securing it the power to select those cases it wished to decide.A carefully researched and gracefully written biography, displaying a deep understanding of both political history and human nature, William Howard Taft thoughtfully reassesses what makes a great American public servant worth remembering.Walter Stahr is the New York Times bestselling author of Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man, Stanton: Lincoln’s War Secretary, and John Jay: Founding Father. A two-time winner of the Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography, Stahr practiced law in Washington and Asia for more than two decades. He is an honors graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School.Stahr will be in conversation with David O. Stewart, who has published eleven award-winning and best-selling books of history and historical novels. In 2023, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Washington Independent Review of Books. His most recent fictional series, the Overstreet Saga, is inspired by family stories his mother told. He lives in Maryland with the light of his life, Nancy Floreen; they have three children and six grandchildren.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov22
Author EventWashington, DC

Dana Mashoian Walrath — The Book of Genocides — at Conn Ave

3:00 PM • Sunday, November 22, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

In this haunting graphic narrative, an award-winning writer, artist, and descendant of genocide survivors brings history's darkest horrors to life, calling on us to remember, repair, and resist.The Book of Genocides is a haunting graphic narrative that compels readers to confront the most harrowing chapters of human history not as distant events but as visceral experiences. Dana Mashoian Walrath covers ten major atrocities across five centuries: the mass slaughter of the First Peoples of the Americas, the brutalization of Black Americans, the devastation of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the Cambodian killing fields, the Rwandan genocide, the Bosnian genocide, the deadly persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar, and the genocide in Gaza.Walrath makes plain that the purpose of genocide is always a land grab, and its central apparatus is dehumanization: each chapter delves into how dehumanization operates, not just through violence but through the political and intellectual systems that enable it. The book's unique interactive design allows readers to reshape images of victims into grotesque forms mirroring the mental mechanisms of dehumanization. With each page turn, the victims' humanity is restored, making their suffering undeniable.The Book of Genocides is an unsettling experience, shot through with the emotional gravity of horrific events--not just historical memories but ongoing realities, painful truths that shape our world and demand our action.Dana Mashoian Walrath's award-winning books include Aliceheimer's, a graphic memoir, and Like Water on Stone, a verse novel about the Armenian genocide. Her comics, art, essays, and poetry have been featured by The Nation, The Lancet, Slate, and NPR.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov22
Author EventWashington, DC

Diana Rojas — They Hold Grudges - with Tamar Shapiro — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Sunday, November 22, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

As a kid, Rob was his uncle Pablo’s favorite, and the whole family knew it. Pablo’s only flaw was his wife, Mara, whom everyone called idiosyncratic—or plain crazy—and their son, Pablito, who took after her. But they all loved Pablo, so they put up with his wife and son and lived by the Golden Family Rule: no serious quarrels, no harboring of resentments, no anger, no grudges.Many years later, Pablito brings an accusation against Rob that punctures the harmony. If they ignore it, will it simply go away? Does anyone even believe Pablito? Gossip and whispers swirl, unleashing doubts, paranoia and betrayal, while Rob embarks on a desperate quest to clear his name.They Hold Grudges is a riveting exploration of the lines we draw between loyalty and truth. With layered, taut prose, it examines what we’re willing to sacrifice to keep the peace, and what remains if the truth is buried.Diana Rojas is the author of Litany of Saints: A Triptych (Arte Público Press, 2024) and the forthcoming bilingual children's book, Clara's Big Green Coat (Piñata Books, 2027). Her essays are featured in Grit & Gravity, The Washington Independent Review of Books, Latino News Network, and the WWPH anthology America's Future, among others. She serves on the Board of Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. She lives and works in Washington, DC.Rojas will be in conversation with Tamar Shapiro, whose debut novel, Restitution, was published in September 2025 and named one of the 49 Must-Read Books of Fall 2025 by Town and Country Magazine. Her writing has also appeared in Literary Hub, Poets and Writers, Electric Literature, and the Washington Independent Review of Books. After a decades-long career as a non-profit leader in the community development field, Shapiro received her MFA in creative writing from Randolph College in January 2026 and is currently working on her second novel. She grew up in both the U.S. and Germany and now lives in Washington, DC.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov23
Author EventWashington, DC

