Kim Roberts, editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly, sends us this note:
I am trying to compile a list of literature set (or primarily set) in Washington, DC. Can you help suggest some titles? I'd like to include some fiction (such as Andrew Holleran's Grief and Thomas Mallon's Two Moons), some poetry (such as Thomas Sayers Ellis's The Maverick Room and Jean Toomer's Cane), and some nonfiction (such as Walt Whitman's Specimen Days and Henry Adams's The Education of Henry Adams). In general, I'm not as interested in genre fiction, unless its of pretty high literary quality.
Hmm...We thought of Lost in the City by Edward Jones; the Bowl is Already Broken by Mary Kay Zuravleff (see also: Frequency of Souls); Breaking her Fall by Stephen Goodwin; A Student of Living Things by Susan Richards Shreve; and Rockville Pike: A Suburban Comedy of Manners by Susan Coll (okay, it's suburban Md, but we think it should count).
Does anyone else out there have DC-based fiction titles for Kim??
Aren't the Patterson books set in DC?
Posted by: mapletree7 | August 10, 2006 at 02:55 PM
Christina Stead's "The Man Who Loved Children."
More recently, Carnivore Diet and Mother of Sorrows.
Posted by: Nancy | August 10, 2006 at 10:26 PM
Everything by George Pelecanos. The fabulous story collection "Contenders" by Terence Winch, most of which are set in DC.
Posted by: Billy | August 10, 2006 at 11:08 PM
Forty Shades of Rain and Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson. A gay romantic comedy by somebody whose name escapes me called Dupont Circle. The novels by Wonkette and Washingtonienne. At least two or three novels by Gore Vidal.
Posted by: Ron | August 11, 2006 at 12:13 AM
Dupont Circle is by Paul Kafka-Gibbons. Speaking of gay romantic comedies, Fool's Errand and Endangered Species, both by Louis Bayard.
Posted by: Billy | August 11, 2006 at 10:27 AM
"Sam the Cat and Other Stories" by Matthew Klam.
Posted by: matt | August 12, 2006 at 04:00 PM
Edward Jones's new book, ALL AUNT HAGAR'S CHILDREN. And don't forget Faye Moskowitz, whose essays are oftentimes set in DC. (Thanks, Nacy, for thinking of me!)
Posted by: Richard | August 13, 2006 at 02:40 AM
Cupid and Diana, by Christina Bartolomeo.
Posted by: Genevieve | August 14, 2006 at 01:16 AM
And Christopher Buckley's books: Thank You For Smoking, The White House Mess, Little Green Men, etc.
Posted by: Genevieve | August 14, 2006 at 01:18 AM
heartburn by nora ephron - most washingtonian of them all
Posted by: margaret | August 14, 2006 at 12:39 PM
And another one came to me: Mark Merlis's MAN ABOUT TOWN.
Posted by: Richard | August 15, 2006 at 11:59 PM
# District of Columbia by John Dos Passos(1952). Three-volume set includes
* Adventures of a Young Man (1939)
* Number One (1943)
* The Grand Design (1949)
Posted by: Chris | August 24, 2006 at 08:50 AM