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Politics & Prose

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Politics and Prose is a beloved and award-winning staple for book lovers around the nation's capital and the world. So Many Books, So Little Time.

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Upcoming Events

Oct23
Author EventWashington, DC

Claudia Castro Luna — The Flowers Along the Way: A Memoir — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Friday, October 23, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

This event will be in partnership with Salvadoran Cultural Institute.Passionately demonstrating the dormant trauma of political violence and the redemption waiting beyond itFrom El Salvador’s lush countryside to the streets of Oakland, California, a young mother wrestles with the intersecting forces of memory, history, and language in order to chart a new path for herself and her growing family. Fleeing political unrest and civil war violence in El Salvador, fourteen-year-old Claudia Castro Luna arrived in the United States with her family in 1981. Two decades later, holding her two-year-old and pregnant with her second child, she survives a public shooting by hiding behind shrubs in front of her house in Oakland. This event unleashes disorienting and traumatic memories, plunging her into a journey of discovery as she grapples with PTSD, recovers family stories, and begins to make sense of all that was torn asunder within her by the experiences of war and emigration. Beauty, longing, fear, and joy entwine in this powerful story of love, self-determination, and the search for home.CLAUDIA CASTRO LUNA is a 2019 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, a former Washington State Poet Laureate, and Seattle’s inaugural Civic Poet. She is the author of the poetry collections Green, the World; Cipota Under the Moon; Killing Marías; One River, A Thousand Voices; and This City, a chapbook. Her nonfiction has appeared in anthologies, journals, and newspapers. Born in El Salvador, Castro Luna lives and dreams in English and Spanish.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Oct24
Author EventWashington, DC

Roberto Tejada & Christina Wiginton — Art & Water: Volume 2 - with Kaira M. Cabañas — at Conn Ave

3:00 PM • Saturday, October 24, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Essays, personal meditations, and images that explore water in all its renewing, destructive, corrosive, and connecting powerWater and its transmutations link the contributions in Art & Water, the second volume in the series Art & from the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art. The series situates the study of art at the intersection of various disciplines—here, they include modernist literature, poetry, film, and both natural and built environments. Essayists use water to address hydrolatry practices in India; ritual objects and practices of enslaved Afro-Surinamers; traces of millstones in the architecture of Seville; and visualizations of sea-level change in the nineteenth-century United States. Their research places art within broader conversations in the humanities considering a water-oriented rather than terrestrial historical framework.The book is enlivened by first-person narratives that examine deeply embedded meanings of water. Continuing the series’ tradition of exciting book design, an enclosed poster from Brazilian multimedia artist Aline Motta addresses ancestry, memory, and belonging across the Black Atlantic while compellingly conjuring water’s capacity to transform, bring together, and renew. Water as a connective theme offers a fitting lens to advance understandings of how art, as both material object and practice, remains entangled with the natural, supernatural, and scientific—and, like water, remains inseparable from our daily lives.Distributed for the National Gallery of Art, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual ArtsRoberto Tejada is an award-winning poet and the author of art histories that include Along the Diagonal: Art / Essays / América (2026), National Camera: Photography and Mexico’s Image Environment (2009) and Celia Alvarez Muñoz (2009), as well as the poetry collections Carbonate of Copper (2025), Why the Assembly Disbanded (2022) and Exposition Park (2010). A Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Tejada serves as the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor at the University of Houston, where he teaches creative writing and art history.Christina Wiginton is an art book publishing specialist focused on color-critical print production for visually ambitious museum publications and nonfiction books. She has worked extensively in illustrated book development, first at the Smithsonian Institution and now at the National Gallery of Art.Tejada and Wiginton will be in conversation with Kaira M. Cabañas, the award-winning author of several volumes, including Immanent Vitalities: Meaning and Materiality in Modern and Contemporary Art (2021), which received the College Art Association’s Frank Jewett Mather Award. Her previous work, Learning from Madness: Brazilian Modernism and Global Contemporary Art (2018), was recognized as a finalist for the Modernist Studies Association Book Prize. Since 2023, she has served as Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Publications at the National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts.This event is free with first come, first serve seating. To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Oct24
Author EventWashington, DC

Brian Jay Jones — The Capitol: The Surprising Biography of an American Building - with David O. Stewart — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Saturday, October 24, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

An in-depth exploration of history of the US Capitol building and the incredible personalities who built it, full of dramatic stories, surprising facts, and offering a powerful testament to what the Capitol has meant to generations of Americans, and how it’s endured.The Capitol is a unique biography of a place, encompassing architecture, history, politics, popular culture, and race in a fascinating exploration of our Capitol's secret history; a history rife with political intrigue, assassination attempts, thwarted bombings, and gunmen on the run. Never mind ghostly cat prints, mysteriously bloodstained steps, and charming “fairy doors” that have delighted visitors for hundreds of years. Spanning across three centuries of American history, it focuses on iconic and easily recognizable names and personalities from the past—from George Washington to Davy Crockett to Ronald Reagan—as well as countless colorful characters readers may not have heard of before, with a focus on restoring the stories of enslaved people and recognizing their contributions. The story of the Capitol is the story of America itself, and, for the first time, that story will be told in this sweeping, aspirational biography of the building at the very heart of the American experiment.Brian Jay Jones is the critically acclaimed, bestselling biographer of some of the world’s most iconic creative geniuses. Born in the Midwest and raised in the Southwest, Brian has a degree in English from the University of New Mexico. He spent more than two decades as a public policy analyst and speechwriter for thought leaders and elected officials at all levels of government, including nearly ten years in the US Senate. He presently lives in New Mexico.Jones will be in conversation with David O. Stewart, who has published eleven award-winning and best-selling books of history and historical novels. In 2023, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Washington Independent Review of Books. His most recent fictional series, the Overstreet Saga, is inspired by family stories his mother told. He lives in Maryland with the light of his life, Nancy Floreen; they have three children and six grandchildren.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Oct25
Author EventWashington, DC

Robin Maril — A Queer Guide to Saving American Democracy - with Charlotte Clymer — at Conn Ave

