Beltway Poetry Quarterly

Volume 15:4, Fall 2014
A Splendid Wake Issue

What follows is a survey of 39 print anthologies dedicated to poets from the DC region, or poems about DC. I have not listed many fine anthologies that happen to include a large number of contributors from DC, but are not identified as DC-oriented (such a Alain Locke‘s 1925 anthology The New Negro, Michael Lally‘s 1976 publication, None of the Above: New Poets of the USA, E. Ethelbert Miller’’s 1993 anthology, In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African-American Poetry, or Kwame Alexander‘s 2007 collection, Family Pictures: Poems & Photographs Celebrating Our Loved Ones). Similarly, I considered anthologies of Maryland or Virginia poets that include many writers from the greater DC Metro region out of the scope of this survey, as well as anthologies primarily of student work. I have, however, included anthologies honoring DC-based institutions that publish some out-of-region contributors (such as the Poet Lore anthology, Open Door, or the anthology written in protest of the 104th Congress, On Your Knees, Citizen).

I have made this listing as complete as I could, but inevitably I have neglected some books. If any readers would like to suggest additions, I would welcome input.

A Survey of DC Poetry Anthologies

The Poets and Poetry of Washington, ed. Ina Russelle Warren (Charles Wells Moulton, no date, probably 1895)

47 contributors:
David Graham Adee, Jon Barnard, Louis Belrose, Jr., Henry Ames Blood, Ellen Knight Bradford, Mary Bradley, Margaret Sullivan Burke, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mary Berri Chapman, Emily Thornton Charles, Frank Claudy, Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren, Caroline Healey Dall, Bertha Gerneaux Davis, Mary A. Denison, Florence Carpenter Dieudonne, Anna Hanson Dorsey, Burton T. Doyle, Amanda Louise R. Dufour, Katherine Festetits, Melville Weston Fuller, John Hay, A.G. Heaton, Dorothy Holroyd, Clifford Howard, Mary E. Ireland, John A. Joyce, Horatio King, Martha D. Lincoln, Sara L. Lippincott, Lillian Rozell Messenger, Mary E. Nealy, Edward A. Oldham, Margaret Andrews Oldham, Anna Lawrence Platt, Harriet Newell Ralston, Jeremiah Eames Rankin, D.D., Amelia Rowland, Michael Scanlan, William Lukens Shoemaker, Eldridge Smith, Rebecca Ruter Springer, Charles Warren Stoddard, Lydia H. Tilton, Ledora Isabel Wilbur, Clara Isabel Wood, Eliza Woodworth.

Black and White: An Anthology of Washington Verse, ed. J.C. Byars, Jr. (1927, The Crane Press)

17 contributors:
Wroe Alderson, Lewis Alexander, Courtland Darke Baker, Gerhard Brunchen, J.C. Byars, Lucile Everette, N. Bryllion Fagin, H.C. Gauss, Angelina Grimke, Walter Everett Hawkins, Sherman Elbridge Johnson, Jr., Georgia Douglas Johnson, Alvin McNish, Stanley Olmstead, John A. O’Rourke, John W. Price, Jacob Rosenthal.

From the Foreword, by J.C. Byars, Jr.:
“So far as I know, this is the first anthology confining its scope to a political subdivision of the United States, if the voteless District of Columbia can be so designated…my primary purpose…is to present a representative (if not a complete) collection of current Washington poems.  The anthology could have been enlarged by including the rhymes of a number of citizens locally famed for reading their compositions before clubs, church bodies, etc. But…why stir the dust? After all their stuff is insignificant.

Intentionally I have refrained from including the work of such people as Elinor Wiley, whose poetry is a permanent addition to American literature, Langston Hughes and others already widely known.

One further thought: When we say that such and such verse is insignificant, it implies that other verse is significant. I believe this is true. The poetry of a people signifies that people’s culture, heralds the wit, aims, harrassments, growth, integrity of a people, and intellectual clarity, chastity of feeling, and workmanship (or lack of these) extant in that people. This is the importance of poetry and it should be so understood.”

District of Columbia Poets: An Anthology of 32 Contemporaries, ed. Edith Mirick (Henry Harrison Publisher, 1932)

32 contributors:
Kendall Banning, Solon R. Barner, Elinor Weld Betton, Helen Carter, John Warwick Daniel III, Helen Blodgett Erwin, Mary L. Ferguson, Agness Greene Foster, Virginia King Frye, Anne Kelledy Gilbert, Ada Boyd Glassie, Herman Hagedorn, Natalie Morris Hancock, John Lee Higgins, Blanche C. Howlett, C.S. Jarvis, Georgia Douglas Johnson, J. Ramsey Maxwell, Lucia Ramsey Maxwell, Edith Mirick, Ramona Moore, Helena O’’Neill, Harriet W. Pierson, John C. Rogers, Elise A. Scharf, Marie Siebold, Herbert George Sparrow Jr., Louise Kidder Sparrow, Wendell Phillips Stafford, Joseph Upper, Mary N.S., Whiteley, L.M. Zimmerman.

From the Foreword:
““Those poets who wield the pen within the small square of the District of Columbia inherit a wealth of tradition and romance out of all proportion to the size of their territory…the District stands at a disadvantage, lacking as it does any large local society which might weld the poets into a common and competitive interest. A few small groups function here and there: notably the local Penwomen poets, meeting monthly; The Writers’ Rendezvous, a group of Rebel Poets; and a certain Monday Salon at the home of a well-loved patron of the art. The Arts Club of Washington gives an occasional Poetry Evening. …A recent addition to Washington poetry activities is a small and of George Washington University student-poets who recently formed a local chapter of the splendid, new College Poetry Society of America. …It remains for some big-spirited and energetic poet to weld the mosaic groups of the District into a democratic-spirited whole, working in common interest: the love of poetry; and for the common betterment of the art they serve.””

Poetry from the Potomac: An Anthology of Verse by the Federal Poets of Washington, D.C. (1948, Henry Harrison, Publisher)

35 contributors:
Kathryn E. Adkisson, Marie Louise Benoist, Mildred E. Clark, Elanor M. Clinton, Ursula G. Danforth, Paul DePackh, Marion Julia Drown, E. Alfred Falconer, Lolita T. Fetter, George M. Goldberg, Robert C. Hart, Mary Park Heaton, E. Celeste Highland, Elsie E. Hooper, Myla Hubbard, Gordon L. Luge, Grace Lee, Caroline Maddox, Gerard W. McCaffrey, Lois S. Nelson, John Jay Payer, Hugh M. Pease, Celima M. Reynolds, Melrose I. Riley, Carrie Belle Root, Florina J. Rubes, Irene M. Ruskin, Josephine A. Schwabe, Richard E. Schneder, George J. Shepherd, Mary Forbes Smith, Gillette Tolbert, Mildred Walters, Bertie F. Weiland, Isabel C. Wright.

From the Foreword, by Eames MacVeagh:
“It is with great pride that we, the Federal Poets, of Washington, D.C., present this, our first anthology of original poems…We became a body, born and clothed under the shadow of the unlighted Capitol dome. We have had three birthdays since July 1944, when a few aspiring versifiers, all government employees, united to form the Bookfellows, but in 1946 the name was officially changed to Federal Poets. We publish a bi-monthly magazine, The Federal Poet, in which many of the poems in this volume first appeared…We bring you poets from all over the world, and from every walk of life, who by chance were drawn together to earn their livelihood and pursue the Muse. From the great Northwest and the deep, deep South, from rugged New England and the land of the Apaches, we bring you audit clerks and marine engineers, typists and physicists, personnel technicians and topographic draftsmen, all united in the search for truth and beauty…We aspire to no glory for ourselves, but hope that this volume may bring some pleasure to all who read it.”

Washington and the Poet, ed. Francis Coleman Rosenberger (1977, University Press of Virginia)

50 contributors:
A.R. Ammons, Charles G. Bell, John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Bly, John Malcolm Brinnin, Grace Cavalieri, Robert Dana, Charles Edward Eaton, Richard Eberhart, Berwster Ghiselin, Margaret Gibson, Horace Gregory, O.B. Hardison, Robert Hayden, Josephine Jacobsen, Randall Jarrell, Roderick Jellema, June Jordan, Ernest Kroll, Maxine Kumin, Stanley Kunitz, Ruth Lechlitner, Lawrence Lee, Katie Louchheim, Robert Lowell, Archibald MacLeish, Eugene McCarthy, William Meredith, Josephine Miles, May Miller, Howard Nemerov, Greg Orfalea, Linda Pastan, John Pauker, Selden Rodman, Francis Coleman Rosenberger, Muriel Rukeyser, Karl Shapiro, Louis Simpson, Gary Snyder, William Jay Smith, Radcliffe Squires, William Stafford, Allen Tate, Henry Taylor, Robert Penn Warren, Edward Weismiller, Reed Whittemore, Richard Wilbur.

From the Preface, by Francis Coleman Rosenberger:
“Washington, city and capital, has, from time to time, in one way or another, engaged the imagination of some of the best poets of my lifetime. This anthology is a gathering together of these Washington poems. The angel of vision of the poet will, I hope intensify our own perception of the city.”

