Politics and Prose Presents

A revolution has been ignited in women's sports. Much like Tiger Woods's arrival on the golf scene, what Clark has brought to women's basketball is without precedent. Prior to entering the WNBA, she was the highest-scoring college basketball player--male  or  female--in NCAA Division I history, and her last college game with Iowa was the first women's national championship final to...

There are moments throughout our lives when we discover an artist, an album, a film, or a cultural artifact that leaves a lasting impression, helping inform how we understand the world, and ourselves, moving forward. In  No Sense in Wishing , Lawrence Burney explores these profound interactions with incisive and energizing prose, offering us a personal and critical perspective on the people, place...

Captain Denise is more comfortable facing down a stingray than a party guest, though she's punched both in recent memory. After spending half her life at the helm of yachts across the Caribbean, she's risen through the ranks thanks to one rule: never, ever mix with the owners. Her sister, Helen, is a walking HR violation, one of many reasons the two haven't seen each other in years. Re...

Nearly four years after Trump's first turbulent presidency concluded in a violent attempt to overturn the election, he made a political comeback on a scale that stunned the nation. How did the first U.S. president to become a convicted felon regain control of the White House? And at what cost? In  2024 , award-winning reporters Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf bring us the definitive a...

It's the perennial question: are we a product of how we were raised, or is our identity hardwired by our genetic inheritance? When her adoptive mother dies in a freak accident, high school senior Melody Marcus doubles down on her refusal to learn anything about her birth parents. In this age of 23&me, though, that may not be possible, and the secrets hidden in her DNA threaten to upend eve...

Whether it's the mighty pyramids of Egypt or the majestic temples of Mexico, we have a good idea of what the past  looked  like. But what about our other senses: The tang of Roman fish sauce and the springy crust of Egyptian sourdough? The boom of medieval cannons and the clash of Viking swords? The frenzied plays of an Aztec ballgame...and the chilling reality that the losers might also lose...

In the 1980s, Washington, DC--a predominantly African American, racially and economically segregated city with a strong local Black culture--became a hub of Latin American immigration. As the city's communities interacted, an identity both unique to DC and reflective of diverse Latin American cultures was born. Empanadas, Pupusas, and Greens on the Side  is the first linguistics book to explor...

When Bruno stumbles upon a motionless figure in a car parked at a scenic overpass on the ridge of the Vézère valley, he's ready to investigate. Inside, he finds a suicide note and the dead body of Monique, a successful businesswoman who rented châteaus to wealthy expats. It seems like an open-and-shut case. But Bruno can't shake the suspicion that something sinister lurks underneath this t...

After six months abroad, America's top spy returns to a new administration, a new set of global priorities, and a power struggle--the likes of which the United States has never experienced. Drawn into a web of deceit and deadly politics, Scot Harvath is thrust into a high-stakes conspiracy that could change the course of history. A cabal of shadowy elites is maneuvering for control and if they...

The war that we now call the American Revolution was not only fought in the colonies with muskets and bayonets. On both sides of the Atlantic, artists armed with paint, canvas, and wax played an integral role in forging revolutionary ideals. Zara Anishanslin charts the intertwined lives of three such figures who dared to defy the British monarchy: Robert Edge Pine, Prince Demah, and Patience Wrigh...

Distracted by our own agenda, we so often hear without understanding, impatiently waiting for our turn to speak. In this exploration of transformational listening, Kasriel shows how shifting from surface-level exchanges to Deep Listening can enrich our relationships as friends, parents, and partners, enhance our effectiveness as leaders, and strengthen the fabric of our communities. At a time when...

In 1917, in Fatima, Portugal, three shepherd children claimed that the Virgin Mary appeared before them and spoke the words, "Do not be afraid." Stephen Harrigan first heard the story of Our Lady of Fatima when he was a young boy attending a Catholic school in Texas in the 1950s, struggling to come to grips with a religion that simultaneously soothed and terrified him. The question of wh...