Chad Harbach — The Brightness - with Jessica M. Goldstein — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Monday, November 23, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Parties and weddings, messy hookups and marred friendships, art and love and grief—The Brightness follows the electric, chaotic, everything-can-happen lives of Pella and her best friend, Irma, as they fumble their way out of sleepy, Midwestern Westish College and out into a larger world that will upend their connection and everything they thought they understood about their own place within it. At 27, Pella’s life looks settled: she’s a recent college grad, engaged to Mike, her longtime boyfriend, and helping her friend Owen pull off his own destination wedding on Block Island. But over that wild wedding weekend, Pella’s past and present collide spectacularly, blowing up her plans and sending her spiraling toward an unplanned future in New York City. Meanwhile, back at Westish College, 21-year-old Irma’s involvement with a politically charged prank — one that has roiled both the campus and the world beyond— threatens to derail her brilliant future. As Irma and Pella cycle through possibilities and identities, both navigate the heights and depths of passion and ambition, and the incalculable wages of love and loss.In stunning scenes and spectacular characters—each drawn with an almost superhuman vividness and humanity—Chad Harbach captures that specific, shimmering anxiety of your twenties when life still feels wide open, even as hard and irreversible choices start closing in. Energetic, funny, and deeply human, this much-anticipated follow-up to The Art of Fielding confirms Chad Harbach as one of the most accomplished and deep-seeing writers of our time.Chad Harbach is the author of the novels The Brightness and The Art of Fielding, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. He is a founding editor of n+1 and the editor of the essay collection MFA vs. NYC. He lives in northern California with his son and dog.Harbach will be in conversation with Jessica M. Goldstein,a journalist and humorist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vulture, Marie Claire, and more. She writes often for McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and several of her pieces have been the site’s most-read of the year. She was a 2023 Spruceton Inn Artist Resident. Her debut novel, Retro, came out in June and was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. She writes a weekly newsletter, "The Retro Report," on Substack, where sheshares vintage mood-based recommendations for what to read, watch, listen to, meditate on, and obsess over. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she was born and raised in New Jersey and currently lives in Washington, D.C. This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov24
Author EventWashington, DC

William A. Blair — Arlington: An African American History (Civil War America) — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Tuesday, November 24, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

The hallowed ground known today as Arlington National Cemetery bears witness to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect the nation's ideals of freedom and justice for all. But another history lies beneath the landscape--an African American freedom struggle that has been erased from the landscape. Before the Civil War, enslaved African Americans labored, escaped, raised families, and died at Arlington on a plantation founded by George Washington Parke Custis and inherited by the wife of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. After the Union army confiscated the Lee estate, Freedman's Village was established on the site, offering refuge to a vibrant community of thousands of newly emancipated African Americans. In creating a neighborhood with homes, schools, businesses, and networks with free Blacks in the nation's capital and beyond, Arlington's freedpeople played a consequential--if largely forgotten--role in advancing African American liberty and equality through the rest of the nineteenth century.This deeply researched and accessibly written story brings Arlington's African American past to vivid life. Drawing on extensive historical research conducted at Arlington House and on the national cemetery grounds, William A. Blair offers a definitive account of individuals and families on an inspiring journey from slavery to freedom.William A. Blair is Walter L. and Helen P. Ferree professor emeritus of history at Penn State University.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov30
Kenneth Chenault — Equal to the Task: A Life Forged Between America's Promise and Its Truth — at Conn Ave
Author EventWashington, DC

Kenneth Chenault — Equal to the Task: A Life Forged Between America's Promise and Its Truth — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Monday, November 30, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