Rye Bread: Women Poets Rising, ed. Stacy Tuthill and Walter H. Kerr (1977, SCOP Publications)

81 contributors:
Ellen Anderson, Bethami Auerbach, Karla Baker, Cathy Beasley, Devy Bendit, Barbara Berman, Patricia Ann Booth, Nancy Brandwein, Marion Buchman, Shirley Cochrane, Patricia Connor, Ruth Coyne, Shelia A. Crider, Hortense Daitz, Ann Darr, Sandra Lee Davis, Stephanie Demma, Maureen Doallas, Susanne Dula, C.M. Dupre, Dyane Fancey, Constance Fowlkes, Lilian Frankel, Nan Fry, Nancy J. Garruba, Virginia Lee Gallahue, Mary Gaumond, Meg Spencer Gorman, Betty Grabarek, Lee Learner Gray, Thelma Gruss, Hazel Harvey, Marilyn Heilprin, Karen S. Henry, Nanette Schweig Hoffman, Anne Huguenard, Sara Jane Jablinske, Gray Jacobik, Josephine Jacobsen, Avah Johnson, Lisa Johnson, Donna B. Kaulkin, Jean E. Keenan, Emma A. Kelly, Barbara F. Lefcowitz, Ann Slayton-Leffler, Kathy Lewis, Rhonda Lewis, Clarinda Harriss Lott, Fran Mahr, Marilyn McComas, Susan Z. McGinnis, Barbara Comly-McIntyr, Lynn A. Miller, May Miller, Jennifer Nelson, Susan O’Callaghan, Linda Pastan, Ann Oriel-Petersen, Nancy Prothro, Rosemary McD Pyne, Jan Patrice Quarles, Kathryn Ramsay, Elisavietta Ritchie, Margaret T. Rudd, Marjorie Sadin, Jayne Landis-Silva, Sara Snow, Susan Sojourner, Lori Shpunt, Myra Sklarew, Karen Teenstra, Margaret O. Tipper, Margot Treitel, Stacy Tuthill, Christine Ullrich, Margaret Umbarger, Diana Vance, Lisa Waters, Celeste Wiser, Katherine Zadravac.

From the Introduction, by Stacy Tuthill:
“The making of perfect rye bread is usually associated with women and the ultimate in housewifery, but the association begins to expand. Since rye bread is a yeast mixture it also connotes the potential for richness, rising, expanding, growing, and becoming. These are the associations I hope readers will make as they browse through this collection of poems by women from the Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia area.”

From the Foreword, by Walter H. Kerr:
“The influx of so many excellent poems by women poets from a comparatively limited geographical area (MD, VA, D.C.), is so incredible as to indicate a shifting from the male dominance of poetry to a female dominance…Women have been the inspirers, incarnations of the Muse (see R. Graves and A. Burgess) but their minds have not been considered up to the task of writing great poetry. Now it seems a change is in the works–maybe as a result of the equal rights movement, or possibly that, too, is only one of many indications of uprising, all equally the reflection and evidence of a deeper realignment…What if it becomes necessary to change the names of the Muses–Erato to Eratosthenes, for example? If these poems are any indication, this may not be such a far-fetched idea.”

City Celebration 1976: Poetry Anthology (District of Columbia Public Library, District of Columbia Bicentennial Commission, 1977)

94 contributors:
Robert Abney, Karren L. Alenier, Alan Austin, Dierdra Baldwin, Heather Banks, Julia Watson Barbour, Jonetta Barras, Jim Beall, Barbara Berman, Carl Bode, David Bristol, Robert A. Brooks, Sterling A. Brown, Ira Bruckner, Rick Cannon, Karl Carter, Grace Cavalieri, William Clare, Melissa Clark, Shirley G. Cochrane, Ed Cox, Ann Darr, Gregory Day, Tim Dlugos, Katherine Edgar, Gabrielle Edgcomb, Elisabeth Murawski Evans, Edelin Coleman Fields, Harrison Fisher, Jane Flanders, Roland Flint, William Gardner, Patricia Garfinkel, Everett E. Goodwin, Greg Hannan, O.B. Hardison, Jr., Essex C. Hemphill, Gray Jacobik, Roderick Jellema, Dan Johnson, Beth Joselow, Justine Julie, Dolores Kendrick, Carolyn Kizer, David Kresh, Ernest Kroll, Lee Lally, Michael Lally, Barbara F. Lefcowitz, Merrill Leffler, Katie Louchheim, David McAleavey, Mary Ann McFadden, John McNally, E. Ethelbert Miller, May Miller, W. Dale Nelson, James E. Nichols, Jean Nordhaus, Andrew Oerke, Carlo Parcelli, Linda Pastan, John Pauker, Eugene Platt, Kathleen Platt, Charlotte A. Raines, Leonard Randolph, Heddy Reid, Elisavietta Ritchie, Ralph Robin, Howard Roman, Robert Sargent, Katie Savage, Ambrosia Shepherd, Lori Shpunt, Myra Sklarew, Ann Slayton-Leffler, Susan Sonde, Gary Stein, Walt-Christopher Stickney, Henry Taylor, Stacy Tuthill, Rudolph Von Abele, Hugh Walthall, George Weiner, Edward Weismiller, John Wellman, Bernard Welt, Reed Whittemore, Patrice M. Wilson, Terence Winch, Debbie Wood, Andrea Wyatt, Ahmos Zu-Bolton II.

From the Introduction, by Octave Stevenson and Peter H. Share:
“This anthology is the outgrowth of two afternoons of poetry readings, programmed by the Language and Literature Division of the D.C. Public Library as part of the D.C. Bicentennial Commission and Assembly’s CITY CELEBRATION on June 12 and 13, 1976…it is our hope that this anthology indicates the abundance of poets and poetry in the Metropolitan area.”

Synergy D.C. Anthology, ed. Ahmos Zu-Bolton II and E. Ethelbert Miller (Energy Black South Press, 1978)

38 contributors:
Adesanya Alakoye, Anyeaum, Julia Watson Barbour, Tina Bradshaw, Jodi Braxton, Sterling Brown, Connie Carter, Karl Carter, Gregory Day, Ebara, Elgeria Farmer, Edelin Coleman Fields, Charles Frye, Vince Godwin, Clay Goss, Linda Goss, Corrie Haines, Roberta Haines, Hamisi, Robert Hinton, Joanne Jimason, Shirley Jones, Dolores Kendrick, Amma Khalil, Joanne McKnight, Zehraa’a Ul Al Mahdi, May Miller, Donna Mungen, Winston Napier, Gaston Neal, Linwood Smith, Carole Terry, Susann Thomas, Abena Walker, Kwaku Edu Walker, Joseph Webb, Otis Williams, Ronald R. Wilmore, Debbie Wood.

From the Intro, by Ahmos Zu-Bolton II:
“Attempting to bridge the cultural islands that exist in the Washington D.C. poetry community has proven to be possible, And impossible. The poetry we bring together as Synergy is much more than just a representative sampling–it is a demonstration of the many creative forces at work within our community. However, this volume doesn’t solve the ideological differences which place fences between artists–the fences are still there to be dealt with, but at least this anthology can act as the bridge which poets can cross to view each others’ work.”

The Unicorn and The Garden, ed. Betty Parry (The Word Works, 1978)

38 contributors:
Chinua Achebe, Samuel Allen, Deirdra Baldwin, Robert Bly, Robert A. Brooks, Sterling A. Brown, Lucille Clifton, Leon G. Damas, Ann Darr, Roland Flint, Siv Cedering Fox, Kimon Friar, Margaret Gibson, Allen Ginsberg, Colette Inez, Josephine Jacobsen, Roderick Jellema, Tom Jones, Galway Kinnell, Carolyn Kizer, Paul Lawson, Merrill Leffler, Katie Louchheim, Eugene McCarthy, Gloria Oden, William Packard, Linda Pastan, John Pauker, Ishmael Reed, Elisavietta Ritchie, Muriel Rukeyser, Ira Sadoff, J.R. Salamanca, Susan Sonde, Henry Taylor, Edward Weismiller, Reed Whittemore, Robert S. Zelenka.

From the Introduction, by Betty Parry:
“The Unicorn and the Garden is a collection of poems and prose by writers who participated in the Poetry and Literature Series at the Textile Museum from 1973 to 1975…The first major bi-racial series in the National Capital area, it provided a platform for series writers of varied background. The programs were completely uncensored, largely unrehearsed and thoroughly eclectic.”

Second Rising, ed. Stacey Tuthill (1979, SCOP Publications)

10 contributors:
Ann Darr, Josephine Jacobsen, Barbara Lefcowitz, Kathy Lewis, Clarinda Harriss Lott, Gloria Oden, Linda Pastan, Myra Sklarew, Stacy Tuthill, Katherine Zadravec.

The Other Side of the Hill (1979, Sandy Point Press)

8 contributors:
Shirley Cochrane, Pramod Lad, Mary Ann Larkin, Chris Llewellyn, Jean Nordhaus, Fan Ogilvie, Russell Spicer, Hastings Wyman, Jr.

From the Preface:
“A small group has been meeting weekly in homes on Capitol Hill to read and discuss poetry. It is from these evening readings that the poems in this book have been garnered.”