3:00 PM • Sunday, October 25, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Since the early 2000s, American courts and legislatures have delivered a series of generation-defining LGBTQ legal victories. Today, this progress and the very institutions that made it possible are under attack. A Queer Guide to Saving American Democracy is an introduction to this democratic crisis, speaking directly to the queer and transgender people navigating the intensifying political and cultural fault lines. It argues that the current denigration of queer and transgender lives in the US is a symptom of the broader degradation of American democracy, representing the newest threat of American fascism. By centering queer and trans identity in the larger history of authoritarianism, the book highlights the strategic villainization of nonconforming groups as a tool to consolidate power and political control. In response, this book empowers readers to adopt pro-democracy frameworks rooted in the defiant authenticity and stubborn joy of queer existence, forging pathways committed to transformative social change.Robin Maril is a writer and Constitutional Law professor based in Portland, Oregon. Her work engages questions of democratic integrity and the growing threat of fascism and authoritarian regimes within America. She also hosts the podcast A Queer Guide to Saving Democracy. She is a widely recognized scholar on LGBTQ rights and policy, Executive power, and the law of democracy. Before teaching, Robin worked in the LGBTQ civil rights movement at the Human Rights Campaign for nearly a decade. Robin began her legal career as a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She and her wife have two sons, two dogs, and an unknown number of snails. She is a proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma and Temple University Beasley School of Law.Maril will be in conversation with Charlotte Clymer, a writer and activist. She's the author of Charlotte's Web Thoughts, an award-winning Substack blog on politics, religion, and foreign policy.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Oct25
Author EventWashington, DC

Roz Chast & Jason Adam Katzenstein — The Two Saddest Kitchens: A Comics Conversation — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Sunday, October 25, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

#1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning author Roz Chast teams up with her fellow New Yorker cartoonist Jason Adam Katzenstein to rip the Tupperware lid off what's really going on in their kitchens.The kitchen is the “heart of the home,” or at least it's supposed to be. But wait! What's that lurking under the sink? Behind the cabinets? In the back of the refrigerator?! When celebrated New Yorker cartoonists Roz Chast and Jason Adam Katzenstein confessed to each other that their kitchens were far from Martha Stewart perfect, they knew they couldn't be the only ones cracking under the pressure of their pressure cookers.In The Two Saddest Kitchens, Roz and Jason combine their hilarious cartoon sensibilities to take (chicken) stock of everything from tragic pantries to the secret double life of Mr. Clean. Let Roz and Jason guide you through their divine kitchen comedy as they ponder the fancy utensils that will never be used, the recipes that will never be followed, and the dream kitchens that exist only on the astral plane, which is maybe for the best.Roz Chast’s cartoons began appearing in the New Yorker in 1978, where she has since published more than one thousand. She is the author of the graphic memoirs Can We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, a #1 New York Times bestseller (100+ weeks), a National Book Critics Circle Award and Kirkus Prize winner and finalist for the National Book Award; National Bestseller I Must Be Dreaming; Going Into Town (Winner of the New York City Book Award); What I Hate: From A to Z; and her cartoon collections The Party, After You Left and Theories of Everything, among others. She was awarded the Harvey Hall of Fame Award. She lives in Connecticut and New York.Jason Adam Katzenstein is a cartoonist and comedy writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and MAD Magazine. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic memoir Everything Is an Emergency.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Oct26
ReadingWashington, DC

Rachel A. Shelden — The Political Supreme Court: A Forgotten History - with Steve Vladeck — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Monday, October 26, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Today's Supreme Court justices bristle at the label "politicians in robes," insisting that they operate above the fray of partisan politics. But for the first century of the nation's history, the Court was unmistakably a political institution, both by design and in practice. Justices were fully expected to engage in partisan politics--there was no concern that such engagement would lead to corruption or undue bias--and they remained deeply involved in civic debate and the electoral process while on the bench. In addition to hearing cases in the capital, each justice spent much of his time "riding circuit" and presiding over federal trial courts. On circuit and in Washington, nineteenth-century justices wrote for partisan newspapers, drafted legislation, advised partisan allies, campaigned for colleagues, and even ran for political offices from the bench. Through these political interactions, members of the Court helped shape debates about the Constitution's meaning at a time when most Americans did not believe in judicial supremacy.In this sweeping history, Rachel A. Shelden, one of America's leading voices on the history of the Court, brings readers inside the social and political world of its justices, recovering their essential role in the era's turbulent politics. She also charts shifts at the turn of the twentieth century, when members of the Court and the legal community refashioned the judiciary as an apolitical institution, setting the stage for an increasingly more powerful--and more isolated--modern Court. The Political Supreme Court is required reading for anyone interested in the legal and political underpinnings of today's judicial power.Rachel A. Shelden is associate professor of history and director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at Penn State University. A leading scholar of nineteenth-century America, Shelden is a member of the Historians Council on the Constitution at the Brennan Center for Justice.Shelden will be in conversation with Stephen I. Vladeck, the Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Federal Courts at the Georgetown University Law Center, is a nationally recognized expert on the Supreme Court, the federal courts, national security law, and military justice. He is the author of The Court We Need: What's Really Wrong With the Supreme Court—and How to Fix It, forthcoming from Viking Books on May 4, 2027, and of the New York Times-bestselling The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic. He serves as CNN’s Supreme Court analyst and writes One First, a popular weekly newsletter about the Court. And he is the inaugural holder of the National Institute of Military Justice’s Professor Edmund Morgan Chair in Military Justice.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Oct27
Author EventWashington, DC

Janet Reitman — The Inheritance: An American Tragedy in Five Acts - With Annie Karni — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Tuesday, October 27, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

A stunning work of narrative nonfiction that traces the lives of nine Americans over three decades, offering a vivid account of a nation in crisis—from award-winning New York Times Magazine writer Janet Reitman A thrill-seeking former Navy pilot chases adventure in Afghanistan, while in suburbia, his teenage son spirals into extremism. The grandson of African freedom fighters joins the FBI to save America from terrorism and ends up terrorizing the African immigrants he’d sworn to protect. A young Marine who sees himself as a true-blue American goes to war in Iraq, comes home broken, and is reborn as white nationalist. An idealistic young attorney defends a Palestinian engineer she believes is wrongly accused of funding Hamas. These four people, and five others, struggle to find their way in a country reimagining itself in the wake of 9/11. In The Inheritance, Janet Reitman, the bestselling author of Inside Scientology, delivers an intimate and urgent account of American disillusionment—and a paean to hope. From the bucolic suburbs of Boston to the immigrant enclaves of Dallas, from the deserts of Iraq to the encrypted chatrooms that fuel hatred and extremism, The Inheritance unfolds in repeating narratives of people moving through the decades, from the end of the Reagan era to the present day, painting a sweeping and deeply affective portrait of how a country revered for its democratic ideals became a nation defined by its fears. Rigorously reported and brimming with novelistic detail, The Inheritance reveals the hidden cost of the war on terror, exposing the psychic wounds that haunt us to this day.Janet Reitman is an award-winning journalist and contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. Formerly a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, she has twice been a finalist for the National Magazine Award and was a fellow at the New America Foundation. Reitman’s previous book, Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion, was a national bestseller and New York Times Notable Book.Reitman will be in conversation with Annie Karni, a congressional correspondent and a former White House correspondent for The New York Times. She is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller “Mad House: How Donald Trump, MAGA Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby, and a Man with Rats in His Walls Broke Congress”This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Oct28
Author EventWashington, DC

