(Editor’s Note: In our efforts to build up DCist’s Arts + Events coverage, we’re bringing a number of new contributors who you’ll start seeing during the next week or so. The following post was written by Susan Breitkopf.)

Who knows what secrets lurk in the bowels of the Smithsonian? DCist has heard rumors about shooting galleries, cadaver-sniffing dogs and catalogued human remains, but few on the inside breathe a word to the rest of the world.

Until now. Mary Kay Zuravleff, a D.C. writer and former editor of books and exhibition texts for the Smithsonian, has written “The Bowl Is Already Broken” to be released in April by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Set in the fictitious Museum of Asian Art on the National Mall, the book’s heroine has a lot to contend with.

She’s pregnant, has recently been named acting director of museum, and, well, the bowl is broken. The former director has taken off (a la Seinfeld’s J. Peterman) for a dig in China’s Taklimakan Desert, leaving her with a mess on her hands and the museum’s governing forces who want to shut down the museum.

As for dirt on the Smithsonian, this book doesn’t have much. But it is an inside look at the politics of a museum. It’s also a pretty good read, with lots of twists and turns and a sympathetic main character. In any case, there’s no need to rush out and buy. Wait for softcover.