Centerwords: An Anthology of Poetry and Prose from the Washington Women’s Arts Center (WWAC, 1979)

26 contributors:
Ann Becker, Marguerite Beck-Rex, Barbara Berman, Sandra Turner Bond, C. Christine, Deborah W. DeBruyn, Alexis de Veaux, Zita Dresner, Gabrielle Edgcomb, Patricia Griffith, Lee Howard, Beth Joselow, Margaret R. Litchfield, Sarna Marcus, Linda McCloud, Constance McKenna, Jean Nordhaus, Andre Olinger, Michelle Parkerson, Deborah Rosenthal, Mary Rylance, Ntozake Shange, Nancy Stockwell, Lynda B. Terr, Lynda Tredway.

From the Preface, by Honor Moore:
“In the late 1970’s in America, important writing by women is coming from all over the country, not just New York or San Francisco. All over the country women are sharing in the effort to make female lives actual in words…In late 1978, I read at the Washington Women’s Arts Center. At that reading, I met some of the women whose work is in this book, and became aware of the thriving women’s literary community in the District of Columbia. More important, I felt I became part of that community. I think of a time twelve years ago when, as a young woman with a dream of writing, I would come to Washington to visit my family…What I mean by community is the kind of embrace this book represents, a force waiting to nurture a new talent. coax back a forgotten or neglected one, challenge a working one…For our words to survive, we need each other. At this time in history, only women who share the same wrenching and often ineffable experience, can provide the context and community women writers need. Only those who share it can understand the price we pay for the risks we take…”

Positively Prince Street: An Anthology, ed. Dalton Delan (1979, Huffman Press)

27 contributors:
Dierdra Baldwin, Michael Blumenthal, Jody Bolz, Edward Brash, Barbara Brownell, Michael Castro, Dob Doyle, Jane Flanders, Irv Garfield, Katherine Gekker, Bonnie Gordon, Chad Gregson, Beth Joselow, Barbara Lefcowitz, Merrill Leffler, David McAleavey, Clarissa Myrick, Teresa (Redd) Pruden, Liam Rector, Jeremy Ross, Irene Rouse, William Rouse, Sr., Karen Sagstetter, Robert Sargent, Sara Schneidman, Michael Waters, Susan Wood.

From the copyright page:
“Positively Prince Street is based on the March 1978 – February 1979 monthly readings held under the auspices of Irene Rouse Bookseller in Alexandria, Virginia.”

From the Preface, “Editor’s Prerogative: The View from Positively Prince Street,” by Dalton Delan:
“…Here, we are, one year farther along on our journey into the Homeric heart of literature, and not a spot of art-erial sclerosis in sight. But how to convert a living, breathing, shouting, rolling, singing, showing, standing, sitting, sipping, eating, listening, hissing, clapping, happening, engaging, upstaging, undreamed-of area of poetry/prose/music/film/photography into splotches of ink on pieces of tree? Not easy to see…”

The Poet Upstairs: A Washington Anthology, ed. Octave Stevenson (Washington Writers Publishing House, 1979)

110 contributors:
Robert Abney, Adesanya Alakoye, Elizabeth Albrecht, Karren Lalonde Alenier, Alan Austin, Deirdre Baldwin, Heather Banks, Florence Barbera, Julia Watson Barbour, Jonetta Barras-Abney, James Beall, Anne Becker, Barbara Berman, Michael Blumenthal, Carl Bode, Jody Bolz, Jacquelyn Bowman, David Bristol, Robert A. Brooks, Sterling A. Brown, Elizabeth Brunazzi, Rick Cannon, Karl Carter, Grace Cavalieri, William Claire, Melissa Clark, Patrick L. Clary, Edgar Cobey, Shirley G. Cochrane, Ed Cox, Ann R. Darr, Gabrielle Edgcomb, John W. Elsberg, Carla Eugster, Edelin Coleman Fields, Harrison Fisher, Jane Flanders, Roland Flint, Ken Forde, Constance Fowlkes, Martin Galvin, Patricia Garfinkel, Dennis M. Gaughan, Edward Gold, Beate Goldman, Bonnie Gordon, Greg Hannan, O.B. Hardison Jr., Essex Hemphill, Carol Olivia Herron, Lee Howard, Gray Jacobik, Rod Jellema, Gregory Jerozal, Joanne Jimason, Dan Johnson, Beth Joselow, Dolores Kendrick, David Kresh, Ernest Kroll, Lee Lally, Mary Ann Larkin, Barbara F. Lefcowitz, Merrill Leffler, Margaret R. Litchfield, Katie Louchheim, David McAleavey, Linda McCloud, John McNally, E. Ethelbert Miller, May Miller, Elisabeth Murawski, E. Dale Nelson, Jean Nordhaus, Catherine O’Neill, Carlo Parcelli, Linda Pastan, John Pauker, Charlotte A. Raines, Leonard Randolph, Liam Rector, Heddy Reid, Elisavietta Ritchie, Ralph Robin, Francis Coleman Rosenberger, Karen Sagstatter, Robert Sargent, Katie Savage, Ambrosia Shepherd, Lori Shpunt, Myra Sklarew, Barbara Sobol, Susan Sonde, Gary Stein, Mary Swope, Henry Taylor, Stacy Johnson Tuthill, Rudolph Von Abele, Mary Walker, Hugh Walthall, Bruce Weber, Ron Weber, George Weiner, Edward Weismiller, Bernard Welt, Reed Whittemore, Terence Winch, Elizabeth Wray, Andrea Wyatt, Ahmos Zu-Bolton.

From the back cover:
“Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Washington Writers’ Publishing House presents this anthology of Washington area poetry. Over 100 poets of varying backgrounds have been chosen to represent the wealth, variety and excellence of poetry currently being written in the nation’s capital.”

The Ear’s Chamber: 50 Metro Poets, ed. Stacy Tuthill (1981, SCOP Publications)

50 Contributors:
A.L. (Nielsen), Karren L. Alenier, David Andrews, Bethami Auerbach, Harold Black, Carl Bode, Grace Cavalieri, Shirley G. Cochrane, Rhea Cohen, Sarah Cotterill, Billie S. Cowell, Dan Cuddy, Stephanie Demma, Susanne Dula, John Elsberg, Constance Fowlkes, Nan Fry, Michael S. Glaser, Claire Harrison, Gray Jacobik, Josephine Jacobsen, Philip K. Jason, Lane Jennings, Vaughn Keith, Walter H. Kerr, Maxine Kumin, Jayne Landis-Silva, Mary Ann Larkin, Barbara F. Lefcowitz, Clarinda Harriss Lott, Caroline Marshall, David McAleavey, Laura McLaughlin, May Miller, Jean Nordhaus, Irene Rouse, Linda Pastan, Ruthellen Quillen, Charles Rossiter, Jean Rubin, Robert Sargent, Myra Sklarew, Laurie Stroblas, Mary Swope, Henry Taylor, Stacy Tuthill, H. L. Van Brunt, Charles Vandersee, Philip Wexler, Katherine Zadravec.

D.C. Magazines: A Literary Retrospective, ed. Richard Peabody (1981, Paycock Press)

49 poetry contributors:
Daisy Aldan, Roger Aplon, Philip Appleman, Ben Belitt, Adelaide Blomfield, Jorge Luis Borges, Denis Boyles, Siv Cedering, Marvin Cohen, Jane Cooper, Philip Dacey, Ann Darr, Doug Flaherty, Roland Flint, Gene Fowler, Leonard R. Garzotto, Margaret Gibson, Edward Gold, L. Suzanne Gordon, H.R. Hays, Samuel Hazo, Bill Holland, Rod Jellema, Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson, Rodger Kamenetz, Robert Lax, Merrill Leffler, John Logan, Clarinda Harriss Lott, Saundra Maley, Morton Marcus, Josephine Miles, W.V. Moody, Pablo Neruda, Robert Newcomb, Tom O’Grady, Linda Pastan, Theodore Roethke, Francis Coleman Rosenberger, James Scully, Ann Slayton, Richard Snodgrass, Brian Swann, Mark Van Doren, David Wagoner, Chad Walsh, Irving Weiss, Reed Whittemore, Harriet Zinnes.

12 prose contributors:
Carolyn Banks, Gwendolyn Brooks, Charles Bukowski, Richard Forsythe, Hiram Haydn, Deena Metzger, Henry Miller, Harry T. Moore, Anais Nin, Joyce Carol Oates, Henry H. Roth, John Unterecker.

3 interviews:
William Claire, Merrill Leffler, Neil Lehrman.

From the Foreword, by Richard Peabody:
“The first decent history I ever read on the local literary scene was Jack Foley’s ‘A Bank of Violet,’ published in Aleph no. 1 in 1975. The piece was good at putting the 60s explosion of local magazines and literary presses into perspective, but hardly touched on what had gone before, save to trot out Walt Whitman, Charles Olson, Ezra Pound, and St. John Perse as writers who lived here for a time…My interest in putting together this book grew from a desire as a D.C. native to know more about what had gone on before in the city’s literary history. Of course, it’s impossible to cover all the local literary activity in 150 pages, so it was decided to…feature the magazines that were the most international in scope and longest running of the lot–Portfolio, Voyages, and Dryad…I hope to demonstrate in the space allotted, that the city of Washington has never deserved the bad press it has received as a ‘literary backwater.'”

