Literary Calendar
April 21-27, 2008

Sunday, April 20, 2008

21 MONDAY

6:30 P.M. Pulitzer Prize-winner Geraldine Brooks reads from her new novel, People of the Book, at the National Press Club, Murrow-White-Lisagor Rooms, 529 14th St. NW. Call 202-662-7129 or e-mail opus@press.org for details and to RSVP. She will also read on Tuesday, April 22, at 7 p.m. at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, 600 I St. NW. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; call 202-408-3100 or visit http://www.sixthandi.org for details and to RSVP.

7 P.M. Keith Gessen, a founder of the literary magazine n+1, reads from and signs his new novel, All the Sad Young Literary Men, at Politics and Prose Bookstore, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-364-1919.

22 TUESDAY

10:30 A.M. Children's book author and illustrator Jackie Urbanovic reads from and discusses her new picture book, Duck Soup, at Politics and Prose Bookstore, 202-364-1919.

Noon. Environmentalist Laura Lynne Williams, who opened the World Wildlife Fund's first office in Russia in 1993, discusses her new memoir, The Storks' Nest: Life and Love in the Russian Countryside (illustrated by her husband, noted photographer Igor Shpilenok), at a brown bag lunch at the World Wildlife Fund, conference room 2004 C, 1250 24th St. NW. She will also speak at 7 p.m. that evening at George Mason University, Environmental Studies Dept., Student Union II, rooms 3 & 4, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, Va., and again on Wednesday, April 23, at 6 p.m. at Books-A-Million, 11 Dupont Circle NW, 202-319-1374.

7 P.M. Professors Carola and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco discuss and sign Learning a New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society at the Arlington Central Library, 1015 N. Quincy St., Arlington, Va., 703-228-5990.

23 WEDNESDAY

11:30 A.M. Raff Ellis discusses Kisses from a Distance , a memoir of his family's emigration from Lebanon to the United States (inspired by hundreds of letters discovered after his mother's death), at the National Archives, Room 500, 700 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 202-357-5000. A book signing follows.

Noon. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Eric Lichtblau, of the New York Times's Washington bureau, discusses and signs Bush's Law: The Remaking of American Justice at the Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Call 202-789-5229 or e-mail events@cato.org to RSVP.

7 P.M. Michael Hastings, a one-time correspondent for Newsweek in Iraq, discusses and signs I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story at Olsson's Books-Penn Quarter, 418 Seventh St. NW, 202-638-7610.

7 P.M. Jim Lo Scalzo, a photographer for U.S. News & World Report, discusses his experiences and the stories he covered while on assignment, recounted in his recent book Evidence of My Existence, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th St. NW. A book signing follows. Admission is $10 for nonmembers; call 202-639-1770 for details.

7 P.M. V.V. Ganeshananthan reads from Love Marriage, her new novel of a Sri Lankan immigrant family, at Olsson's Books-Dupont, 1307 19th St. NW, 202-785-1133.

24 THURSDAY

12:30 P.M. Quil Lawrence, the Middle East correspondent for the BBC/PRI program "The World," discusses and signs Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood Is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Rome Auditorium, 1619 Massachusetts Ave. NW, in an event sponsored by the International Reporting Project and the school's Middle East Studies Program. For details and to RSVP, call 202-663-7726 or e-mail irp@jhu.edu. He will also speak on Saturday, April 26, at 1 p.m. at Politics and Prose Bookstore, 202-364-1919.

7 P.M. Writer and poet Terese Svoboda discusses Black Glasses Like Clark Kent: A GI's Secret from Postwar Japan, which delves into her uncle's past and his recent debilitating depression and suicide, along with Askold Melnyczuk discussing his third novel, The House of Widows, at the Shirlington Public Library, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va., 703-228-6545. A book signing will follow across the street at Busboys and Poets, 703-379-9756.

