The Northern Virginia Review is an annual publication of essays, fine art, photography, poetry, and short stories produced by the faculty, staff and alumni of Northern Virginia Community College and by residents of the Northern Virginia and greater Washington metropolitan areas.
Forthcoming events include readings by Benjamin Percy, Dagoberto Gilb and Yusef Komunyakaa. Also check out the following exhibit Shakespeare’s Sisters: Voices of English and European Women Writers, 1500–1700 opening on February 3rd.
Please consider participating in the Woodbridge Writer’s Retreat being held on May 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th. Writers’ work will be critiqued by a panel of writers: Dorothy Allison, Richard McCann, Alan Cheuse, and Robert Bausch. Enrollment limited to 18 people. More details to follow soon. Watch this space!
If “optimism” seems like an odd word to attach to a noirish writer, consider What It Was’ bad guy. The novel’s plot turns on Red “Fury” Jones, who spends the summer of ’72 on a crime spree, brazenly broadcasting his status in a nickname-inspiring red and white Plymouth Fury with his girlfriend’s name, Coco, stamped on the vanity plates.
Sombre prophet, mordant wisecracker, repentant cad: Leonard Cohen is back with a great new album, Old Ideas – and more wit and wisdom.
Waterstones has named its annual pick of the forthcoming year’s best debut novels.
The Waterstones 11, which gathers together the new authors that the chain thinks are most likely to scoop literary prizes and hefty sales, is notable for the fact that eight of the writers are women. So far, however, the most talked-about novel on the list is by a man – The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach.
Ayad Akhtar’s wonderful first novel tells a quintessentially American coming-of-age story: The child of immigrants struggles to find a place in his life for the traditions and beliefs of his ancestral homeland in a new world of broader possibilities that are both enticing and threatening.
Please click on the Politics and Prose web link for a detailed look at forthcoming readings. Featured authors include the best selling novelist Walter Mosley and Washington Post journalist Thomas Byrne Edsall.
Check out The Washington Post’s top 5 picks in fiction and non-fiction!
Tuesday night, Julian Barnes was awarded the Man Booker Prize for his eleventh novel, The Sense of an Ending. Praised by critics as “a work of rare and dazzling genius”
The 2011 Fall for the Book Festival has reached its final day — but that doesn’t mean any slowing of momentum! From a trio of lunchtime offerings — fiction writers, poets, and a Civil War historian — through the evening appearance of festival headliner Stephen King, Friday’s schedule promises a little of everything, including some tips on healthy eating with a bestselling vegan cookbook author! A special panel hosted by the Mystery Writers of America takes place at 5:30 p.m. in Harris Theatre on Mason’s Fairfax Campus (and offers a chance at the last remaining tickets to Stephen King’s appearance later in the evening), and the festival finishes up with the annual Breakthrough Poets Reading at 8 p.m. at The Old Firestation #3 in Old Town Fairfax.
Please note that because of uncertain weather
