Michael Dirda — The Great Age of Storytelling: The Glory Days of Adventurers and Rogues, Time Travelers and Great Detectives — at Conn Ave
Featured Book
The Great Age of Storytelling: The Glory Days of Adventurers and Rogues, Time Travelers, and Great Detectives
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.
About This Event
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.
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Saira Mohamed — What a Country Owes Its Soldiers - with Darin Johnson — at Conn Ave
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.
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
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.
Judith Bowles — They Spoke of the River - with David Keplinger — at Conn Ave
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.