For the first time ever, one of the world's most iconic business leaders shares the story of his remarkable life and career.Ken Chenault has lived his life at the confluence of the historical forces that have shaped modern America, keenly aware of both the burdens of its past and the dynamic potential of its future. Born in 1951, when segregation was still inscribed in the laws of the land, he ascended to the peak of corporate America over the course of the next fifty years. In his thoughtful and wide-ranging memoir, Chenault reflects on his personal journey, the mentors who shaped him, and his lifelong quest to realize his own potential and make a meaningful difference in people's lives. Equal to the Task is a classic American story for our times.After joining American Express, Chenault steadily worked his way up to the very top. He led the company for almost two decades, driving market-leading innovations, before stepping down and making another surprising life choice. Eschewing the more traditional roles for former CEOs, he joined a dynamic venture capital firm, seeking to help build enduring companies that leverage technology for both profit and purpose. Over the past years, he has continued to be a steady voice of moral clarity in the public and private sectors."In these pages, I share how I managed the opportunities and challenges encountered over the course of my life and career. In doing so, I hope to convey the values I hold most dear. Values passed down to me by my ancestors, my parents, my teachers, my heroes, and my mentors. These values have guided me throughout my journey, and I consider them pivotal to meeting these extraordinary times as my country wrestles with its own identity, its future, and its role in the 21st century."Ken Chenault is the Chairman and a Managing Director of General Catalyst. From 2001 - 2018, Ken was Chairman and CEO of American Express. Upon his retirement from American Express, Warren Buffett, the company’s largest shareholder stated, “Ken's been the gold standard for corporate leadership and the benchmark that I measure others against.” He is recognized as one of the business world’s experts on brands and brand management, and has been honored by multiple publications, including the TIME100 Most Influential People list in 2021, and Fortune Magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders in 2014 and 2021. Ken serves on the boards of Airbnb, Berkshire Hathaway, Bilt Rewards, Campus, Chief, and Guild Education. He also serves on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Smithsonian Institution’s Advisory Council for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Dec1
Michael Dirda — The Great Age of Storytelling: The Glory Days of Adventurers and Rogues, Time Travelers and Great Detectives — at Conn Ave
ReadingWashington, DC

Michael Dirda — The Great Age of Storytelling: The Glory Days of Adventurers and Rogues, Time Travelers and Great Detectives — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Tuesday, December 1, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

With infectious enthusiasm, "the best read person in America"—as Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Dirda has been called—aims to rekindle our passion for classic works of adventure, mystery, fantasy and romance.Kidnapped, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Kim, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Trent’s Last Case, Captain Blood, The Enchanted Castle, The Man Who Was Thursday—these are just a few of the many wonderful works reclaimed for 21st-century readers in Michael Dirda’s The Great Age of Storytelling. Focusing on the period between 1880 and 1930 in England, The Great Age of Storytelling is both a celebration of some of the world’s best “comfort reading” and an introduction to many of the foundational masterpieces of modern genre literature.Known for his engagingly conversational style, Dirda, a longtime book columnist for The Washington Post, also champions lesser-known works deserving renewed attention today. Readers will be introduced to the thrilling historical romances of Stanley J. Weyman, Richard Marsh's daringly transgressive and macabre chiller, The Beetle (which appeared the same year as Dracula and outsold it), Walter Besant's The Revolt of Man, which reverses the traditional roles of the sexes, and the comic novels of F. Anstey, Barry Pain, J. Storer Clouston and other precursors of P.G. Wodehouse (whose early work is also included).And that's just a beginning. Who can forget those sinister yet beguiling rivals of Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarty such as Guy Boothby's suave Dr. Nikola, Sax Rohmer's insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, Elizabeth Thomasina Meade and Robert Eustace's beautiful and ruthless Madame Koluchy, or Anthony Skene's world-weary Monsieur Zenith? There are appreciations, too, of E.R. Eddison's epic The Worm Ouroboros, E.A. Wyke-Smith's The Marvellous Land of Snergs (which influenced Tolkien's The Hobbit), Margaret Irwin's poignant time-slip romance, Still She Wished for Company, and, not least, such cautionary fables as Owen Gregory's Mecannia, the Super-State and Katharine Burdekin's prescient Swastika Night.Capacious and absorbing, The Great Age of Storytelling can be enjoyed both for the pleasure of Dirda's bookish company and as a guide to a lost world of compulsively entertaining fiction. As admirers of Michael Dirda's earlier books know—these include Browsings, Classics for Pleasure and Bound to Please, among others—he has devoted his life to promoting reading, especially the reading of the great works of the past. The Great Age of Storytelling may be his magnum opus.Michael Dirda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and longtime book columnist for The Washington Post. He was once chosen by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the twenty-five smartest people in our nation’s capital (but, as Michael says, you have to consider the competition). He also writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement; the New York Review of Books and other literary journals. His previous publications include the memoir An Open Book, five collections of essays—Readings, Bound to Please, Book by Book, Classics for Pleasure, Browsings (also availble from Pegasus Books)—and On Conan Doyle, for which he won an Edgar Award. A lifelong Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle fan, he was inducted into The Baker Street Irregulars in 2002. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Jan2
Tova Reich — The Convert: Five Stories and a Novella - with Michael Feuer — at Conn Ave
Author EventFictionWashington, DC