Lawrence Wright — at Redemption: Faith, Justice, and Sisterhood on Death Row - with Glenn Frankel — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Wednesday, October 28, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

A powerful and startling account of the unlikely connection between a convent of cloistered nuns and the condemned women on Texas’s death row, exploring questions around crime and punishment, faith, and retribution in America as only Lawrence Wright canIn the fall of 2014, Deacon Ronnie Lastovica visited a women’s prison in Gatesville, Texas and gave communion to the women on death row. Moved by the meeting, the Deacon vowed to return weekly, but he knew he couldn’t help these women alone. He called upon the Sisters of Mary Morning Star, a group of contemplative nuns in Waco, Texas, to visit the seven condemned women with him. What followed is an incredible story of a spiritual alliance between two groups of women living uniquely similar lives. In these pages, Lawrence Wright takes us into the death row unit, laying bare these women’s daily lives, histories, and their horrific crimes. Some of the women wrestle with the guilt of the suffering they caused, others fiercely maintain their innocence. As Wright learns more about their cases, unethical police practices and improper forensic methodologies pose disturbing questions of whether some of the condemned women actually committed the crimes for which they’re paying the ultimate price.Clear-eyed and rousing, layered and morally complex, Wright explores ideas of retribution, spirituality, and the ultimate question of absolution.Lawrence Wright is a staff writer for The New Yorker, a playwright, a screenwriter, and the author of ten books of nonfiction, including The Looming Tower, Going Clear, and God Save Texas, and four previous novels, The Human Scale, Mr. Texas, The End of October, and God's Favorite. His books have received many honors, including a Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower. He and his wife are longtime residents of Austin, Texas.Wright will be in conversation with Glenn Frankel. Frankel worked for many years for The Washington Post, serving as bureau chief in Richmond VA, London, Southern Africa and Jerusalem, where he won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. He has taught journalism at Stanford University and the University of Texas at Austin, where he directed the School of Journalism. He is the author of five books, has won a National Jewish Book Award and was a Motion Picture Academy film scholar for his most recent book, Shooting Midnight Cowboy. This event is free with first come, first serve seating. To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Oct29
ReadingWashington, DC

Marie Lu - Mortal Things - in conversation with Jessica Spotswood - at Conn Ave

6:00 PM • Thursday, October 29, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

About the Event: An evening with Marie Lu as she introduces her exciting new adventure in the world of gods. She will be joined by fellow YA author Jessica Spotswood. A purchase of the book through P&P is needed to join the singing line.About the Author: Marie Lu is the bestselling author of many Young Adult novels, including Legend and Stars and Smoke. She graduated from the University of Southern California and initially jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as an artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing games, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.Jessica Spotswood is an eidtor and author of many Young Adult historical fantasy novels including The Cahill Witch Chronicles. Jess lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and she works for the DC Public Library.

Oct29
Author EventWashington, DC

Daniel Cox — Generation Uncoupled: America's New Gender Divide and the Crisis of Human Connection - with Elena Moore — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Thursday, October 29, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

A sweeping and empathetic portrait of the new gender divide, from a top pollster and cultural commentator—with key insights into what the gap means for the future of relationships, family life, and democracyIn Generation Uncoupled, a leading researcher on American public life investigates the alarming distance between young men and women in America. Drawing on years of original research, wide-ranging interviews, and extensive public writing, Daniel Cox traces how Gen Z men and women are being pulled apart—on campus, in dating culture, and across the political spectrum. Women are more empowered, ambitious, and vocal than ever before, but more anxious about their personal autonomy and rights. Men face growing uncertainty about their roles, identity, and place in modern society. What emerges is a generation caught between rapid technological innovation, widespread cultural change and deepening mistrust.From the fallout of the "Me Too" movement and the loneliness crisis, a transactional dating culture, online harassment, and the illusion of endless choice, Generation Uncoupled explores how young adults have come to fear each other as much as they desire connection. Cox unpacks how family life, gender roles, and romantic norms have been reshaped by an immersive digital culture, a broken politics and overstructured childhoods—and how rising social disconnection has only made things worse. Along the way, he introduces readers to the young people behind the statistics: anxious, avoidant, and often deeply alone.But this isn’t just a story of what’s broken—it’s a call for a cultural reset. With rigor, compassion, and a refusal to take sides, Generation Uncoupled challenges political orthodoxy and media narratives alike. If we want to rebuild trust—between men and women, between left and right, and across generational lines—we must understand how we got here. This is the definitive book for anyone trying to make sense of a generation shaped by freedom, fractured by fear, and longing to connect.Daniel Cox is the director and founder of the Survey Center on American Life and a senior fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Under his leadership, the center is focused on public opinion and survey research on a variety of topics, including the emerging gender divide among young adults, dating and relationships, and social connection. He lives in Washington D.C. with his wife and two sons. He is an unapologetic fan of Chelsea F.C.Cox will be in conversation with Elena Moore. Moore is a political reporter assigned to NPR's Washington Desk. She covers breaking news at the White House, Congress and other government agencies for all NPR platforms. She is also a leading national reporter covering young voters and youth politics. As part of NPR's 2024 election team, Moore traveled around the country reporting on emerging political trends and top issues for young Americans who hold a wide range of political viewpoints. Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, Moore covered the first Gen-Z candidates to run for Congress. During the 2020 election cycle, she did both reporting and production as a researcher for the Washington Desk. She is also a former producer of the NPR Politics Podcast. Before coming to NPR in 2019, Moore worked at NBC News. She is a former Paul Miller Reporting Fellow at the National Press Foundation and a graduate of The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Moore is originally and proudly from Brooklyn, New York.This event is free with first come, first serve seating. To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Oct30
Author EventWashington, DC

