Looks like you might have an official outlet for your NaNoWriMo book this year. (If you're not in the know, that's "National Novel Writing Month," the popular annual program where folks commit the entire month of November to writing a book from start to finish.) D.C. will be the breeding ground for the winner of this year's Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award, issued every year to a poet or fiction writer in a different state,... more ›

Fall is the season of festivals, so I hope you've stretched properly over the last few weeks, because this weekend is chock full of 'em. more ›

You're probably sick of hearing it by now. We're sorry about that. But we're only thinking of your well-being when we say it: you really ought to be watching The Wire. The stunningly complex and believable series about Baltimore's drug trade and pervasive institutional decay is only a couple of weeks into its fourth season on HBO, but the plaudits are already here in force. A 98 out of 100 on metacritic should provide some context. This is, at the very least, among the best dramas currently on TV. And now's a great time to get into it: taking a relatively fresh start, this season promises to examine Baltimore's failing school system. We're confident that by the end of it the D.C. educational system will look like the School of Athens by comparison. Lucky for you, Campus Progress wants to help you discover the show. They'll be hosting a screening of the season's third episode at 7 p.m. this Wednesday at the Mayflower Hotel. Unfortunately, all of the RSVP slots are currently taken — but you should think about getting on the waiting list anyway, because in addition to a chance to catch the new episode early, there'll be a Q&A with creator David Simon and writer Ed Burns immediately after. If this lengthy interview with Simon is any indication, it should be an interesting chat. Besides, they've already changed venues to accomodate the large crowd once. Who knows — by the end of this process, we might all be watching it at RFK. But if you don't get lucky on the wait list, you should tune in this Sunday anyway. And while you're at it, you might want to check out our interview with novelist and Wire writer George Pelecanos. more ›

FRIDAY: >> The fine folks at the Black Cat are throwing themselves a 13th anniversary party tonight, and bully for them — it can hardly be an argument that the bar and music venue has become a nightlife mainstay for those of us who like our drinks cheap and our juke boxes funky. The convergence of two unlucky symbols (13 and black cats) isn't lost on the staff, who are encouraging you to go ahead... more ›

Everyone is all about George Pelecanos these days. We interviewed him, he was on the Kojo Nnamdi Show, and he's appeared in various area bookstores to pimp his new crime thriller, The Night Gardener. If Pelecanos is known for anything, it's the local references he liberally infuses his writings with. Criminals and the police that chase them live and work in the seediest parts of the region, giving readers a glimpse into the underworld of... more ›

TUESDAY Tired of running into the virtual junta of returned Peace Corps volunteers living in our fair city and being forced to listen to story upon story about how working in an office every day will just never be as fulfilling as digging that well in Cameroon? Then this event is not for you. Former Peace Corps volunteers read from and sign A Life Inspired: Tales of Peace Corps Service. Peace Corps, 111 20th... more ›

Author George Pelecanos has been writing about life in D.C. for over fifteen years, but it's not the Washington you expect. He shuns the overdone political thriller, with the glamorization of Capital Hill and shiny Northwest. Instead, Pelecanos finds the homegrown stories of families who've been here for generations. The author, who also contributes to HBO's The Wire, was born in the city and raised in Mt. Pleasant (but now lives in Silver Spring), and... more ›

MONDAY: Tony Kushner will discuss the plays of Arthur Miller with Jeffrey Brown at the Avalon Theatre, 5612 Connecticut Ave NW. Topics may or may not include who the baddest Jewish playwright of our time really is, and whether anyone who convinced the likes of Marilyn Monroe to convert has any competition in that category to begin wtih. Tickets are $13 each; two tickets are included with the purchase of a book. 8:15 p.m. WEDNESDAY:... more ›

Washington, D.C.’s bookstores give plenty of prominence to the annual spawn of the political hack class: the typical mélange of ghostwritten autobiographies from self-serving electoral wannabes and the soft-headed journalist pastries who whore for their leavings. D.C., like other oft-abbreviated urban destinations, is an industry town, and these tomes regularly and successfully find their way out of the stores nestled in the arms of consumers. But long after these books moulder as the coffee table jockey of choice among those who imagine themselves connected, the city’s readers keep on cracking the spines and dog-earing the pages of books that speak of characters that you’ll never see on any subcommittee. Men like Derek Strange, Nick Stefanos, Terry Quinn and Marcus Clay. more ›