Tova Reich — The Convert: Five Stories and a Novella - with Michael Feuer — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Saturday, January 2, 2027Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

A new story collection from the razor-sharp wit of Tova Reich, who was described by Jonathan Safran Foer as "fearless, hysterically funny, and with the sharpest eye for truth and falsity. . . a brilliant writer." The searing and hilarious satire of Tova Reich knows no boundaries. Here in this story collection, she explores end-of-life truths and surprises, daring to make sense of the dilemma of the meaning of Jewishness in a world that is drowning in violence. In “Managed Care,” a beloved son drafts his mother’s obituary in advance, and hastens her demise as a final act of filial devotion. In “Solidarity,” the recipient of a widow’s generosity turns violently against her. In “Mengele in Jerusalem,” as the title suggests, we meet the former Nazi war criminal in the most unlikely of places.Then there is the title novella, in which a convert must carry on after the death of her domineering mistress, herself also a convert. In “Gifted and Talented,” the doting mother of a gifted child catalogues her losses. And finally, in “Moscow Night in New York,” a group of Russian ex-pats gathers in Brooklyn to wonder why all the important things have been washed away by all the unimportant ones. When it is over, our host finds his wife weeping at the kitchen sink. “Why?” he asks. “Because I’m out of cigarettes,” she replies furiously.In her previous work, Reich has turned a Borscht Belt resort into Camp Jeffrey Epstein where sex offenders find their just desserts (Camp Jeff, Seven Stories, 2024), she has shown aspects of the Holocaust legacy as a competitive game of one-uppance (My Holocaust, 2007). Here, Reich turns up the heat to greet our end-times.TOVA REICH is the author of the novels Mara, Master of the Return, The Jewish War, My Holocaust, One Hundred Philistine Foreskins, and Mother India, which was longlisted for the South Asian Literature Prize and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Her most recent novel is Camp Jeff, which Booklist called “an audacious and righteous torrent of wisecracks and ironies that coheres into a whirlwind of ‘divine apocalyptic madness.’” Her stories have appeared in the Atlantic, Harper’s, Ploughshares, and in her collection The House of Love and Prayer (Seven Stories, 2023). She lives on the fringe of Washington DC. Reich will be in conversation with Michael Feuer. He is Professor of Education and International Affairs at George Washington University, where he was the immediate past dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, and holds visiting appointments at the University of Pennsylvania and Tel Aviv University. He has written three books about education policy, two of which were featured here at Politics and Prose, where he has been a neighbor and friend since the store opened. Aside from his academic research, Michael has written many commentaries and essays, and some poems, on Judaism, Israel, and the Holocaust, and is at work now on a book about his intersectional identity as an American, Jewish, Liberal, Zionist. He hopes to finish it in his new home in Tel Aviv next year. This event is free with first come, first serve seating. To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Jan4
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld — Trump's Ten Commandments: Strategic Lessons from the Trump Leadership Toolbox - with Jim Sciutto — at Conn Ave
Author EventPoliticsWashington, DC