What’s Next for American Democracy? — William Kristol & María Teresa Kumar moderated by Judy Woodruff — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Friday, October 30, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Join us for a special conversation with three of the nation's most compelling voices on democracy—a leading conservative commentator, a pioneering advocate for voting rights, and one of the most respected leaders in American journalism—as they come together for a candid conversation about American democracy.The stakes for American democracy are high. What can we expect over the next weeks and months? Can our institutions hold? What sort of pro-democracy coalition is required to meet this moment? What are the compromises such a coalition might need to make? What are the sacrifices?There could not be a more important time for this conversation. Kristol, Kumar, and Woodruff all come to this moment along different paths yet share a conviction that democracy is imperiled, must be preserved, and ultimately will require people power, working together in ways large and small.Kristol and Kumar are Senior Fellows, and Woodruff is the Kay Fanning Fellow in Journalism and Democracy, at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, a nonpartisan operating foundation with a mission to advance inclusive democracies worldwide.William Kristol is editor-at-large of The Bulwark, where he’s lead author of the must-read daily newsletter, Morning Shots. Kristol is also founding director of Defending Democracy Together, an educational and advocacy organization dedicated to defending America’s liberal democratic norms, principles, and institutions, and a Charles F. Kettering Foundation senior fellow.Kristol has long been recognized as a leading participant in and analyst of American politics and has helped shape the national debate on issues ranging from American foreign policy to the meaning of American conservatism. He founded The Weekly Standard in 1995 and edited the influential conservative magazine for over two decades. Before that, he served in senior positions in the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations.Prior to coming to Washington, DC, in 1985, Kristol taught politics at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. He received his undergraduate degree and doctorate from Harvard University.María Teresa Kumar is the founding President and Co-Founder of Voto Latino and Voto Latino Foundation, the nation's premier Latino youth advocacy and voter registration organizations, which together have registered nearly 1.8 million voters.An Emmy-nominated MSNOW analyst and Senior Fellow at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Kumar serves on the boards of Steve Madden, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. She previously served on President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing and currently serves on the National Task Force on Election Crises. She is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.Her honors include Forbes' 50 Over 50: Impact, TIME's 13 Latinos Reshaping the Country, Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and recognition as one of Carnegie Corporation's Great Immigrants.Raised in Sonoma, California, Kumar is a first-generation college graduate of UC Davis and holds a master's degree from Harvard's Kennedy School.Moderating the discussion will be Judy Woodruff, senior correspondent and former anchor and managing editor of the PBS NewsHour. A distinguished journalist for more than five decades, Woodruff is nationally recognized for her integrity, reporting, and media leadership. She is the recipient of numerous awards, among them a Peabody Journalistic Integrity Award and an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award. Woodruff is the Charles F. Kettering’s Katherine W. Fanning Fellow in Journalism and Democracy.In early 2023, Woodruff stepped away from her anchor duties to devote her time to a new reporting project, “Judy Woodruff Presents: America at a Crossroads,” trying to understand our country and its people better and probing why Americans seem so divided. She has also continued to report on challenges facing people with disabilities.The first 100 attendees to visit our registers before the event will receive a complimentary Kettering Foundation tote bag and a copy of Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.This event is free with first come, first served seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Oct31
Author EventWashington, DC

Kim Roberts Meikle — The District's Departed: A Guidebook to DC Cemeteries - with Laura Brower Hagood — at Conn Ave

3:00 PM • Saturday, October 31, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

The definitive guidebook to celebrated and obscure cemeteries in and around the nation’s capitalPerfect for the “tombstone tourist,” this guidebook to eleven cemeteries in and around the District of Columbia offers informative walking tours of these places of repose and reflection, mapping each cemetery’s distinct character derived from the landscape, the local community, and the historical era in which it was established, and showcasing exquisite artistic and architectural styles.Kim Roberts Meikle notes how the purposes these cemeteries were designed to serve are interwoven with our histories of race, class, religion, and military service. Tours include Arlington National Cemetery, with its rigid formats for design reflective of a shifting understanding of public memorialization after the ravages of the Civil War; historically Black cemeteries such as Mt. Zion Methodist, where those frequently excluded from municipal or private cemeteries were laid to rest and lovingly remembered; and cemeteries notable for their magnificent funerary art such as Oak Hill and Rock Creek. With these engagingly written walking tours, Meikle vividly shows what the living can learn from the dead.Kim Roberts Meikle is a freelance literary historian, writer, and editor living in Washington, DC. She is the author of A Literary Guide to Washington, DC.Meikle will be in conversation with Laura Brower Hagood, executive director of the DC History Center, who has 25 years of experience as a nonprofit leader and cultural entrepreneur, including a well-established track record in development, audience engagement, and community building. She joined the organization in April 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. Laura was previously vice president of development at the National Building Museum.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Oct31
Author EventWashington, DC

Michael Dobbs — The Six Minute War: Reagan, Russia, and the Race to Automate Armageddon - with David Hoffman — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Saturday, October 31, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

This event was moved from 10/28/26 at The Wharf.New York Times bestselling author Michael Dobbs reconstructs the thrilling inside story of the climactic nuclear crisis of the Cold War, revealing the tension between “the human in the loop” and the algorithms that could trigger World War III.The year is 1983. Ronald Reagan is obsessed by biblical prophecies of Armageddon. A computer revolution is changing everything—from the way we track incoming ballistic missiles to how we share and consume information. And then, over just three months, a series of dramatic events encapsulates the president’s worst nightmares.In rapid succession, a South Korean airliner is shot down over the Soviet Union after straying off course because of pilot-computer miscommunication. A glitchy Soviet early warning system mistakenly reports an incoming US missile attack. The Kremlin puts its nuclear forces on high alert in response to a routine NATO nuclear release exercise. Reagan deploys missiles capable of destroying the Kremlin in six minutes from their launch positions in West Germany. Soviet nuclear submarines are stationed off Cape Hatteras, ready to obliterate the White House in the same amount of time.“Six minutes to decide how to respond to a blip on a radar scope and decide whether to unleash Armageddon!” Reagan recalled many years later, in a little-noticed passage in his memoirs. “How could anyone apply reason at a time like that?”In The Six Minute War, the former Moscow bureau chief for The Washington Post explores the challenge confronting fallible human leaders responding to ever-shrinking warning times of a nuclear attack. A nail-biting narrative of the Cold War crisis that heralded the fall of the Soviet Union, The Six Minute War poses an existential question: can we trust the machines at such life-or-death moments—or will we be destroyed by our own technological hubris?Michael Dobbs was born and educated in Britain. He was a longtime reporter for The Washington Post, covering the collapse of Communism as a foreign correspondent. He has taught at leading American universities, including Princeton, the University of Michigan, and Georgetown. His previous books include the bestselling One Minute to Midnight on the Cuban missile crisis, which was part of an acclaimed Cold War trilogy. He lives outside Washington, DC.Dobbs will be in conversation with David E. Hoffman, a contributing editor and member of the editorial board of The Washington Post. He was previously assistant managing editor, foreign editor, Jerusalem correspondent, Moscow bureau chief, and White House correspondent for the newspaper. He is the author of The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy, which won the Pulitzer Prize, The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal, a New York Times bestseller, and The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia. This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov1
Author EventWashington, DC