7 P.M. First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna Bush sign copies of their new children's picture book, Read All About It! (illustrated by Denise Brunkus), at Books-A-Million, 1451 Chain Bridge Rd., McLean, Va., 703-893-7640. They will also sign books on Friday, April 25, at 7 p.m. at Borders Books-14th St., 14th & F Sts. NW, 202-737-1385.

7:30 P.M. Former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers discusses and signs her new book, Why Women Should Rule the World, at the Friendship Heights Village Center, 4433 S. Park Ave., Chevy Chase, Md., 301-656-2797.

27 SUNDAY

10 A.M. Diane Rehm, host of the NPR program "The Diane Rehm Show" and author of the memoirs Finding My Voice and Toward Commitment: A Dialogue about Marriage, discusses her life and work as part of "The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith," a weekly series held prior to the 11:15 a.m. service at the Washington National Cathedral, hosted by Dean Sam Lloyd. The cathedral is located at Wisconsin & Massachusetts Aves. NW; for details, visit http://www.nationalcathedral.org.

1 P.M. Philip Bobbitt, a professor of federal jurisprudence at Columbia University, discusses and signs Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century at Politics and Prose Bookstore, 202-364-1919. [Read the review on page 2.]

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

Thursday, April 24

6:45 P.M. Poets Mark Strand, author of the new collection Man and Camel, and Charles Wright, author of Scar Tissue and the forthcoming Littlefoot: A Poem, read from their work at the Library of Congress, James Madison Bldg., Montpeilier Room, 101 Independence Ave. SE, 202-707-5394.

7 P.M. Michael Collier, the former Maryland Poet Laureate and author of The Ledge and Dark Wild Realm, reads from and chats about his work at the Hyattsville Branch Library, 6530 Adelphi Rd., Hyattsville, Md., 410-685-4187.

Saturday, April 26

2 P.M. Native American poet Sherwin Bitsui, author of the collection Shapeshift, reads from his work as part of the "Native Writers Series" at the National Museum of the American Indian, Rasmuson Theater, Fourth St. & Independence Ave. SW. For details, visit http://www.americanindian.si.edu.

SPECIAL NOTICES

Garry Wills, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and writer, reflects on Thomas Eakins's painting "William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River," the third lecture in the American Pictures Distinguished Lecture Series, on Saturday, April 26, at 4:30 p.m. This four-part series, sponsored by Washington College, the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, will be held in the Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, Reynolds Center for American Art & Portraiture (which serves both museums), Eighth & F Sts. NW. Free tickets are available starting at 3:30 p.m.; doors open at 4 p.m. For details, visit http://www.reynoldscenter.org.

April 24 is the official launch of D.C.'s Big Read '08, part of the National Endowment for the Arts' initiative to encourage communities to read and discuss the same book over a one-month period. D.C.'s selection is F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. For a complete listing of upcoming readings, workshops and the like, visit http://www.dchumanities.org or call 202-387-8391.

Madison Smartt Bell, Dee Dee Myers, Glenn Kessler, Walter Isaacson, Tom Oliphant, Jan Crawford Greenberg and Ben Wittes are a few of the authors slated to be at the 2008 Annapolis Book Festival, being held on Saturday, April 26, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on the campus of the Key School, 534 Hillsmere Dr. in Annapolis, Md. For complete details, visit http://www.keyschool.org or call Irfan Latimer at 410-263-9231, ext. 1227.

St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, located at 1830 Connecticut Ave. NW, will hold its third annual used book sale on Saturday, April 26, from 9 a.m. to noon. For details, call 202-232-2995 or visit http://www.stmargaretsdc.org.

The Friends of the Reston Regional Library will hold its semi-annual used book sale April 25-27 at 11925 Bowman Towne Center Dr., Reston, Va. Hours are: Friday, April 25, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, April 26, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday, April 27, noon to 3:30 p.m. Call 703-689-2700.

The second used book and media sale sponsored by Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church, at 1657 Crofton Pkwy, Crofton, Md., will be held on Friday, April 25 (6 p.m. to 9 p.m.) and Saturday, April 26 (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.) with loads of books, DVDs and CDs up for sale. Call 410-721-2313 for details.