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld — Trump's Ten Commandments: Strategic Lessons from the Trump Leadership Toolbox - with Jim Sciutto — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Monday, January 4, 2027Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

In Trump’s Ten Commandments, Yale leadership scholar Jeffrey Sonnenfeld pulls back the curtain on Donald Trump’s rulebook for power—revealing the ten ruthless, repeatable strategies that explain how he conquers chaos, commands loyalty, and bends every arena to his will. Trump’s Ten Commandments: Strategic Lessons from the Trump Leadership Toolbox offers a provocative and penetrating look inside the mind of one of history’s most controversial leaders. Written by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, celebrated Yale leadership scholar and advisor to five U.S. presidents, this book reveals the ten guiding principles—or “commandments”—that define Donald Trump’s decision-making across business, media, and politics. Drawing from decades of personal interactions with Trump as advisor, critic, and confidant, Sonnenfeld moves beyond gossip and ideology to decode the predictable patterns behind Trump’s seemingly chaotic style. There are critiques and salutes through history of the impact of the imperial presidency but no existing current or past analysis of how such leadership operates until this deep dive into Trump’s toolkit. Sonnenfeld exposes how Trump’s playbook—built on domination, disruption, and relentless self-promotion—breaks every conventional rule of leadership yet often achieves results through sheer force of will. From the boardroom to the Oval Office, Sonnenfeld distills lessons in power, persuasion, and performance—lessons that illuminate not only Trump’s successes and failures but also timeless truths about human ambition, influence, and control. Whether you admire or abhor him, understanding Trump’s Ten Commandments reveals how he built empires, dismantled institutions, and redefined leadership in his own image. Part insider analysis, part leadership case study, Trump’s Ten Commandments helps readers grasp how Trump thinks, how he leads, and what his methods teach us—about both the dangers and the undeniable magnetism of power used without restraint. For anyone seeking to understand America’s most unpredictable leader, this is the definitive guide to Trump’s strategy, psychology, and legacy.

Jan6
Robert S. Levine — After Uncle Tom's Cabin: Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Quest for Interracial Democracy - with Marianne Noble — at Conn Ave
Author EventWashington, DC

Robert S. Levine — After Uncle Tom's Cabin: Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Quest for Interracial Democracy - with Marianne Noble — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Wednesday, January 6, 2027Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

The extraordinary activism of towering literary figure and great American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, after publishing the novel that changed American history.Alone among American novels, Uncle Tom's Cabin forever changed the social fabric of the United States. It sold millions of copies, energized abolitionism, and arguably helped spark the Civil War-but the book also remade its author. Nearly overnight, Harriet Beecher Stowe transformed from an obscure writer to a national celebrity and leading antislavery reformer.After Uncle Tom's Cabin follows Stowe's life after her monumental first novel, highlighting how the Black Americans she met influenced her writing and emboldened her activism. As Stowe learned from her everyday interactions with Black Americans and her relationships with leading figures like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, Robert S. Levine reveals how her quest for an interracial democracy grew and evolved.Levine brings to life the more radical Stowe long overlooked by history: the woman who offered her home to enslaved people traveling on the Underground Railroad; who vehemently opposed and defied the Fugitive Slave Act; who made the case for equal rights for Black people; who championed the Civil War as a crusade for human rights; and who attempted to create work with fair pay for Black Floridians. Levine traces how Stowe's writing deepened to depict Black agency, community, and resistance in her second novel, Dred, and how her personal writings and published essays and fiction displayed her growing commitment to racial equality.Despite ongoing social antagonism and legal obstacles, Stowe acted on her beliefs, from promoting Black employment to founding a school she sought to integrate during her years in post-Civil War Florida. After Uncle Tom's Cabin takes Stowe's most famous novel as the starting point, not the zenith, of a fascinating career, and sheds new light on one of the great writers and social reformers of the nineteenth century.Robert S. Levine is Distinguished University Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the general editor of The Norton Anthology of American Literature and author, most recently, of The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson. He lives in Ellicott City, Maryland.Levine will be in conversation with Marianne Noble, a Professor of Literature at American University. She is the author of The Masochistic Pleasures of Sentimental Literature (Princeton 2000) and Rethinking Sympathy and Human Contact in 19th Century American Literature: Hawthorne, Douglass, Stowe, Dickinson. She also co-edited Emily Dickinson and Philosophy. She has been curious all her life about human contact: what is it, when does it happen? Her recent courses include 19th Century Literature and Philosophy, Literature and the Ethical Life, The Beautiful and Its Politics, Memoir, Intimacy, and Environmental Literature. This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Jan6
Maurice Jackson — Halfway to Freedom: The History of Black Washington, DC — at Conn Ave
Author EventWashington, DC