Joey Clift — We've Been Here the Whole Time!: A Not So Sacred Guide to All Things Native America - with Caty Borum — at Conn Ave

3:00 PM • Sunday, November 1, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Peabody and Emmy-nominated Native comedian Joey Clift takes you on a journey to discover the largest population you don’t know in his hilarious debut for fans of Michael Harriott, Mo Rocca, and Phoebe Robinson. Foreword by Shane Hawk, writer and co-editor of Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology!Put away the construction paper: This contraband book is here to teach you everything your high school refused to teach about Native American history, people, and culture. From misunderstood figures like Pocahontas, to sports mascots, to the Land Back movement, to how cool Lily Gladstone is, this hilarious NDN-approved guide is the first of its kind––illustrated in an irreverent, textbook-meets-notebook style by Diné artist Julie Fiveash. Sharewith your loved ones and transform your boring Thanksgiving into a big “You’re Welcome” dance party!Joey Clift (Cowlitz tribe) walks you through a wide range of information that will answer provocative questions and debunk Americans' wildest assumptions, like: “Native American” or “American Indian”: What the heck do we call you?Is it appropriate to do a Land Acknowledgement over Zoom?Why saying “I’m 1/16th Cherokee” is like saying you’re “1/16th Californian’Columbus Day is a holiday for a guy who was bad at pretty much everythingAre Native American people extinct? No! Stop asking!This giftable, conversation-starting book is perfect for history buffs, teachers, and comedy lovers alike. Funny, fearless, and deeply informative, Joey Clift’s debut reminds readers that Native people aren’t just part of history—they’ve been here the whole time.Joey Clift is a Los Angeles-based comedian, TV writer, director, Peabody and Emmy-nominated producer, and enrolled member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Joey attended college to become a local TV weather person because he didn’t see any Native American comedians on television as a kid, and that made him believe he wasn’t allowed to work in comedy. He has since proven otherwise, writing for critically acclaimed TV series like Spirit Rangers on Netflix, Molly of Denali on PBS and Paw Patrol on Nickelodeon. Joey created Gone Native, a Webby-winning Comedy Central Digital series and his short films have screened everywhere from Just for Laughs to the Smithsonian Museum.Clift will be in conversation with Caty Borum, Executive Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI), and Professor at American University’s School of Communication. She is the author or co-author of four books about entertainment, documentary, and comedy in social justice and human rights, including the latest: Radical Reality: Documentary Storytelling and the Global Fight for Social Justice (Oxford University Press, 2025), co-authored with David Conrad-Perez. In 2019, she co-founded and now co-directs, with Mik Moore, the Yes, And…Laughter Lab (YALL) and YALL Comedy Fest, which lifts up diverse comedians. In 2020, she was named to DOC NYC’s inaugural list of New Documentary Leaders, a recognition given to 16 members of the global documentary industry who have made a substantial positive impact on the field. Her research and creative media programs have been recognized with seven Anthem Awards for mission-driven media work; one Telly Award (silver); a Signal Award (gold) for We Disrupt This Broadcast, the podcast co-created and co-directed by the Center for Media & Social Impact and the Peabody Awards; and multiple book awards.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov1
Author EventWashington, DC

S.B. — I Am Drawing You: A Mother, a Child, a Sketchbook - with Matthew Klam — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Sunday, November 1, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

I Am Drawing You: A Mother, A Child, A Sketchbook is a deeply original and moving hybrid creation—equal parts art book and personal essay. Just ten days after she gave birth, S.B. began drawing her son as he nursed, napped, and awoke to the world. What began as a physical balancing act—supporting her infant’s head and her sketchbook with her left arm while drawing him with her right—soon became a tender chronicle of her child’s first five years. In more than two hundred spontaneous, sensitive, and occasionally comical line drawings, we watch this new human sleeping, crawling, and trying out possible transitional objects. In an engaging introductory essay, S.B. describes—with light doses of psychoanalytic theory, drawing pedagogy, and art history—what her practice meant to her and what it might mean to others. Sketching one’s child at close range requires a paradoxical mix of physical attachment and mental detachment, which S.B. sees as a magical elixir that can help anyone overcome the anxiety, alienation, and (yes) boredom of new parenthood. Indeed, she believes she has found the "fountain of maternal bliss," and she wants to share it with you. I Am Drawing You: A Mother, A Child, A Sketchbook is the perfect gift for new and expectant mothers and fathers!S.B. is an artist and author known primarily for her playful criticism and her anthropomorphic graphic novels. Her writing, published in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, and Artforum, has been widely anthologized. She studied drawing at the New York Studio School and the Art Students League and has lectured at Parsons School of Design, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the American Psychoanalytic Association. This is her first book of sketches from life.S.B. will be in conversation with Matthew Klam, a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Robert Bingham/PEN Award, a Whiting Writer’s Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts. His first book, Sam The Cat and Other Stories, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year in the category of first fiction, was selected as a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times, Esquire Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Kansas City Star, and by the Borders for their New Voices series. His second book, Who Is Rich?, was selected as Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times and The Washington Post, was nominated for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was named a best book of the year by Vogue. His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Esquire, GQ Magazine, and The New York Times Magazine. He currently teaches at Stony Brook University, and in the New Directions Program in Washington, DC. He’s taught creative writing in many places including Johns Hopkins University, St. Albans School, American University, and Stockholm University in Sweden. This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov2
Author EventWashington, DC

