Join us for readings and discussion inspired by the Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s new anthology, This Is What America Looks Like: Poetry and Fiction from DC, Maryland, and Virginia, 111 works by 100 writers. Editor Kathleen Wheaton describes this anthology as “a picture of our time, our shared losses, our shared life.”

The event will feature a panel of writers representing the anthology.

Poet Sarah Browning’s books are Killing Summer and Whiskey in the Garden of Eden. She co-founded and for 10 years directed Split This Rock. Her fellowships include ones from the Lillian E. Smith Center, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Yaddo, Mesa Refuge, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Adirondack Center for Writing.

Reuben Jackson is Archivist with the University of the District of Columbia’s Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives. He is also an erstwhile radio host, a jazz critic, and the author of two volumes of poetry: Fingering the Keys (1990, Gut Punch Press) and Scattered Clouds (2019, Alan Squire Publishing).

Adam Schwartz’s debut collection of stories, The Rest of the World, won the Washington Writers’ Publishing House 2020 prize for fiction. His stories have won prizes sponsored by Poets & Writers, Philadelphia Stories, and Baltimore City Paper and appeared in numerous literary journals. He has stories forthcoming in Raritan and Gargoyle. He has an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. For 23 years, he has taught high school in Baltimore.

Washingtonian Darlene Taylor is a lecturer and advocate for arts and literature. Her fiction and essays appear in anthologies and literary and historical journals. She holds an MFA from Stonecoast and fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, American Association of University Women, Callaloo, and Kimbilio.

Panel moderator Kathleen Wheaton grew up in California, studied at Stanford University, and worked for 20 years as a journalist in Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Bethesda, Maryland. Her fiction has appeared in many journals and three anthologies, and she is a five-time recipient of Maryland State Arts Council grants. Her collection, Aliens and Other Stories, won the 2013 Washington Writers’ Publishing House Fiction Prize. Since 2014, she has served as president and managing editor of the Washington Writers’ Publishing House.

The anthology’s poetry editor, Jona Colson, and fiction editor, Caroline Bock, will also feature in this event.

Learn more about This Is What America Looks Like.

Email [email protected] with questions about this event.