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SUMMARY:***CANCELED** Fiction Book Club w/ Lauren D. Woods!
DESCRIPTION:This event has been canceled and will be rescheduled for another date.\nThe Writer’s Center welcomes author Lauren D. Woods\, to our monthly Fiction Book Club for a discussion of her most recent novel\, The Great Grown-Up Game of Make-Believe\, at The Writer’s Center! Zach is joined by Book Club Host\, Hannah Grieco. \nWe encourage you to order a copy of the book from your local\, independent bookseller or online directly from the publisher» \n***The above link will give you a 22% discount and free shipping*** \nFREE & open to the public. RSVP below. \n\nLauren D. Woods\, originally from the Dallas area\, now lives and writes in Washington\, DC\, where she was a 2024-25 Washington\, DC Arts and Humanities Fellow for Fiction. Her writing has appeared as a spotlighted story in The Best Small Fictions\, as well as in The Antioch Review\, The Normal School\, Passages North\, Hayden’s Ferry Review\, Red Rock Review\, Southern Humanities Review\, and Lunch Ticket\, among others. Lauren works in consulting and lives with her husband\, four children\, two cats\, and a guinea pig. The Great Grown-Up Game of Make-Believe is her debut collection. \n\nAbout The Great Grown-Up Game of Make-Believe\nWinner of the 2024 Autumn House Fiction Prize\, these lyrical\, haunting stories invite us to question the stories we tell ourselves and to imagine other paths—joyful\, whimsical\, even absurd—through the world. \nA wife finds herself literally shrinking in her house\, day by day; a mother recalls the surreal day when her infant daughter survives a close encounter with a bear; and\, inside her lover’s heart\, a woman discovers a secret nightclub populated by all the women he’s loved and left. \nIn the worlds Woods conjures\, childhood memories ripple through adult lives\, and characters test the limits of their self-created realities. The Great Grown-Up Game of Make-Believe urges us to contemplate how we can escape loneliness and heartbreak and live on our own terms. \n\nAbout Book Club\nThis is no run-of-the-mill book club. Visiting writers will read excerpts\, join the discussion\, and answer your questions about craft\, process\, the publishing industry\, and getting advice for our own writing! We’ll hang and eat snacks with the authors and escape your doomscrolling. \nPoetry Book Club will meet on Zoom every second Wednesday of the month with a new poet. \nFiction Book Club will meet every third Sunday of the month in person at The Writer’s Center with a new author. \nCome build community and read amazing books that the Big 5 didn’t have the sense to publish! \n\nIf you need an accommodation for this event\, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests\, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services. \n\nEnjoying our free events? Help us offer more programs to support writers with a $10 donation »
URL:https://writer.org/event/lauren-woods/
LOCATION:The Writer’s Center\, 4508 Walsh Street\, Bethesda\, MD\, 20815\, United States
CATEGORIES:Event
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SUMMARY:Open Mic @ The Writer's Center
DESCRIPTION:Prose\, poetry\, and spoken word Open Mic @ The Writer’s Center! All writers are welcome to come and share 4-5 minutes of their latest work. \n\nSign-up starts at 6:45pm\, and readings begin promptly at 7pm.\nLimited to 20 readers\, so arrive early if you plan to read.\n\nSponsored by Poet Lore\, America’s oldest poetry magazine. \nFREE and open to the public. Please note that we no longer offer advance sign-up. \n\nIf you need an accommodation for this event\, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests\, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services. \n\nEnjoying our free events? Help us offer more programs to support writers with a $10 donation »
URL:https://writer.org/event/open-mic-jun2026-2/
LOCATION:The Writer’s Center\, 4508 Walsh Street\, Bethesda\, MD\, 20815\, United States
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260625T190000
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SUMMARY:Virtual Craft Chat w/ Poet Kay E. Bancroft