Stephen Kinzer — Boiling Point: How America Brought War to Ukraine — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Monday, November 2, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

From bestselling author Stephen Kinzer, the untold story of the secret 75-year American campaign that set the stage for war in UkraineUntil the Russian invasion in 2022, few Americans could find Ukraine on a map. Once the fighting began, however, support for its cause surged. The reason was clear: Russia was the aggressor, Ukraine its victim.Yet this war did not explode out of nowhere. For seventy-five years, Moscow and Washington have fought over Ukraine. It is the most sustained covert conflict in modern history. Both sides sought to keep this story secret. They succeeded—until now.In his groundbreaking new book, Stephen Kinzer tells this long-hidden story. Beginning in the refugee camps of postwar Europe, where CIA officers recruited their first Ukrainian agents, it follows generations of rebels, exiles, traitors, and covert operatives through decades of clandestine missions. Although nearly all of the guerrilla warriors that the CIA sent into Ukraine were captured or killed, it never gave up. From the late 1940s through the end of the Cold War, American leaders saw Ukrainians as one of their most effective weapons against Moscow. They continued to press that strategy after Ukraine’s independence and the eastward expansion of the US-dominated NATO alliance.Richly detailed and plot-driven, Boiling Point shows how the United States made Ukraine its most important European project of the twenty-first century, culminating in the escalation that led to war. From battlefields in the Carpathians to smoke-filled offices in New York to the Olympic Games, it is full of the wild stories and improbable characters that made All the Shah’s Men a classic. This is the last great untold spy-versus-spy story of our time.Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning writer and correspondent who has reported from more than 50 countries on five continents. His articles and books have led The Washington Post to place him “among the best in popular foreign policy storytelling.” Kinzer spent more than 20 years working for The New York Times, most of it as a foreign correspondent. His postings placed him at the center of historic events and, at times, in the line of fire. His ten books seek to uncover the roots of global conflicts. Most are accounts of American interventions abroad— how they were carried out and what their long-term effects have been. He is a Senior Fellow at the Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University and writes a world affairs column for The Boston Globe.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov3
Author EventWashington, DC

Gaël Faye — Jacaranda — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Tuesday, November 3, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

A young man journeys from Paris to Rwanda to discover the truth about his family’s past in this bestselling, prize-winning novel from internationally renowned Rwandan-French novelist and hip-hop artist Gaël Faye.Milan—the twelve-year-old son of a French father and a Rwandan mother—blames flunking his exams on the emotional toll of the genocide in his mother’s homeland. In truth, his mother never talks about Rwanda; the violence is an abstraction that only reaches their French suburb through television broadcasts. That is, until Milan meets Claude, a small boy with a bandaged head whom Milan’s mother introduces as a cousin who has come to France seeking medical treatment. Milan embraces him as the brother he’s always wanted—until, one day, Claude is sent back to Rwanda without warning, leaving him heartbroken and confused.Four years later, the boys reunite as teenagers when Milan visits Rwanda for the first time with his mother in the wake of her divorce and discovers a more fractured and vibrant community than he could have imagined. But the trip raises more questions for him than it answers—about family, the war, and its aftershocks. Over the course of many years, Milan will return to Rwanda again and again, compelled to unearth the secrets that have taken root in the shadows of long silences, confront the past, and imagine a new future.Partly inspired by acclaimed author Gaël Faye’s own relationship with Rwanda and its history, Jacaranda is a rich and deeply felt portrait of a man seeking to understand his family and his nation as it heals from the unthinkable.Gaël Faye was born in 1982 in Burundi to a French father and Rwandan mother. In 1995, after the outbreak of the civil war and the Rwandan genocide, the family moved to France. An author, songwriter, and hip-hop artist, he released his first solo album, Pili Pili sur un croissant au beurre, in 2013. His first novel, Small Country, was an international bestseller awarded numerous literary prizes, including the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov4
Author EventWashington, DC

John Reeves — Grant's Betrayal: Power, Corruption, and the Theft of the Black Hills — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Wednesday, November 4, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

The controversial story of the secret conspiracy inside Ulysses S. Grant’s White House that led to the theft of the sacred Black Hills from the Lakota people, set against a backdrop of brazen corruption, Lakota resistance, and Gilded Age greed.A riveting account of the secret, rapacious conspiracy that led to the theft of the sacred Black Hills, Grant’s Betrayal is set against a backdrop of brazen corruption, Lakota resistance, and Gilded Age greed. This unfamiliar story is about capitalism and fraud at the time of America’s first centennial. It’s also about loss. Over a period of several decades, the Lakota people lost most of their land, their bison herds, and their liberty to roam over their once-expansive territory. After initially pursuing a “Peace Policy,” the Grant administration dramatically reversed course, choosing to pressure the Lakota people into relinquishing the Black Hills after the discovery of gold there in 1874. Referring to the unjust land grab by the Grant administration, a U.S. Court of Claims declared, a century later in 1975: “The duplicity of President Grant’s course and the duress practiced on the starving Sioux, speak for themselves. A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history.”Grant’s Betrayal sheds new light on the shocking dispossession of Indigenous lands by corrupt politicians, aggressive military commanders, and Gilded Age capitalists hungry for gold. The heroic resistance offered by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other Native American luminaries is central to the story as well. This poignant narrative helps us better understand what it means to be an American by reconsidering an unjust and regrettable chapter of our history.John Reeves is the author of A Fire in the Wilderness and The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee. He has taught European and American history at Lehman College, Bronx Community College, and Southbank University in London. John received an MA in European History from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. You can learn more about him at john-reeves.com. He lives near Washington, DC.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov5
Author EventWashington, DC

Laurence Leamer — Ladies' Man: The Careless Heart of John F. Kennedy — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Thursday, November 5, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

