In Morowa Yejidé’s “Creatures of Passage,” ghosts haunt characters living east of the Anacostia River.

The prominent local author bought the entire inventory of his own books from local shops across D.C. so readers could get them for free.

Mahogany Young sells the homemade candles at MahoganyBooks, the Good Hope Road SE bookstore owned by her parents.

There’s a lot at stake for D.C.-area businesses. “Wherever people choose to shop right now,” says an organizer of a holiday market, “is who’s going to survive the pandemic.”

The bookshop MahoganyBooks is one of several attempts to increase reading and literacy east of the Anacostia River.