Finding the Name: An Anthology of Poems, ed. Elisavietta Ritchie (The Wineberry Press, 1982)

10 contributors:
E. Castendyk Briefs, Maxine Combs, Lucia Dunham, Elizabeth Follin-Jones, Barbara Goldberg, Elaine Magarrell, Mariquita MacManus Mullan, Elisavietta Ritchie, Elizabeth Sullam, Margaret Weaver.

Editor’s Note:
“When the ceiling crumbled over the bookstall classroom at the old Writer’s Center in Glen Echo, Maryland, we moved our workshops to my living room in Washington, D.C. These ‘master classes’ ebbed and flowed with the seasons. Invitations to publish and to give readings began to come in. Finally nine of the participants and I collaborated on this anthology, and the Wineberry Press was born.”

Whose Woods These Are, ed. Karren Alenier, (The Word Works, 1983)

67 contributors:
Karren LaLonde Alenier, Heather Lynn Anderson, Kathy Elaine Anderson, Deirdra Baldwin, Florence Barbera, J.H. Beall, Anne Becker, Grace Cavalieri, Maxine Clair, Maxine Combs, Geraldine Connolly, Billie S. Cowell, Sue D’Angelo, Donna Denize, Gwynelle Dismukes, Gabrielle Simon Edgcomb, Laura Fargas, Richard Flynn, Elizabeth Follin-Jones, Mary Elizabeth Ford, Ken Forde, Patricia Garfinkel, Chasen Gaver, C. Jeanean Gibbs, Michael S. Glaser, Georgia Gojmera-Leiner, Edward Gold, Barbara Goldberg, Susan Gubernat, Judith Hall, Michael Hauptschein, Nigel Hinshelwood, Gray Jacobik, Joanne Jimason, Dan Johnson, Paul R. Jones, Claudia E. (Cel) Lapp, Mary Ann Larkin, Joel Lipman, Clarinda Harriss Lott, Charlise Lyles, S.A. Massaro, E. Ethelbert Miller, Marquita MacManus Mullan, Elisabeth Murawski, A.L. Neilson, Jean Nordhaus, Janice Olson, Maureen Owen, Richard Peabody, Patric Pepper, Elisavietta Ritchie, Beaux Rix, Ron Rodriguez, Irene Rouse, Robert Sargent, Beate Sigriddaughter, Atanas Slavov, Stephen Michael Sobsey, Susan Sonde, Laurie Stroblas, Robert H. Taine, Henry Taylor, Mary Beck Tisera, Roberto Vargas, Helen Webster, Rick Wilson, Scott Wright, Michael Wurster, Hastings Wyman, Jr., Katherine Zadravec, Vega Johanna Zagier.

From the Introduction:
“Poetry, like a walk in the woods, should be accessible to everyone. After the National Park Service granted the Word Works permission to use the Joaquin Miller Cabin, we experimented with workshops in which poets discussed their original poems. Later, we gave informal readings. In 1979 with Robert Sargent‘s help, Karren Alenier established a summer reading series. The poems in this journal are from poets who have participated in activities at the Cabin during the eight years the Word Works has been in residence there.”

Evidence of Community: Writing from the Jenny McKean Moore Workshops at George Washington University, ed. David McAleavey, with an afterword by Gloria Naylor. Poetry and fiction. (GW Washington Studies, No. 11, June 1984)

30 contributors:
Gary Alston, Florence Barbera, Harold Black, Jody Bolz, Paul Brucker, Maxine Clair, Cynthia Cotts, Paul Estaver, Lillian Frankel, Ann Ganz, Tom George, C. Jeanean Gibbs, Bonnie Gordon, Judith Hall, Veronica Johnson, Christina Llewellyn, Eric Nelson, Joan Retallack, Jeanne Schinto, Jenny Singleton, Howard Smith, Rob Soley, William Sommers, Donna Baier Stein, Laurie Stroblas, Joseph C. Thackery, Patricia L. Walsh, Hugh Walthall, Valerie Wohlfeld, Susan Wood.

From the Preface:
“…Since this program began in 1976, the visiting writer-teachers have been Marilyn Hacker (poetry), Susan Shreve (fiction), Amiri Baraka (Poetry, fiction, and drama), Blanche Boyd (fiction), Carol Muske (poetry), Peter Meinke (poetry and fiction), Lucille Clifton (poetry and children’s literature), and Gloria Naylor (fiction). Julie Alvarez (poetry and prose memoir) will be in residence during 1984-85.

“The goal of the free workshops at George Washington University has always been to make college-type creative writing courses available to those who otherwise would be unable to have them…more than 200 have participated in them…o0nly 30 workshop participants are represented…The editing of this anthology was done during the 1983-84 academic year…”

WPFW 89.3 FM Poetry Anthology, ed. Grace Cavalieri (The Bunny and The Crocodile Press, 1992)

261 contributors:
Muhammad Abdullah Ali, Asantewaa M. Adofo, Karren L. Alenier, Robert Alexander, Fareedah Allah (Ruby C. Saunders), Samuel Allen, Julia Alvarez, Colleen Anderson, M’Wile Yaw Askari, Alan D. Austin, Deirdra Baldwin, Stanley H. Barkan, Helen Barolini, Jonetta Rose Barras, Arnold Patrick Bathersfield, J.H. Beall, Anne Becker, Marvin Bell, Devy Bendit, Faith Berry, Farika Birhan, Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, Charles Curtis Blackwell, Robert Bové, John Bradley, David Bristol, Joseph Brodsky, Gwendolyn Brooks, Hope Brown, John Gracen Brown, Sterling Brown, Judith Saunders Burton, Kenneth Carroll, John Carter, Wilfred Cartey, Barbara Catherine. Grace Cavalieri, Arthur L. Clements, Susan Clements, Elayne Clift, Lucille Clifton, Shirley G. Cochrane, Michael Collier, Leon Collins, Geraldine Connolly, Arthur Lee Conway, William W. Cook, Sarah Cotterill, H.R. Coursen, Ed Cox, Robert Creeley, Mary Ann Daly, Ann Darr, Doug DeMars, Donna Denizé, Toi Derricotte, Lahna Diskin, Moshe Dor, C. Alan Doss, Cornelius Eady, Gabrielle Edgcomb, Carolyn Edmonds, Steven Edmonds, Paul Estaver, Barbara Feldman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ethan Fischer, Michael Flack, Roland Flint, Foodhead, Tim Frasca, Sunil Freeman, Nan Fry, Tina Fulker, Martin Galvin, Patricia Garfinkel, Chasen Gaver, C. Jeanean Gibbs, Maria Mazziotti Gillian, Brian Gilmore, Allen Ginsberg, Gabriele Glang, Michael S. Glaser, Barbara Goldberg, Carolyn Gomez-Foronda, James Griffin, John Haines, Judith Hall, Sam Hammill, Mike Hammer, Sam Hamod, O.B. Hardison, Iona Harris, Judith Harris, Peter J. Harris, Richard Hart, Richard Harteis, John Harvey, Ava Leavell Haymon, Geoffrey Himes, Edward Hirsch, Jane Hirschfield, Dana J. Hoffman, Jean Hollander, Paul Hopper, Keith A. Hopps, Lasana Imani, Will Inman, Reuben Jackson, Josephine Jacobsen, Valerie Jean, Rod Jellema, Judson Jerome, Gretchen Johnsen, Joy Jones, Shaun A. Jones, June Jordan, Beth Joselow, Rodger Kamenetz, Candace Katz, Robert Kendall, Dolores Kendrick, Ellen Conroy Kennedy, Jane Kenyon, Lynn Kernan, Myong Hee Kim, Tom Kirlin, Peter Klappert, Wayne E. Kline, Ann B. Knox, Joan Kramer, David Kresh, Maxine Kumin, Kwelismith, Steve Langley, Mary Ann Larkin, Donal Leace, Barbara F. Lefcowitz, Merrill Leffler, Emily Leider, Denise Levertov, Melvin E. Lewis, Lary Lewman, Gary Lilley, Chris Llewellyn, Juliana Luecking, Janice Lynch, Edward C. Lynskey, Susan Macafee, Elaine Magarrell, E. Megg Magee, Martha Manning, William Matthews, David McAleavey, Richard McCann, Jim McCartin, Judith McCombs, Georgia Lee McElhaney, John McNally, Pablo Medina, William Meredith, E. Ethelbert Miller, May Miller, Lenard D. Moore, Sharon Morgenthaler, Charlie Mosler, Askia Muhammed, Sharon Negri, Jennifer Nelson, Howard Nemerov, Jean Nordhaus, Gloria Oden, Fan Ogilvie, Michelle Parkerson, Betty Parry, Alicia Partnoy, Linda Pastan, Richard Peabody, Peggy Pfeiffer, Joan Pickard, Hazrat Pir, Arlene Plevin, Stanley Plumly, Jacklyn Potter, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Ann Post Proudman, Gail Ranadive, Judy Ray, David Ray, Rabia Rayford, Liam Rector, Craig A. Reynolds, Joseph Ritch, Elisavietta Ritchie, Kim Roberts, Ron Rodriguez, Joe Salerno, Sonia Sanchez, Robert Sargent, Nat Scammacca, Melissa Clark Scheffey, Cathleen Schurr, Jim Semark, Joan Shapiro, Avideh Shashaani, Ambrosia Shepherd, Enid Shomer, Edgar Silex, Charles Simic, Dale Sinos, Meredith Briggs Skeath, Myra Sklarew, Atanas Slavov, Ann Slayton, D.L. Crockett-Smith, Jennifer E. Smith, Rod Smith, W.D. Snodgrass, Susan Sonde, Napoleon St. Cyr, Thomas Stanley, Elisabeth Stevens, Ruth Stone, Darrell Stover, B.R. Strahan, Marguerite M. Striar, Laurie Stroblas, Claire Stuart, Elma Stuckey, Elizabeth Sullam, Charles Sullivan, Mary Swope, Henry Taylor, James Taylor, Hilary Tham, Venus Thrash, Mike Tucker, Stacy Johnson Tuthill, Jean Valentine, Lloyd Van Brunt, Joyce E. Varney, Herman Ward, Jerry W. Ward, Jr., Michael Weaver, Joe Weil, Reed Whittemore, Richard Wilbur, Bettye J. Williams, Henry H. (“Sandman”) Williams, Mari Williams, Barbara H. Wilson, Betsy Wollaston, Hastings Wyman, Jr., Jesse X. and Madelyn Callahan, Keith Yancey, Ed Zahniser, Sander Zulauf.