From the New York Times bestselling author of Capote’s Women, a penetrating examination of President John F. Kennedy’s complicated, tumultuous life as told through the lens of the fascinating women he lovedJohn F. Kennedy was a born leader—bold, charismatic, and able to charm with nothing more than a witty phrase and a winning smile. He was also obsessive, manipulative, and haunted by complex desires for shiny, remarkable women, collecting them voraciously and carelessly, then dismissing them summarily, on his rise to the White House.But these women were perhaps the only witnesses to the real JFK—and it’s time their stories were finally told. Bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer knew three of Kennedy’s mistresses, and Ladies’ Man reveals JFK’s harrowing, intimate life with unprecedented access.From youthful indiscretions at boarding school, early connections with such beautiful aristocratic European women as Inga Arvad and Gunilla von Post, marriage to the stately Jacqueline Bouvier, romances with Pamela Turnure and Diana de Vegh, liaisons with mafia moll Judith Exner and East German spy Ellen Rometsch, to his relationship with Marilyn Monroe shortly before her death, JFK’s affairs were multifaceted and often tragic. His cautious public persona contrasted sharply with his reckless personal life, where he took bewildering chances that could have destroyed his presidency.No one who reads Ladies’ Man will ever think about John F. Kennedy the same way again.New York Times bestselling author Laurence Leamer is a leading biographer of the celebrated and powerful, and his books include Capote’s Women, Hitchcock’s Blondes, Warhol’s Muses, Madness Under the Royal Palms, and The Kennedy Women, among many other books. He lives in Washington, DC, and Palm Beach, Florida.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov7
Author EventWashington, DC

Gerald J. Steinacher — The Pope Against Nuremberg: How the Vatican Helped Nazis Escape Postwar Justice - with Richard Breitman — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Saturday, November 7, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

How Vatican officials aided Nazi war criminals and undermined Allied justice after World War IIIn the aftermath of World War II, the Nuremberg Trials promised a new era of international justice, holding Nazi leaders to account for their crimes. Yet beyond the courtroom, a very different struggle was unfolding--one that played out behind the walls of the Vatican.Provocative and meticulously researched, The Pope Against Nuremberg uncovers how the Vatican shielded Nazi war criminals, undermined the principles of the Nuremberg Trials, and ran ratline networks that spirited perpetrators to safety under the cover of Christian mercy. Drawing on newly opened Vatican archives, as well as government and intelligence records from Europe and the Americas, Gerald Steinacher reveals a campaign that would benefit some of the most notorious Nazi perpetrators by helping them avoid prosecution.Church officials petitioned Allied leaders, including the U.S. president, submitted statements for the defense, coordinated public relations campaigns, resisted extraditions, and, in some cases, sheltered wanted war criminals on Church property. Meanwhile, Pope Pius XII, long criticized for his alleged public silence during the Holocaust, urged the world to "forgive Germany." Steinacher places these actions within the turbulent politics of early Cold War Europe, when fear of communism increasingly outweighed the pursuit of accountability for mass crimes. Combining groundbreaking research and compelling storytelling, The Pope Against Nuremberg provides new answers to decades-old questions about the role and motivations of church officials in the networks that helped Nazis escape justice.Gerald J. Steinacher is the James A. Rawley Professor of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has published eighteen books, including Nazis on the Run, which won the National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category.Steinacher will be in conversation with Richard Breitman, distinguished professor emeritus at American University. His most recent book is A Calculated Restraint: What Allied Leaders Said About the Holocaust.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov7
Author EventWashington, DC

Steve Winter — Big Cats - with Sharon Guynup — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Saturday, November 7, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Come face-to-face with lions, tigers, and more in this gorgeous retrospective collection of narrated images from a renowned National Geographic photographer.170 photographs, the best of Steve Winter’s award-winning images of the world’s charismatic felines, jump off the pages of this powerful large-format book.National Geographic photographer Steve Winter has spent his career photographing big cats around the world, from the fierce jaguars of Brazil’s Pantanal to the elusive Himalayan snow leopard. His photographs astound; his stories, even more so. In Big Cats, Winter and wildlife journalist Sharon Guynup share experiences behind the lens.In chapters on every key species—cougar, jaguar, leopard, snow leopard, tiger, and lion—readers will witness the power of Winter’s work, including uplifting stories of how his photographs have made a difference and powered important conservation efforts on behalf of these mighty creatures, including: The famous photo of P-22, the cougar in front of the Hollywood sign, which inspired a wildlife crossing spanning 10 lanes of two L.A. highwaysPhotos of tiger abuse and trafficking behind a tourist trap in a Thai temple, which led the government to shut down the businessPhotos of American lion and tiger amusement venues, dangerous to visitors and inhumane to the cats involved, which prompted exposés including the Tiger King documentary and led to a U.S. law banning big cats as petsWinter and Guynup’s work has changed the world—and it continues to awe and inspire us. But you don’t have to be a serious-minded conservationist to be pulled into their new book. All animal lovers—especially those who love cats, big and small—are invited to look deeply into the eyes and lives of these iconic species, chronicled in this beautiful keepsake book.Steve Winter has won numerous international awards, including BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year and BBC Wildlife Photojournalist of the Year. He lectures internationally on photography and conservation issues and has been interviewed on CBS Nightly News, 60 Minutes, NPR, BBC, and CNN. He contributes regularly to National Geographic magazine, for which he can spend months working on a single story. He’s camped for weeks in steamy jungles, vast grasslands, and at 15,000 feet in the Himalayas to capture cats’ stunning beauty and secret behaviors. He lives in Hoboken, NJ.Winter will be in conversation with Sharon Guynup, an award-winning journalist and producer. She covers wildlife, ecosystems, conservation initiatives, climate change, zoonotic disease and other environmental issues. As a global fellow with the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program and China Environment Forum, Sharon works at the intersection of environmental issues and public policy. Sharon is also a photographer, produces multimedia, and acts as contributing producer on TV and film projects, most recently, National Geographic Channel's TRAFFICKED series, and she lectures widely. Sharon has co-authored three books with Steve Winter, “Tigers Forever: Saving the World’s Most Endangered Big Cat,” “The Ultimate Book of Big Cats,” and “Big Cats”––and created and launched “The State of the Wild” book series. Her work has led her into investigative work, including an investigation for National Geographic into wildlife trafficking from the infamous Tiger Temple in Thailand, which prompted officials to shut it down and seize the monastery’s 147 tigers.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov8
Story TimeWashington, DC

Kate Hosford - You and I are Stars and Night - At Conn Ave

10:30 AM • Sunday, November 8, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