Maurice Jackson — Halfway to Freedom: The History of Black Washington, DC — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Wednesday, January 6, 2027Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

For over two hundred years, the history and culture of the District of Columbia has been in great part shaped by its Black residents. Several Black men were elected to political positions citywide only a handful of years after the end of the Civil War, and while the years after Reconstruction saw the region plagued with segregation and racial violence, the capital's Black population continued to grow at all economic levels. Washington became the first major US city with a majority Black population in 1957, a status it held for almost 70 years as gentrification has led to the decline of Black political and economic power in DC in the twenty-first century. Halfway to Freedom is a social, political, intellectual, and cultural history of African Americans in Washington, DC, looking at the role that race, color, class, and power have played in the city and its relationship with the federal government. Maurice Jackson explores the material conditions that shaped life for African Americans, free and enslaved, from the earliest moments of the District's history to more contemporary times of organization and activism. Through an array of archival materials, especially first-hand accounts of Black residents in the area, Jackson critiques how and why DC exists as a haven within the Black American imaginary given the realities of conflict its Black residents have faced and continue to face today. In doing so, he also highlights and honors the gains they have earned through the concerted struggles of labor organizations, women's movements, sports, music, art, legal activism, and more.Maurice Jackson is a Professor of History at Georgetown University. He is the author of Rhythms of Resistance and Resilience and Let This Voice Be Heard. He is coeditor of DC Jazz; African Americans and the Haitian Revolution; and Quakers and Their Allies in the Abolitionist Cause, 1754-1808.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Jan7
Nancy Sherman — Feed the Soul: Lessons from Aristotle on Living Well - with E.J. Dionne, Jr. — at Conn Ave
Author EventSelf-HelpWashington, DC

Nancy Sherman — Feed the Soul: Lessons from Aristotle on Living Well - with E.J. Dionne, Jr. — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Thursday, January 7, 2027Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

A lively and personal guide to pursuing true happiness through a life grounded in empathy and shared purpose Of all the ancient thinkers, Aristotle is the humane, dynamic guide we need to navigate modern life. Unlike the Stoics, who advocated detachment and self-reliance, Aristotle knew that goodness grows through human connections. People flourish through friendship and community, and they wither when they retreat. Distilling Aristotle’s core ideas, acclaimed scholar Nancy Sherman explores how connection, curiosity, and ethical character can help us make peace with the fragility of happiness, and how we can address the questions we struggle to answer: • What is it to flourish? • What is it to live a good life? • How do we find joy in nature without exploiting it? • How do we play without hurting, joke without mocking? • How do we build strong friendships in an age of loneliness? • What does it mean to have a good soul? As Sherman walks beside the famous philosopher, she shows us why his vision speaks powerfully to our anxious and divided times—and how we can put that vision into practice. This event is free with first come, first serve seating. To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Jan8
Marion Nestle & Lisa Sutherland — Sugar Coated: Unboxing the Hidden Forces Shaping America's Favorite Breakfast Food - with Jane Black — at Conn Ave
Author EventWashington, DC