From the Foreword, by Leon Collins:
“For the past 5 years WPFW-FM/Pacifica Radio in Washington, D.C. has been at the forefront of presenting local and national artists to the metropolitan area and beyond. Grace Cavalieri, a volunteer producer, has made a lifetime commitment to the poetic form by producing the radio program The Poet and the Poem. Her dedication, vision, and forethought has resulted in this anthology…In this economic climate of budget cuts and artistic censorship, we affirm that poets of all hues and views are alive and well, and demand to be heard and felt…”

From the Introduction, by Reed Whittemore:
“Here are poems by some 300 poets, all of whom appeared on Grace Cavalieri‘s Sunday night WPFW program from 1977 to 1992. The first was Judson Jerome; the most recent (as of this writing) John Haines…Most of the poets are Washington-oriented, with a goodly number in government service. Since the program started many have moved out of the area and many have moved in, but as a group they have probably been more stable than Washington’s politicians. (Sociologists, take note.)”

Fast Talk, Full Volume, ed. Alan Spears (Gut Punch Press, 1993)

35 contributors:
Yao Bhoke Ahoto, Akili, Susan Anderson, Toni D. Blackman, Valerie Clarke, Kenneth Carroll, Michelle T. Clinton, Wanda Coleman, Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, Patricia Fields, Brian G. Gilmore, Melvin E. Lewis, Philip Lewis (Henderson), Bernard Harris, Jr., Reuben Jackson, Maisha, Keith Antar Mason, Kim Nault, Christopher Nickelson, Akilah Nay Olver, Michelle Parkerson, Rabia Rayford, Mariah L. Richardson, Sakinah, Tanya Seale, Jennifer E. Smith, Kweli Smith, Alan Spears, Darrell Darius Stover, Natasha Tarpley, Kim Taylor, Chima Uchendu, Jennifer Lisa Vest, White Deer Woman, Austin F. Wooten.

From the Foreword, by Alan Spears:
“”Collected within the pages of this anthology are some of the best and most promising African-American poets of our time. Most are unpublished or under-published (as of this date)…. There are several features that make Fast Talk, Full Volume different, notable, and unique. First and foremost would be the strong and independent voices of women writers selected for this anthology. Gone are the days when black women wrote to support poetry for the ‘black male revolution’ and then shut up to make more coffee!… Second, an increasing number of black poets are examining the subject of black on black violence…”.”

From the Introduction, by E. Ethelbert Miller:
“”There are two traditions operating within the African American cultural, one oral, the other literary. At times they intersect and influence each other.…There are several performance poets in Fast Talk, Full Volume, although how comfortable they are with this label I don’’t know; …this anthology is a west coast/east coast production. Almost all the contributors reside in the Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. area. Is this a poetry conspiracy?””

Bad Beats, Sacred Rhythms: Poetry by The Spoken Word (The Spoken Word, 1993)

6 contributors:
Kenneth Carroll, Lasana Imani, Caprese Ann Jackson, Joy Jones, Leslie Nia Lewis, Darrell Stover.

From the Preface, by Darrell Stover:
“The Spoken Word is about meetings. Meetings of words. Meetings of minds. Meetings of poets. The banding of six souls, six individuals, six artists into a collective whose sole purpose is to serve their community in a rewarding experience blessed by the Ancestors…Our performances, before children and adults, have shaped our resolve to never believe the hype of ‘art for art’s sake,’ but to believe in our hearts that an artist has an undeniable responsibility to community.”

From the Introduction, by Dr. Acklyn Lynch:
“Bad Beats Sacred Rhythms is a collection of poems by young D.C. poets who know they are part of the continuum of The Spoken Word…the Nommo Force…the ancestral voice gelled in a performance poetry committed to consciousness-raising…In these uncivilized times of war…there is a need to return to the source…to the authentic self…The Spoken Word is a testimony to those who walk the streets and read their work in our homes, our churches, our schools…our recreation centers. They are our wordsmiths…crafters of the ordinary voice…no pretensions…no frills…simply transmitting the urgent concerns of the times.”

Hungry As We Are: An Anthology of Washington Area Poets, ed. Ann Darr (Washington Writers Publishing House, 1995)

122 contributors:
Karren L. Alenier, Cicely Angleton, Barri Armitage, Mel Belin, David Bristol, Laura Brylawski-Miller, Nancy Naomi Carlson, Kenneth Carroll, Grace Cavalieri, Maxine Clair, William Claire, Shirley G. Cochrane, Don Colburn, Gail Collins-Ranadive, Maxine Combs, Christopher Conlon, Geraldine Connolly, Sarah Cotterill, Katherine Cottle, R.F. Coyne, Mary Ann Daly, Donna Denize, William Derge, Toi Derricotte, Neal Michael Dwyer, Paul Estaver, Roland Flint, Elizabeth Follin-Jones, Lillian Frankel, Nan Fry, Martin Galvin, Patricia Garfinkel, Howard Gofreed, Sid Gold, Barbara Goldberg, James Griffin, Paul R. Haenel, Sam Hamod, Judith Harris, Clarinda Harriss, Richard Harteis, Reuben Jackson, Josephine Jacobsen, Philip K. Jason, Rod Jellema, Dan Johnson, Joy Jones, Beth Joselow, Thomas M. Kirlen, Peter Klappert, Ann B. Knox, Carolyn Krieter- Foronda, Kwelismith, David Lanier, Mary Ann Larkin, Barbara Lefcowitz, Merrill Leffler, Ellen Mauck Lessy, Lyn Lifshin, Carmen Lupton, Mariquita MacManus, Elaine Magarrell, Veneta Masson, David McAleavey, Richard McCann, Eugene J. McCarthy, Judith McCombs, William Meredith, E. Ethelbert Miller, May Miller, Kathy Mitchell, Miles David Moore, Elisabeth Murawski, Sharon Negri, Jean Nordhaus, John O’Dell, Betty Parry, Alicia Partnoy, Linda Pastan, Richard Peabody, Patric Pepper, Jennifer M. Pierson, Jacklyn W. Potter, Gretchen Primack, Mary Quattlebaum, Beth Raps, Heddy F. Reid, Elisavietta Ritchie, Kim Roberts, Ron Rodriguez, Maggie Rosen, Joe Ross, Natasha Saje, Robert Sargent, Jane Schapiro, Catherine Harnett Shaw, Stephen I. Shaw, Myra Sklarew, Susan Sonde, Isobel Routly Stewart, Bradley R. Strahan, Sylvana R. Straw, Laurie Stroblas, Elizabeth Sullam, Henry Taylor, Joseph C. Thackery, Hilary Tham, Naomi Thiers, Colette Thomas, Susan Tichy, Stacy Johnson Tuthill, Elaine M. Upton, Barrett Warner, Margaret Weaver, Marie Pavlicek Wehrli, Julia Wendell, Reed Whittemore, Br. Rick Wilson, Terence Winch, Hastings Wyman, Jr., Edwin Zimmerman.

