Arts & Entertainment

Politics & Prose Publishes 1st Anthology, 'District Lines'

The anthology features the work of nearly 50 DC-area writers.

The work of close to 50 local writers is featured in a new anthology—District Lines—published by Chevy Chase independent bookstore, Politics & Prose.

Printed on Politics & Prose’s very own book-printing machine, District Lines contains essays, short fiction, poems, sketches and photography "on quirky and serious subjects ranging from a sighting of Effi Barry on a Metro bus to an August night on the Q Street Bridge to hotcakes at the Florida Avenue Grill to an ode to the Dupont Circle metro escalator," according to a news statement from the bookstore.

Read more about the bookstore's book-printing machine—which can print out a book from a PDF file—on Patch.

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"We really wanted to capture a sense of people and place in DC and the surrounding area," said Susan Coll, editor of the anthology. "District Lines provides a forum to showcase the vibrant DC literary community." 

Joseph Ross—whose poem "Good Friday, 14th Street, Washington, DC" appears in the anthology—adds that the collection is about "a city we all love ... a city of beauty and bruises at the same time."

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Contributor Sandra Beasley—whose poem "One-Tenth of the Body" was written after the 2009 Red Line Metrorail collision—added that, "I associate my time in DC with the seminal steps I took toward becoming an author."

Contributor Anna El-Eini—who was born in Sudan and grew up in England before moving to the United States—called it an "honor" to have been selected for the anthology.

Other contributors to the inaugural edition of District Lines included Linda Pastan, Jody Bolz, Richard Peabody, David Rowell, Glen Finland and Faye Moskowitz, among 40 other writers.

Hear District Lines' contributors read from their work at Politics & Prose on Saturday, June 15, at 3:30 p.m.

Pick up your copy of District Lines ($15) at Politics & Prose (5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC).


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