DESCRIPTION:Poet Lore and The Writer’s Center present a FREE virtual chat about the craft of poetry! We’re joined by Kay E. Bancroft to discuss their debut collection\, Bloodroom. Kay is in conversation with Emily Holland\, poet and editor of Poet Lore\, America’s oldest poetry journal. \nRSVP below to receive login information (our virtual events are held via Zoom). FREE and open to the public\, all times Eastern. \nWe encourage you to order a copy of the book from your local\, independent bookseller or online from the publisher » \n\nKay E. Bancroft (they/them) is a queer nonbinary writer\, poet\, editor\, educator\, and artist based in Cincinnati\, OH. They hold an MFA in Poetry from Randolph College\, and a BA from the University of Cincinnati. You can find their writing in Poet Lore\, Pleiades Journal\, RHINO Poetry\, Passengers Journal\, The Rumpus\, & more. Explore more at kayebancroftpoet.com. \n\nAbout Bloodroom\n“Do you identify with any of the above terminology? Occasionally. Some days they feel appropriate. Others\, I resent these tools of our language. I reject and embrace\, synchronously.” \nBloodroom is a howling\, scorching debut collection of deftly formatted poetry—circling\, and delicately probing\, themes of familial debt\, legacy\, obligation\, and the matriline. Through an index of past wounds and inherited scars\, the speaker bleeds their histories together with the slow erosion of nostalgia. These poems offer an incisive and scalding interrogation of gender\, yet are often unbearably tender—a swirling emulsion of grief and anger poured into an intricately technical and beautifully challenging mold. Each piece draws out a tragic\, cyclical song of love and loss\, resentment and admiration\, as though drawing poison from a wound. Bancroft’s writing is meditative\, cleansing\, and compulsively readable: recounting a feminine childhood transformed into something monstrous until seen through a new lens. Bloodroom is a plea to identity\, to the process of searching for purpose and of seeking certainty in a broken world. \n\nIf you need an accommodation for this event\, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests\, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services. \n\nEnjoying our free events? Help us offer more programs to support writers with a $10 donation »
URL:https://writer.org/event/kay-bancroft/
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SUMMARY:Melanie McCabe & Brad Barkley Book Launch
DESCRIPTION:The Writer’s Center welcomes writers Melanie McCabe and Brad Barkley for a reading from their respective novels\, Road Longer Than Memory and The Reel Life of Zara Kegg. \nFREE & open to the public. RSVP below. \n\nMelanie McCabe is a writer of poems\, essays\, memoir\, and most recently\, fiction. She is a lifelong Virginian and was a high school English and creative writing teacher in Arlington for twenty-two years. Her debut novel\, Road Longer Than Memory\, will be published by Oceanview Publishing on June 2\, 2026. Her forthcoming book of poems\, All The Signs Were There\, won the Longleaf Poetry Prize and will be out in the winter of 2026. Her memoir\, His Other Life: Searching For My Father\, His First Wife\, and Tennessee Williams\, won the 2016 University of New Orleans Publishing Lab Prize and was published in the fall of 2017. Previous books of poems include: The Night Divers (Terrapin Books)\, What The Neighbors Know (FutureCycle Press) and History of the Body (David Robert Books.) Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post\, Reader’s Digest\, Shenandoah\, Cumberland River Review\, Sweet\, Forge Literary Magazine and elsewhere. \nBrad Barkley is the author of the novels Money\, Love and Alison’s Automotive Repair Manual\, two collections of short stories\, and three YA novels with Penguin (including Scrambled Eggs at Midnight).  His work has been translated into five languages. His short stories have appeared in 40+ magazines\, including Fractured Lit\, The Southern Review\, The Virginia Quarterly Review\, Glimmer Train\, and USA Today.  