From the Afterword, by Grace Cavalieri:
“”The man with the first thought about Washington Writers’ Publishing House was John McNally—–then a poet, now a lawyer practicing in Vermont. In 1975 I remember sitting at a desk on Connecticut Avenue, in the office of graphic designer Jim True, with John. We were talking about how great it would be if Washington has its own poetry press where poets were printed and then joined in the great collaborative (remember this was the seventies!) to work together to run the operations…I was one of the poets chosen to start the publishing experiment. Deirdra Baldwin was another, and the third was Terence Winch. …The ruling principle was that each group of poets published would take over the administration of the House until, exponentially, we built an empire—–or at least a pyramid of poets—–broadbased and far reaching…. While it is true that we started as a raggedy band of poets kicking up our own stardust, we soon settled down to the business of establishing some principles of poetry selection and publication that still exist today.…””

On Your Knees, Citizen ed. Rod Smith, Lee Ann Brown, and Mark Wallace (Edge Books, 1996)

46 contributors:
Beth Anderson, Kathleen Baldwin, Sandy Baldwin, Michael Basinski, Lee Ann Brown, John Byrum, Tina Darragh, Daniel Davidson, Kevin Davies, Tim Davis, Connie Deanovich, Danika Dinsmore, Jean Donnelly, Buck Downs, Heather Fuller, Chris Funkhouser, Forrest Gander, Belle Gironda, Michael Gizzi, Peter Gizzi, Judith Goldman, Jefferson Hansen, Mary Hilton, Nigel Hinshelwood, Jen Hofer, Kevin Hillian, Wayne Kline, Andrew Levy, Doug Lang, Sheila E. Murphy, Susan Smith Nash, Larry Price, Joe Ross, Jerome Sala, Lisa Samuels, Leslie Scalapino, Spencer Selby, Daniel Shapiro, David Shapiro, Alexandra Smith, Rod Smith, Juliana Spahr, Chris Stroffolino, Vanessa Villarreal, Anne Waldman, Mark Wallace.

From the Introduction, by Rod Smith:
“…That Gringrich and company could make an issue of school prayer is one of the most glaring examples in my memory of the ridiculous roadblock to social thought we daily experience in these states. I would represent this collection as a demonstration of public intelligence. As an honoring of the individual, & of the mulitiplicity of perspectives that are the fact of our possible democracy. An example of the conversation that is not televised, but could, & should be.”

Open Door: A Poet Lore Anthology, 1980-1996, ed. Philip K. Jason, Barbara Goldberg, Geraldine Connolly, Roland Flint (Writers Center Editions, 1997)

93 contributors:
Henry Allen, Paul Allen, Yehuda Amichai, Susan Astor, Mark H. Baechtel, John Balaban, Chana Bloch, Michelle Boisseau, Cathy Smith Bowers, Christopher Buckley, W.E. Butts, Grace Cavalieri, David Chorlton, Lyn Coffin, Rhea L. Cohen, Geraldine Connolly, Ann Darr, Michael C. Davis, Moshe Dor, Thomas Dorsett, Denise Duhamel, Cornelius Eady, Laura Fargas, Jane Flanders, Roland Flint, Lillian Frankel, Nan Fry, Brendan Galvin, Martin Galvin, Margaret Gibson, Albert Goldbarth, Barbara Goldberg, Erella Hadar, Moishe Leib Halpern, William Heyen, David Hilton, Edward Haworth Hoeppner, William Holland, Jean Janzen, Philip K. Jason, Rod Jellema, Shirley Kaufman, Deborah Kilgore, Aaron Kramer, Dorianne Laux, Barbara F. Lefcowitz, Merrill Leffler, Mitchell LesCarbeau, Susan Ludvigson, Kevin MacDonald, David McAleavey, Walter McDonald, Elaine Magarrell, William Matthews, Jose Antonio Mazzotti, Peter Meinke, William Meredith, Leonard Nathan, Howard Nemerov, Jean Nordhaus, Sharon Olds, Eric Pankey, Linda Pastan, Walter Pavlich, Richard Peabody, Robert Peters, Mary Quattlebaum, John Robert Quinn, G.J. Racz, Marilee Richards, Trish Rucker, Benjamin Saltman, Catherine Harnett Shaw, Enid Shomer, Layle Silbert, Myra Sklarew, R.T. Smith, Andrew Sofer, Katherine Soniat, Stephanie Strickland, Sue Teigen, Hilary Tham, Naomi Thiers, Lee Upton, Lloyd Van Brunt, William Van Wert, David Walker, Ronald Wallace, T.H.S. Wallace, Nancy G. Westerfield, Theodore Worozbyt, Paul Zimmer, Linda Zisquit.

From the Foreword, by Barbara Goldberg and Philip K. Jason:
“The original impetus for this anthology was to contribute to the twentieth anniversary celebration of the Writer’s Center, a well-loved and vital resource for the Washington, DC area and throughout the MidAtlantic region…Poet Lore is the oldest (since 1889) continuously published poetry magazine in the United States. Throughout its history, Poet Lore has kept its door open, providing a home to the well known, the less well known, and the unknown…What you will find in Open Door is the poet’s eye view of the late twentieth century. It is the news that never grows old.”

The Black Rooster Social Inn: This is the Place, ed. DJ Renegade (1997, Spike and Pepper Books)

4 contributors:
Brandon D. Johnson, Gary Lilly, Ernesto Mercer, DJ Renegade.

From the Introduction, by Renee Stout:
“…[T]hey arrive one by one on Monday nights, check their egos at the door, and prepare for a workshop that offers honest and intensive criticism. We are all serious as hell about our work, but no one takes themselves too seriously. Every one of us has a sense of humor and a sense of play. This is why the chemistry of this group works. As The Black Roosters workshop (they named themselves after a painting they saw hanging on my studio wall), I work in an adjoining room and listen. I apply what I can of the advice they offer each other to my own artform…We all work to strip things down and get at the essence of an idea. Working with these poets has helped me develop a stronger sense of metaphor and to recognize the subtle poetry in my own work…Everyone eventually ends up back in the studio for coffee or tea and discussions which sometimes last until one or two in the morning.”

Everything I Never Told You Became a Poem: Modern Urban Griots (1998)

5 contributors:
Jane Alberdeston-Coralin, Holly Bass, Hayes Davis, Twain Dooley, Toni Asante Lightfoot.

From the Foreword, by Toni Asante Lightfoot:
“The Modern Urban Griots are the tellers of current urban stories and ancestral connections. The MUG was founded on the premise of collecting writers who are concerned with the craft of poetry as well as performing in venues not associated with poetry and/or for people oblivious to the poetries of their lives.”

Laurels: Eight Women Poets, ed. Stacy Johnson Tuthill (1998, SCOP Publications)

8 contributors:
Leonie Adams, Elizabeth Bishop, Louise Bogan, Gwendolyn Brooks, Rita Dove, Josephine Jacobsen, Maxine Kumin, Mona Van Duyn.

Essays and interviews by 7 additional contributors:
Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, Jean H. Johnson, Marta Knobloch, Ann B. Knox, Marybeth Shea, Jayne Landis Silva, Stacy Johnson Tuthill.

From the Editor’s Notes:
“This book has its inception as the editors of SCOP Publications, Inc., were searching for a way to celebrate the twenty-first anniversary of the press. We have come of age. Although we have had men on our Board of Directors, all six members are now women. We found our means of celebration by honoring the eight women who have been consultants in Poetry to the Library of Congress or Poets Laureate.

“The title, Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, was established in 1936; the first consultant, Joseph Auslander, took office in 1937. In 1963, Senator Spark M. Matsunaga of Hawaii first introduced legislation to designate the position ‘Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry.’ The bill, after repeated introduction, was signed into law twenty-two years later on December 3, 1985 during the term of Gwendolyn Brooks…The first consultants, seeking to find their way, established precedents that have lasted, such as poetry readings, recordings of poets’ work, and archival acquisitions…over the past sixty years, although we have a flood of talented women poets in the United States, only eight have been selected. It came to our attention, also, that after the term of Elizabeth Bishop approximately 30 years elapsed before another woman, Josephine Jacobsen, was offered the position.”

Winners: A Retrospective of the Washington Prize, ed. Karren LaLonde Alenier, Hilary Tham, Miles David Moore (1999, The Word Works, Inc.)

79 contributors:
Karren LaLonde Alenier, Nancy Allinson, Nathalie F. Anderson, Barri Armitage, Renee Ashley, Dierdra Baldwin, J.H. Beall, Peter Blair, John Bradley, Celia Brown, Jamie Brown, Laura Brown, Christopher Bursk, Shirley G. Cochrane, Fred Collins, Maxine Combs, Geraldine Connolly, Sarah Cotterill, Don Cunningham, Ramola D, Michael C. Davis, William Derge, Toi Derricotte, Denise DeVries, Buck Downs, Laura Fargas, Elizabeth Follin-Jones, Patricia Garfinkel, Howard Gofreed, Barbara Goldberg, Patricia Gray, Susan Gubernat, Linda Lee Harper, Jim Henley, James Hopkins, Joanna Howard, Tod Ibrahim, Reuben Jackson, Brandon D. Johnson, Ann Raw Jonas, Lindsay Knowlton, Hiram Larew, Elaine Magarrell, Sydney March, Fred Marchant, Caroline Marshall, Judith McCombs, James McEuen, Peggy Miller, Barbara Moore, Miles David Moore, Maureen Murphy, Jean Nordhaus, Betty Parry, Marie Pavlicek-Wehrli, Richard Peabody, Lisa Ress, Jay Rogoff, Steven B. Rogers, Maggie Rosen, Amy Ross, Joe Ross, Martha Sanchez-Lowery, Robert Sargent, M.A. Schaffner, Catherine Harnett Shaw, Anne Sheldon, Enid Shomer, Rod Smith, Judith Steinbergh, Hilary Tham, Jonathan Vaile, Nancy White, Rhonda Williford, Leslie Wilson, Ronald Wilson, Marcella Wolfe, Hastings Wyman, Jr., George Young.