Join us for a story time and an art activity!About the Book: Bathtime turns into a magical expedition as the grown-up and child embark on the voyage together, meeting mermaids in the sea, playing hide-and-seek in an enchanted forest, and soaring with the birds before sailing home to read and snuggle in for bedtime, which they know is just another adventure beginning.Through it all, they cherish the most important thing in both dreamland and the real world: being together in a loving, playful, and imaginative relationship.About the Author: Kate Hosford is an award-winning author of many children's books and poetry collections. She is a graduate of Amherst College and Vermont College of Fine Arts where she earned her MFA. Kate lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Nov8
Author EventWashington, DC

Mary Morton — Cassatt Reconsidered - with Dorothy Kosinski — at Conn Ave

3:00 PM • Sunday, November 8, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

A sweeping reconsideration of the artist we thought we knew—and the forces that obscured her legacy.Fiercely ambitious and independent, Mary Cassatt defied expectations to become one of the most radical artists of the Impressionist movement, though she was—and remains—the least understood. Cassatt commanded and manipulated strains of old master and contemporary painting to express her female subjectivity through a brilliantly modern oeuvre on par with those of the most revered Impressionists. However, mishandled by the Parisian art establishment during her lifetime, and later by art historians and curators, she became known almost exclusively as a sentimentalizing painter of mothers and children.How did this happen to the most aspiring, revolutionary female artist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? In Cassatt Reconsidered, author Mary G. Morton probes this central question and more, demonstrating how Cassatt disturbed conventional ideals of femininity, childhood, and maternity, an uncompromising feat for which she paid dearly during her lifetime and in the annals of art historiography.Vibrantly illustrated with more than 100 images, Cassatt Reconsidered rewards readers with a fuller understanding of an artist who stands apart for daring to express, on her own terms, the unique, intimate experiences of modern women.Mary G. Morton is curator and head of the French paintings department at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She is the coauthor of Paris 1874 (2024). In 2018, the French government awarded her the title Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.Morton will be in conversation Dorothy Kosinski, Director Emerita of The Phillips Collection, where she served as director from 2008 to 2023. An internationally recognized art historian and curator, she previously held positions at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Douglas Cooper Collection in Basel, Switzerland. Kosinski was appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Council on the Humanities and has received both the Order of the Italian Star and France’s Ordre des Arts et Lettres. A widely published scholar and curator, she was a Getty Museum Scholar in Residence in 2024.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov8
Author EventWashington, DC

Thomas Frank — The Creativity Con: How Innovation Became America's Biggest Racket — at Conn Ave

5:00 PM • Sunday, November 8, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

From the best-selling and always-prescient author of What’s the Matter with Kansas? and Listen, Liberal comes a bold indictment of America’s chronic obsession with creativity and innovation, showing how these beloved ideas came to dominate our political and economic conversation, all while serving to mask inequality and protect elite interestsInnovation and creativity have been the defining watchwords of American exceptionalism for decades, used by business thinkers, tech gurus, military strategists, educators and urban planners to describe our unique standing in the world. While other countries supposedly suffer from regimentation and a fatal lack of imagination, the United States is often portrayed as an unmatched dynamo of new ideas and products. In his new book, Thomas Frank disabuses us of this notion, offering a bold account of the way creativity and innovation have been used as a kind of ideological cover for policies that reinforce the class system.Frank charts the construction of America’s glamorous self-image from Sputnik to Silicon Valley, Apple to Lockheed Martin, Madison Avenue to Main Street, Richard Florida to Donald Trump. He deconstructs the innovation agendas touted by politicians; reads the books of pop psychology; tours SXSW, the mecca of creativity where musicians mingle with Pentagon officials; and looks in on the cafes, sidewalk murals, and bike lanes that populate the neighborhoods built for the creative class. Along the way, Frank uncovers the insidious effects of centering innovation and creativity in our rhetoric while, in practice, nurturing exactly the opposite. In the name of these noble goals, he shows, our leaders have reoriented the American economy around white-collar knowledge work, cut taxes on the wealthy, deregulated banks, off-shored manufacturing, reoriented cities, and destroyed what is truly creative about this country. Deeply original, marked by Frank’s signature brilliance and acerbic wit, Progressland is a troubling X-ray of postwar American business and political culture — and a crushing indictment of the clichés that have undergirded its many failures.Thomas Frank is the bestselling author of What’s the Matter With Kansas?; Listen, Liberal; The People, No; and other books. Frank is a founding editor of The Baffler, a former columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and has written regularly for Harper’s, The Guardian, and Le Monde Diplomatique. He lives outside Washington, DC.This event is free with first come, first serve seating. To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

Nov9
WorkshopWashington, DC

Chinelo Okparanta — This Impossible Life — at Conn Ave

7:00 PM • Monday, November 9, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and ProseFree

From the acclaimed author of Under the Udala Trees, a profoundly moving, unforgettable new epic following the aftermath of one catastrophic moment in the lives of two siblings.Eleven-year-old Alohan and his four-year-old sister Ivie are the children of a rainmaker, who performs elaborate rituals to bring or hold back the rain. One day, the rainmaker's luck runs out: it pours on the wrong person’s wedding, and the repercussions for him and for his wife who accompanies him to the wedding are deadly.Orphaned and alone, Alohan is quickly forced into an early adulthood, charged with providing for and protecting Ivie. The two siblings become each other’s entire worlds, bound by loss and loyalty. But just as they begin to build a life for themselves, a lapse of judgment leaves them entangled with a wealthy couple’s nefarious scheme. The two are set on drastically different paths, constricted by the ruthlessness of those who hold great power and privilege, and those who are underfoot – who must, and will, do anything merely to survive. What unfolds is an incredible journey of crime and betrayal, misunderstanding and misfortune, spanning continents and decades: from Nigeria to the United States to Italy, and from the homes of the wealthy elites, to those of the destitute—crossing paths, at each turn, with those who steal, con, and traffic in lives.At the novel’s heart is the love between Alohan and Ivie. Told with captivating force, insight, and compassion, This Impossible Life is a gripping saga of two siblings’ survival, and of whether the love that binds them will be enough to overcome the most unforgiving of fates.Chinelo Okparanta was born and raised in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Her debut short story collection, Happiness, Like Water, was nominated for the Nigerian Writers Award, long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, as well as the Etisalat Prize for Literature. Her first novel, Under the Udala Trees, was nominated for numerous awards, including the Kirkus Prize and Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. She has published work in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, the Kenyon Review, AGNI, and other venues, and was named one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and she is currently Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Swarthmore College.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

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