Years after her successful and impactful career at the CIA, Christina Hillsberg became enthralled with the stories of the trailblazing women who forged new paths within the Agency long before she began her career there in the aughts. These were women who sacrificed their personal lives, risked their safety, defied expectations, and boldly navigated the male-dominated spy organization. Through excl...

John McPhee has been a staff writer for  The New Yorker  since 1965 and has written more than thirty acclaimed books that began on the magazine's pages. But few readers know or fully appreciate the true breadth of his writing.  Looking for a Story  is a complete reader's guide to McPhee's vast published work, documenting much rarely seen or connected with McPhee, including remarkable e...

Lucille "Mama Ceal" Hatch Eldridge wrote to her grandson Walter Pryor weekly for nearly 30 years, from his boyhood until she died at 80. Most extraordinarily, Mama Ceal was not a well-educated person, having completed only the eighth grade. As a live-in maid, raising other people's children, she had little leisure time to write. Yet, her letters, sprinkled throughout This Leaves Me O...

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Central American and Mexican immigrants arrived in New Orleans to help clean up and rebuild. When federal relief services overlooked the needs of immigrant-led construction and cleanup crews as part of post-Katrina mass feeding strategies, street food stands and taco trucks stepped in to ensure food security for these workers. Many of these food vendors settl...

Adela Woods is sixteen years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother's home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant aga...

David Litt, the Yale-educated writer with a sensible fear of sharks, and Matt, the daredevil electrician with two motorcycles and a passion for death metal, had always coexisted from a comfortable distance as brothers-in-law. Yet in 2021, as David wallowed in existential dread while America's crises piled up, he couldn't help but notice that Matt was thriving. When he wasn't making mon...

This event is in partnership with the  DC Abortion Fund . In this definitive, eye-opening history, award-winning author Rebecca Grant charts the reproductive freedom movement from the days before  Roe  through the seismic impact of  Dobbs . The stories in  Access   span four continents, tracing strategies across generations and borders. Grant centers those activists who have been engaged in direct...

With the help of a distinguished group of panelists, this event will examine recent attacks on the freedoms of universities, law firms, and media organizations by a Trump administration intent on imposing its will through executive orders, threats of legal action, and denial of government contracts and grants. All three of the panelists have been playing active roles in speaking out against recent...

Josiah Henson led a fascinating life--from the plantation fields of Maryland to the Georgetown Market to the plantations of Kentucky to escaping to freedom in Canada to being introduced to the Queen in England. Born enslaved, Henson eventually escaped and became a respected minister and famed secular leader. My Name Is Not Tom   is a biography of Josiah Henson, the man catapulted into fame after H...

Get on the Job and Organize  is a compelling, inspirational narrative of the Starbucks and Tesla unionization efforts, telling the broader story of the new, nationwide labor movement unfolding in our era of political and social unrest. As one of the exciting new faces of the American Labor Movement, Jaz Brisack argues that while workers often organize when their place of work is toxic, it's eq...

An Olympic athlete. An award-winning novelist. A successful entrepreneur. All raised under one roof. What can we learn from those families whose children aim high and succeed, sometimes in widely varied fields? Just as important: What were the costs along the way, and what can we glean from their travails and triumphs? The acclaimed  New York Times  journalist Susan Dominus offers compelling profi...

As Michigan's Secretary of State and chief election official, Jocelyn Benson has overseen several of the highest turnout, most secure elections in the state's history. But her life changed one snowy evening in December 2020 when armed protesters descended onto her doorstep, threatening her family. Her only crime: certifying a fair and accurate Presidential election in which the protesters&...

1861: The Lost Peace  is the story of President Lincoln's far-reaching, difficult, and most courageous decision, a time when the country wrestled with deep moral and political questions of epic proportions. Through Jay Winik's singular storytelling, readers will learn about the extraordinary Washington Peace Conference at the Willard Hotel to avert cataclysmic war. They will observe the ch...