From the Introduction, entitled “History of the Washington Prize,” by Karren LaLonde Alenier:
“I helped create the Washington Prize in 1981 with Deirdra Baldwin, Jim Beall, and Robert Sargent. Deirdra, founding president of The Word Works, always looking for some hook to distinguish us from the other small presses, sparked the idea…From 1981 to 1987, the prize of one thousand dollars was awarded for a single poem…Typically, we received 1,000 to 2,000 poems each year…After the first two years, the contest drew increasing numbers of entries, and we enlisted a contest director who would find a couple of readers to screen the submissions. Everyone who helped was writing and publishing poetry. Our goal was to ease the workload for us and make the contest a Washington, DC community effort…The transition from single poem contest to book award happened as the organization changed…in 1987 we published the first Washington Prize book…and we awarded the last prize for a single poem…Turning the Washington Prize into a book award allowed us to start publishing books again on a regular basis…”

Cosmos Club Poets Through the Years: An Anthology (Cosmos Club, 2000)

25 contributors:
Maya Angelou, Roy Basler, Thomas Peter Bennett, Carl Bode, John C. Broderick, John L. Brown, William Claire, James Dickey, John Finlator, George Garrett, Ralph Gray, Daniel Halpern, O.B. Hardison, Jr., George Sanford Holmes, Juan Ramon Jimenez, Archibald MacLeish, Charles McCarry, Paul Oehser, Raphael Pumpelly, Francis Coleman Rosenberger, William Jay Smith, Harris Stewart, Allen Tate, Henry Taylor, Stanley D. Willis.

From the Introduction, by Robert E. Barnett:
“In the remarkable history of the Cosmos Club, now spanning three centuries,…the art of poetry has been…part of a tradition of humanistic principles that have been at the core of our identity…The current anthology of original work produced by our own members is an outgrowth of the [Library] Committee’s desire to share the wealth of talent that is part of our noble history.”

DC Poets Against the War, ed. Sarah Browning, Naomi Ayala, Michele Elliott, Danny Rose (2003, reprinted/expanded 2004)

41 contributors to 2003 edition:
Naomi Ayala, Luis Alberto Ambroggio, Rei Berroa, David Brescia-Weiler, Richard Blanco, Sarah Browning, Kenneth Carroll, Grace Cavalieri, Jahayra Corrales, Charlie Cray, Katy Didden, Scott J. Ecksel, Zein El-Amine, Michele Elliott, Wade Fletcher, Yael Flusberg, Martin Galvin, David Gewanter, Jomo K. Graham, Patricia Gray, Leah Harris, Roberto (Bert) Ifill, Esther Iverem, Peter Klappert, Ann B. Knox, Dan Logan, Carmen Lupton, Mike Maggio, Chelsie Miller, E. Ethelbert Miller, Samuel Miranda, Michael Willett Newheart, Gregory Orfalea, Patric Pepper, Kim Roberts, Danny Rose, Joseph Ross, Kaia Sand, Elizabeth Sullam, Dan Vera, Rebecca Villarreal.

18 additional contributors to the expanded 2004 edition:
Rose Marie Berger, Jody Bolz, Shahid Buttar, John Clarke, Camille Dungy, Bernadette Geyer, Judith McCombs, John S. Murillo, Kathleen O’Toole, Richard Peabody, Joel Dias Porter (aka DJ Renegade), Melanie Rivera, David Salner, M.A. Schaffner, Myra Sklarew, Dean Smith, Melissa Tuckey, Joshua Weiner.

From the Introduction to the First Edition, by Sarah Browning, Naomi Ayala, Michele Elliott, Danny Rose:
“In the winter and spring of 2003, as our government was rushing to war in Iraq, millions of Americans called and wrote their representatives in passionate resistance. Anti-war poets in Washington, D.C. had no one to write to: we live at the center of power, yet have no voting representatives in Congress…We responded with protest and also with poetry. We wrote poems of outrage and opposition, poems embracing discussion and affirming dissent, poems valuing life in all its complexity and difficulty, poems celebrating ourselves and our neighbors up the block and around the world…D.C. Poets Against the War operated in [a] spirit of democracy. Beginning on February 12 and continuing through the lead-up and the ‘active’ phase of the war on Iraq, we held open readings at churches, cultural centers, in parks, on street corners, and on the Mall…There were poets who work in the academy, poets who work in the community, well-known poets and poets just starting out…The poets [in the anthology] range in age from 10 to 80. They are women and men, African American, Latino, Arab American, and Caucasian, poor, middle- and upper-class, gay and straight, active in the group and just now joining with us…We are deeply moved and honored by our community’s talents, compassion, integrity, and unwavering commitment to the power of the word.”

From the Foreword to the Second Edition, by Cornelius Eady:
“What does [war] have to do with poetry? Everything, I think, if you try to answer the basic question, ‘who gets to tell the story?” Or nothing, if you think that poetry has no business dealing with headlines or talking back to power or trying to get down the human complexity of this moment we’re all passing through, when the idea of what this country is and should be about is so clearly up for grabs. Luckily, this anthology deals with the former, and does it in such a way that I hope will give heart to those who don’t happen to live in dense urban centers like DC…Can a book of pissed-off poets saying no to what we believe to be a cynical and basically corrupt administration help to monkey-wrench things? Can the soft song of printed image and metaphor compete against the blare of Fox News?…I think the poet’s job, and the work of this anthology, is to be proof against silence.”

Cabin Fever: Poets at Joaquin Miller‘s Cabin 1984-2001, ed. Jacklyn W. Potter, Dwaine Rieves, Gary Stein (2003, The Word Works, Inc.)

214 contributors:
Ally Acker, Jane Alberdeston, Karren L. Alenier, Elizabeth Alexander, Fareedah Allah, Nathalie Anderson, Pilar Andrus, Barri Armitage, Renee Ashley, Jennifer Atkinson, Mark Baechtel, Ned Balbo, Holly Bass, Anne Becker, Mel Belin, Patricia Bertheaud, David Biespiel, Peter Blair, Angie Blake-Moore, Dean Blehert, Anne Marie Blum, John Bradley, Doris Brody, Christopher Bursk, Dan Campbell, Rick Cannon, Nancy Naomi Carlson, Kenneth Carroll, Anne Caston, Grace Cavalieri, Lucille Clifton, Shirley Cochrane, Don Colburn, Michael Collier, Andrea Collins, Gail Collins-Ranadive, Sarah Cotterill, Mark Craver, Lois Cucullu, Mary Ann Daly, Enid Dame, Heather Davis, Joseph A. Davis, Michael C. Davis, Patricia Davis, Barbara DeCesare, Joanne “Rocky” Delaplaine, Ruth Dickey, Moshe Dor, Buck Downs, Neal Dwyer, Sean Enright, W. Perry Epps, Doug Evans, Roland Flint, Linda Nemec Foster, Serena Fox, Lillian Frankel, Sunil Freeman, Karlis Freivalds, Nan Fry, Martin Galvin, Patricia Garfinkel, Tamara Gawthrop, David Gewanter, Michelle Gil-Montero, Brian Gilmore, Howard Gofreed, Bina Goldfield, Paul Grant, Patricia Gray, Herbert S. Guggenheim, Daniel Gutstein, Paul Haenel, Cathryn Hankla, Margaret Hansimanolis, Linda Lee Harper, Jeffrey Harrison, Richard Harteis, Lola Haskins, Wendell Hawken, Ava Leavell Haymon, Robert Haynes, Elizabeth Hazen, William Heath, Cheryl Hellner, Mary Hilton, Erich Hintze, Cynthia Hoffman, James Hopkins, Paul Hopper, Joanna Howard, Bert Hubinger, Reuben Jackson, Bruce A. Jacobs, Roy Jacobstein, Valerie Jean, Rod Jellema, Brandon D. Johnson, Jean Johnson, Nancy Johnson, Ann Rae Jonas, Beth Baruch Joselow, Miriam Kessler, Sally Rosen Kindred, Thomas M. Kerlin, Kayne Kline, Ann B. Knox, Lisa Kosow, Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, David Kresh, Robert Krut, Kwelismith, Hiram Larew, Merrill Leffler, Vladimir Levchev, Jeffrey Levine, Lenny Lianne, M.L. Liebler, Toni Asante Lightfoot, Gary Lilley, Chris Llewellyn, Carmen Lupton, Elaine Magarrell, Dora Malech, Sydney March, Fred Marchant, David McAleavey, Maia McAleavey, Greg McBride, Richard McCann, Judith McCombs, Craig McEldowney, James McEuen, E. Ethelbert Miller, Larry Moffi, Gary Moody, David Moolten, Miles David Moore, Faye Moskowitz, Kermit Moyer, Miriam Morsel Nathan, Sharon Negri, Lyubomir Nikolov, Mary Hyne North, Sibbie O’Sullivan, Michelle Parkerson, Alicia Partnoy, Marie Pavlicek-Wehrli, Patric Pepper, Arlene Plevin, Katherine Plimpton, Stanley Plumly, Jacklyn W. Potter, Mary Quattlebaum, Luis Rebaza-Soraluz, Elizabeth Rees, Michael Reinke, Michael Reis, Suzanne Rhodenbaugh, Dwaine Rieves, May Rihani, Hugo Rizzoli, Kim Roberts, Jay Rogoff, Maggie Rosen, Amy Jo Ross, Martha Sanchez-Lowery, Robert Sargent, M.A. Schaffner, Janice Lynch Schuster, Myra Shapiro, Anne Sheldon, Shan Shi, Thandiwe Shiphrah, Enid Shomer, Askold Skalsky, Myra Sklarew, J.D. Smith, Rose Solari, Susan Sonde, David Sosnowski, Gary Stein, Sarah Stillman, Silvana Straw, Thom Stuart, Robin Suleiman, Elizabeth Sullam, Terese Svoboda, Joseph Thackery, Hilary Tham, Naomi Thiers, Colette Thomas, Jonathan Vaile, Michael Varga, Davi Walders, Mark Wallace, Barrett Warner, Charlotte Gould Warren, Deborah Wassertzug, Michael Waters, Margaret Weaver, Erica Weitzman, Philip Wexler, Reed Whittemore, Rhonda Williford, Mary-Sherman Willis, Ronald Wilson, Terence Winch, David Wolinsky, Anne Harding Woodworth, George Young.