Marion Nestle & Lisa Sutherland — Sugar Coated: Unboxing the Hidden Forces Shaping America's Favorite Breakfast Food - with Jane Black — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Friday, January 8, 2027Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

World-renowned food politics expert Marion Nestle joins forces with former cereal executive Lisa Sutherland to examine what cereal boxes reveal about American culture and food politics. If you want to understand how the food business works, just have a look at a box of breakfast cereal. Hardly anything on supermarket shelves is bigger, bolder, or more deliberately designed. The fiercely competitive industry that brings us Cheerios, Froot Loops, and Trix sells a distinctly American dream: indulgence and health in one convenient package. Cereal boxes chronicle our shifting national obsessions with health, ingredients, dietary advice, and American culture. They show us what sells food: cartoons for kids, athletes for men, weight loss for women. And hidden in the history of cereal package designs, we find clues to the corporate lobbying that shapes agricultural policy, health claims, and labeling regulations. Sugar Coated unboxes the influence of cereal companies on food policy and the power of marketing, revealing, in the process, why Big Food is so good at selling profitable products regardless of their effects on health.Marion Nestle is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University and author of many books about the politics of food, nutrition, health, and the environment.Lisa Sutherland is Interim President at Jacksonville University and former Vice President of Nutrition at Kellogg Company.Nestle and Sutherland will be in conversation with Jane Black, a veteran food journalist based in Washington, D.C. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic. Her podcast Pressure Cooker launched in 2022 and won a James Beard award the following year. In 2024, she launched the newsletter Consumed, a trusted resource and community for people who care about food, well-being, and planetary health. This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Jan9
Karen Paul — Cartography of Loss: A Widowhood in Essays - with Michelle Brafman — at Conn Ave
WorkshopWashington, DC

Karen Paul — Cartography of Loss: A Widowhood in Essays - with Michelle Brafman — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Saturday, January 9, 2027Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

For fans of Jenny Lisk’s Future Widow, a tender memoir-in-essays about rebuilding after losing a spouse to brain cancer, Cartography of Loss explores caregiving and reveals how life after loss reshapes everything, even new love. When her husband is diagnosed with glioblastoma, Karen Paul becomes a full-time caregiver overnight. Their marriage, the landscape of which had always shown fractures, is instantly and radically transformed. Years after the long vigil of illness and his death, Karen faces the uneasy recalibration that follows and a new identity she never asked for: widow. Told in three parts, Cartography of Loss chronicles the very particular and personal—from hospital corridors and hospice visits to tattoos and the strange circumstance of falling in love again. Along the journey, readers bear witness through stages of early widowhood, life’s continuance in spite of unbearable grief, and the echoes of losses compounded over a lifetime. Exploring how a widow must learn to map out her life in new ways after devastating loss, Paul’s is more than a grief memoir, it’s a clear-eyed, often funny exploration of how loss rearranges a life—and proof that even after the unimaginable, there is a way forward, one essay at a time.Karen Paul has written about caregiving, parenting, marriage, death, loss, and grief for outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Lilith, Modern Loss, Open Secrets, and Motherwell, as well as literary magazines and anthologies. Her short story “Vertigo” won the Lilith Short Fiction Contest. Karen holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts and facilitates grief-writing workshops locally and online. She lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, with Bo, a black-and-white dog who rescued her family. Karen will be in conversation with Michelle Brafman is the author of Washing the Dead, Bertrand Court: Stories, and Swimming with Ghosts, the companion novel to her most recent, Draw Near to Me. Her work has appeared in Oprah Daily, O Quarterly, Slate, LitHub, Tablet, The Forward, and elsewhere. She teaches fiction writing in the Johns Hopkins University MA in Writing Program and spoken about her work and the creative process at more than 200 venues, including book stores, literary festivals, classrooms, synagogues, and myriad book groups. Learn more at michellebrafman.com.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

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