He’s won numerous awards\, including Four Individual Artist Awards from the State of Maryland\, and a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. \n\n\nAbout Road Longer Than Memory\nSometimes the road home runs through everything you tried to forget \nAfter  a failed relationship and an unsettled teaching career\, Sara Barlow  returns to her childhood home in Arlington\, Virginia\, hoping for a fresh  start. But when she applies for a job at her old high school\, a chance  glimpse into the gymnasium shakes her to the core—she spots the man she  suspects was involved in a classmate’s violent death a decade earlier. \n\nHaunted  by the past\, Sara confronts the memories she’s spent years trying to  suppress: her sister Suzanne’s fatal car crash\, her secret summer with  the reckless Devlin Barrie\, and the anonymous 911 call she made after  witnessing what she believes was a murder. As the construction of  Interstate 66 physically fractures her community\, Sara grapples with  emotional fault lines of her own—guilt\, silence\, and buried truth. \nSet against the backdrop of suburban upheaval in the 1970s and ’80s\, Road Longer Than Memory is a compelling story of memory\, reckoning\, and the cost of what we leave unsaid. \n\n\nAbout The Reel Life of Zara Kegg\nLove\, grief\, Godzilla\, and one very weird winter at the beach… \nThree years after her mother’s death\, 16-year-old Zara is still settling into life in Carolina Beach\, N.C.\, where she knows almost no one. Working as the lone projectionist at the Palace Theatre—a rundown movie house that shows only vintage ’50s sci-fi and horror flicks—Zara spends her nights in a dusty booth\, fueled by coffee\, pushups\, and the occasional existential crisis (with popcorn). \nThen she meets Zachary\, whose “Z” name feels like fate. His clothes don’t match\, his stories don’t always add up\, and he might be the most interesting person she’s ever met. As their friendship deepens into something more\, Zara learns about the struggles Zachary hides beneath his charm—and wonders if trust is possible. \nWhen her boss tasks her with organizing a Valentine’s Day Godzilla marathon—complete with 150 inflatable Godzillas on the roof—Zara must confront the chaos in her own life. Like any good Godzilla movie\, the big question remains: who will survive\, and who will be crushed? \n\nIf you need an accommodation for this event\, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests\, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services. \n\nEnjoying our free events? Help us offer more programs to support writers with a $10 donation »
URL:https://writer.org/event/mccabe-barkley/
LOCATION:The Writer’s Center\, 4508 Walsh Street\, Bethesda\, MD\, 20815\, United States
CATEGORIES:Event
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SUMMARY:Washington Writers' Publishing House Capital Love LitFest
DESCRIPTION:Join us at The Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s Capital Love LitFest!\n\nThe Capital Love LitFest is an 8-hour literary salon of writing workshops\, deep-dive literary discussions\, and poetry and prose readings from the new WWPH pocket-sized anthology\, Capital Love. The Capital Love LitFest\, and our anthology\, are dedicated to all those who believe love is the antidote to hate\, and that love is action\, intent\, healing\, and hope. \nThis event is a pay-as-you-can literary event designed to inspire and generate your writing\, deepen your craft\, introduce you to your Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s community\, and raise up our collective voices in literary solidarity. Attendance will be limited to 120 people\, which is the capacity for the theater at The Writer’s Center\, so reserve your seat now. \nWriters scheduled to appear include co-presidents Caroline Bock and Jona Colson along with legendary Grace Cavalieri and E. Ethelbert Miller\, plus\, Kim Roberts\, Bernardine ‘Dine’ Watson\, Samantha Neugebauer\, Jason Gebhardt\, Emily Holland\, and over 25 more! A dozen literary presses from across the DMV will also be there. A reception for all will culminate the day. A complete schedule of the day’s events can be found here »  \nAll monies from this pay-as-you-can donation will be shared between your WWPH and the Writer’s Center of Bethesda\, two nonprofit literary organizations dedicated to supporting the DMV literary community. The Washington Writers’ Publishing House is grateful to The Writer’s Center for their partnership and support with the Capital Love LitFest. \nThe Capital Love LitFest is made possible by generous grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.
URL:https://writer.org/event/capital-love/
LOCATION:The Writer’s Center\, 4508 Walsh Street\, Bethesda\, MD\, 20815\, United States
CATEGORIES:Event
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