Shalom, readers. The Washington, D.C. area welcomes competing Jewish Literature Festivals to town: The Hyman S. and Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival at the DCJCC and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington’s 36th Annual Book Festival. Both festivals offer exciting programs.
On 16th Street, the DCJCC kicks things off Monday with Nick Olcott, one of the leading lights in the local theater scene, paying special tribute to Arthur Miller and Saul Bellow. It continues through November 16th, with Allan Topol, Leon Wieseltier, a poetry workshop from Carly Sachs, and plenty of attention paid to emerging Jewish writers, at home and abroad.
Over in Rockville, JCCGW’s 36th Annual Festival features Art Buchwald, Miss Manners’ Judith Martin, Barbara Boxer, David Israel, and a special panel offering advice for local writers looking to get published. The festival only goes to the 13th, and if you want to know our opinion on the “must-go” event of the two festivals – we vote Jack Klugman, 8:15 p.m. on Wed., November the 9th, in Rockville. People: he played Quincy, M.E. Do we really need to say anything else?
The DCJCC is located at 1529 16th Street, NW, and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington is at 6125 Montrose Road in Rockville. Prices vary for events, so click the links above and consult their programmes of events for further deets.
MONDAY:
>> One author returned home from exile, while another one fled. Both look to their remembrances for hope for the future of their countries. Join Said Hyder Akbar at Politics & Prose as he discusses Come Back To Afghanistan, or hear Women For Women International founder Zainab Salbi as she walks Between Two Worlds: Escape From Tyranny: Growing Up In The Shadow of Saddam at Olsson’s on 7th Street. Both at 7 p.m.
TUESDAY:
>> Saddam may indeed be gone, but his rape rooms apparently stayed fully operational even after the fall of Baghdad. Hear about that happy chapter of American history from Janice Karpinski, author of One Woman’s Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story. Barnes & Noble, 3040 M St. NW. at 7:30 p.m.
WEDNESDAY:
TV’s Blair Underwood comes to town to set up shop at Books-a-Million, to sign—wait. Hold on. Books-a-Million? Is that correct? Really? Huh. Okay. Just checking. Um…Books-a-Million to sign and discuss his book Before I Got Here: The Wondrous Thing We Hear When We Listen to the Souls of Our Children. Think “Kids say the darnedest things” only replace “darndest” with “sweetly precocious and soulful” and ban the pudding pops from the room. Content be damned – we’re sure Underwood will go over well with the ladies (and non-traditional gentlemen). And that’s at Books-a-Million! How about that? 11 Dupont Circle, NW., at 12:30 p.m.
THURSDAY:
Café Scientific began in Leeds, UK in 1998 to foster public interest in cutting edge science and technology by hosting informal salons between interested members of the public and leaders in the scientific fields. Now, Bar Pilar and Olsson’s Books brings us Café Scientific Washington D.C.. Because science goes best with tater tots. 1833 14th Street, between S and T Streets, 7:00pm
SATURDAY:
If you can’t get enough of Canadian authors using post-modern deconstructivist gimmickry to put a new spin on an old tale, well, prepare for your personal cream dream this Saturday afternoon, as Margaret Atwood, that indefatigable Terminatrix of Canadian letters and author of the Penelopeiad gets all belletristic on Homer’s Odyssey by retelling the story from Penelope’s point of view. 3 p.m., at Politics and Prose.
