Books

When the galley for Ruth J. Simmons’ memoir — Up Home: One Girl’s Journey — arrived in my mailbox a few months ago, I couldn’t wait to dive into it. I had been looking forward to reading about the tumultuous battles she had fought and,…

Before my friend and activist Tony De Pass died of colon cancer, he often boasted, during frequent and blistering critiques about the intelligence deficit of America’s political class, that he owed his intellectual heft to the excellent…

Long before Stokely Carmichael (aka Kwame Ture) shouted the phrase “Black Power” in 1966; before James Brown, sans his famous processed pompadour, urged his audience in 1968 to “Say it loud: I’m Black and I’m proud”; before musician and…

“he highway was lined with yellow wildflowers that danced from their roots every time a car drove by. Smoke seeped up into the sky from the refineries in the distance. Birds that had flown south from an unpredictable winter rose and fell…

Three recently published poetry collections explore themes of loss, devotion and self-love, demonstrating the art form’s capacity to express the depth of the human experience. The Shomer by Ellen Sazzman; published in 2021 by…

What does gentrification feel like?  The answer is complex, it’s safe to say. Perspective matters. If you have been displaced or if the neighborhood you grew up in is no longer recognizable, maybe you feel anger and resentment. If you…

In a phone interview with The DC Line just a few weeks before he passed away on April 3, longtime DC broadcaster Bruce Johnson said his dedication to journalism may have stemmed from the calling he felt as a teenager to become a missionary…

“Whoever says you can’t live in two places at the same time is dead wrong” is my favorite line in Alberto Roblest’s recently published book of short stories, Against the Wall. Capitalizing on themes of loneliness, power and self-discovery,…

Built of wood and featuring a distinctive A-frame construction, the new Little Free Library at CentroNía, a bilingual and multicultural early childhood education provider in Columbia Heights, looks much the same as the existing…

The 108-year-old gift of more than 3,000 cherry blossom trees from Tokyo to Washington, DC, finds fresh life in a vibrant new keepsake book from Smithsonian Books, Cherry Blossoms: Sakura Collections From the Library of Congress. The slim,…

When Jason Reynolds was introduced earlier this month onstage at Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress, a packed audience of middle and high school students from DC erupted into a standing ovation. Reynolds, in turn, assured them…

Natwar Gandhi, who became famous locally during 13 years as the chief financial officer of the District, has penned an engaging memoir looking back at his boyhood in India and later adventures — setbacks and successes — in the United…

After six years covering Capitol Hill for a Los Angeles public radio station, Kitty Felde found a way to branch out to a new audience: middle schoolers. Once a month on her talk show, adults would be “thrown out” and students would come to…

Some of the most popular children’s books teach lessons on colors, sharing and numbers. But what if they also offered lessons on more adult topics like strategic thinking and mindfulness? Linda Ryden — a peace teacher at Lafayette…

On the evening of May 27, 2015, Charnice Milton was on the bus, heading to her home in Ward 7’s Benning Heights neighborhood. A journalist working for Capital Community News — which publishes the local news outlets Hill Rag, East of the…

Though Krista Schlyer’s work as a conservation photographer and writer has taken her all over the country and into Mexico, in recent years she’s been focused on a landmark closer to home: the Anacostia River. Schlyer, who lives in Mount…

As the nation grappled repeatedly with the issue of police brutality, 10 teenage girls participating in a Ward 5 after-school program met weekly from 2015 to 2017 to collaborate on a novel, drawing from their own experiences and…

Novelist and critic Thomas Mallon stands out for his character-driven approach to writing historical fiction. In 2012’s Watergate and 2015’s Finale — his two most recent titles — he followed an often-used practice in historical fiction by…

You probably know that Duke Ellington was a Washington native. But would the iconic jazzman be the best cover subject for a book about local jazz? The new book Washington, DC, Jazz, by Regennia N. Williams and the Rev. Sandra…

A new book from historian Mary-Elizabeth B. Murphy reveals how African-American women used the national and international platform of the nation’s capital to press the struggle for civil rights forward. In Jim Crow Capital: Women and…