From the Introduction, “Poetry Under the Stars,” by Jacklyn W. Potter:
“The stars are in your hands. This anthology offers you the work of the poets who read their poetry under the stars, next to Joaquin Miller‘s Cabin in Rock Creek Park, Washington, D.C., from 1984-2001. Established in 1975 by The Word Works, the Joaquin Miller Cabin Poetry Series gained popularity, skillfully coordinated by Karren Alenier, President of The Word Works, a small press and literary organization. When Karren invited me to become director of these programs in 1983, I was delighted. In the fall of that year, The Word Works invited poets to read in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Miller building his log cabin just north of Washington City. Here Miller sought to write poetry and live close to nature.

Nevertheless, Joaquin Miller maintained an interest in national affairs, especially equal rights for all Americans. His views prompted President Cleveland to request that he become Superintendent of Indian Affairs in 1885. Miller declined the offer and moved to the Oakland Hills of California…In keeping with Miller’s love of nature, our poetry series features readings outside, next to his cabin, under the stars…

The Miller Cabin Poetry Series has established traditions. Readings are always on Tuesday evenings. For years, on opening night, Robert Sargent has begun the series reading Miller’s poem, ‘Columbus.'”

Days I Moved Through Ordinary Sounds: The Teachers of WritersCorps in Poetry and Prose, ed. Chad Sweeney (2009, City Lights Foundation)

Includes 50 writers, 10 from DC:
Kenneth Carroll, Joel Dias-Porter, Michele Elliott, Ryan Grim, Monica A. Hand, Joy Jones, Livia Kent, Jeffrey McDaniel, Melissa Tuckey, Seshat Yonshea Walker.

Includes poems and essays by teachers of the WritersCorps program, with branches in San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and New York. “Since 1994, WritersCorps, a national arts-in-service model program, has hired writers to teach creative writing to low-income and ‘at-risk’ youth in juvenile detention facilities, homeless shelters, public schools, after-school programs and centers for newly arrived immigrants.”

Full Moon on K Street: Poems About Washington, DC, ed. Kim Roberts (2010, Plan B Press)

101 contributors:
Karren L. Alenier, Elizabeth Alexander, Kwame Alexander, Abdul Ali, Francisco Aragón, Naomi Ayala, Jonetta Rose Barras, Holly Bass, Paulette Beete, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Derrick Weston Brown, Sterling A. Brown, Sarah Browning, Regie Cabico, Kenneth Carroll, Grace Cavalieri, William Claire, Carleasa Coates, Jane Alberdeston Coralín, Ed Cox, Teri Ellen Cross, Ramola D, Kyle Dargan, Ann Darr, Tina Darragh, Christina Daub, Hayes Davis, Thulani Davis, Donna Denizé, Joel Dias-Porter, Tim Dlugos, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Roland Flint, Sunil Freeman, Deirdre Gantt, David Gewanter, Brian Gilmore, Robert L. Giron, Barbara Goldberg, Patricia Gray, Michael Gushue, Daniel Gutstein, O.B. Hardison, Jr., Essex Hemphill, Randall Horton, Natalie E. Illlum, Esther Iverem, Gray Jacobik, Brandon D. Johnson, Percy E. Johnston, Jr., Fred Joiner, Beth Joselow, Alan King, Michael Lally, Mary Ann Larkin, Merrill Leffler, Toni Asante Lightfoot, Saundra Rose Maley, David McAleavey, Richard McCann, Eugene J. McCarthy, Judith McCombs, Tony Medina, E. Ethelbert Miller, May Miller, Samuel Miranda, Miles David Moore ,Yvette Neisser Moreno, Kathi Morrison-Taylor, Gaston Neal, Jose Emilio Pacheco, Jose Padua, Michelle Parkerson, Betty Parry, Linda Pastan, Richard Peabody, Adam Pellegrini, Elizabeth Poliner, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Liam Rector, Joan Retallack, Katy Richey, Joseph Ross, Ken Rumble, Robert Sargent, Gregg Shapiro, Myra Sklarew, Rod Smith, Alan Spears, Sharan Strange, A.B. Spellman, Hilary Tham, Maureen Thorson, Venus Thrash, Dan Vera, Rebecca Villarreal, Belle Waring, Joshua Weiner, Reed Whittemore, Terence Winch, Ahmos Zu-Bolton II.

From the Introduction:
““The book you hold in your hands is a portrait of a great city’s face, seen from many angles, wearing many expressions. It speaks of Washington, DC’s bifurcated nature: both public (through its neoclassical monuments, museums, and Federal buildings) and private (through its neighborhoods). It speaks equally with delight and frustration.

“”All the poems were written by past or current residents of the city, who can best provide that intimate view, and all are contemporary—which, for the purposes of this book, I defined as having been written between 1950 and the present.

“… “Decisions about what—–and who—–to include were influenced by a desire to portray the city at different time periods in its modern history and to cover the city’s full geography. A few poems stray into the surrounding suburbs, but most stay firmly inside the diamond of the city’s boundaries.””

The Poets Laureate Anthology, ed. Elizabeth Hun Schmidt, Forword by Billy Collins (W.W. Norton, 2010)

43 contributors:
Leonie Adams, Conrad Aiken, Joseph Auslander, Elizabeth Bishop, Louise Bogan, Joseph Brodsky, Gwendolyn Brooks, Billy Collins, James Dickey, Rita Dove, Richard Eberhart, Robert Fitzgerald, Robert Frost, Louise Gluck, Donald Hall, Robert Hass, Robert Hayden, Anthony Hecht, Daniel Hoffman, Josephine Jacobsen, Randall Jarrell, Ted Kooser, Maxine Kumin, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Lowell, William Meredith, W.S. Merwin, Howard Nemerov, Robert Pinsky, Kay Ryan, Karl Shapiro, Charles Simic, William Jay Smith, Stephen Spender, William Stafford, Mark Strand, Allen Tate, Louis Untermeyer, Mona Van Duyn, Robert Penn Warren, Reed Whittemore, Richard Wilbur, William Carlos Williams

From the Foreword, by Billy Collins:
“Becoming the United States poet laureate is a surprisingly straightforward process, especially considering the trumpeting resonance of the title. Unlike the British model, the American version is conferred without ceremony or ritual of investiture. No wreath is bestowed, nor is a cask of dry wine bestowed as is the custom in England. The news, however stunning, is delivered via phone call from the Librarian of Congress, who congratulates you and talks you through a short list of duties, and after a pleasant luncheon in the Library’s pavilion weeks later—poof, you’re the new poet laureate. You do get a very nice office, a suite f rooms in the ‘attic’ of the Jefferson Building, where you are apparently free to spend as much or as little time as you please. Located down the hall from the Senate Page School, the office is impressive not only for its elegant period furniture and the spectacular view of the Capitol, but also for the ghosts of all the previous laureates who haunt these rooms and whose photographs stare down at you (well at me anyway) with expressions ranging from dim recognition to disbelief. There must be some mistake, Robert Penn Warren seemed to be saying. Surely, not him, Robert Frost seethed.”

Writers Among Us: A Celebration of St. Albans School’s Writer-in-Residence Program (St Albans, 2011)

25 Contributors:
Christopher Feliciano Arnold, Lora Jane Berg, Will Blythe, Beth Boyett, Katie Brandi, Stuart Holmes Coleman, Bernardine Connelly, Cynthia Cotts, Ronica (Bhattacharya) Dhar, Caitlin Doyle, James Hoch, David Kajganich, Matthew Klam, Kimberly Libby, Robert Lunday, Margaret Meyers, Michael Pickard, Hannah Louise Poston, Brendan Short, Shauna Seliy, Curtis Sittenfeld, Brian Weinberg, Holly Richards Woodward, Christy J. Zink, and Mary Kay Zuravleff.

Includes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.  Published for the school’s centennial.

Literary Capital: A Washington Reader, edited by Christopher Sten (University of Georgia Press, 2011)

Nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.

70 Contributors:
Abigail Adams, Henry Adams, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Louisa May Alcott, Gertrude Atherton, Mario Bencastro, Elizabeth Bishop, Black Hawk, Sterling A. Brown, William Wells Brown, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Willa Cather, Anna Cooper, James Fenimore Cooper, Robert Coover, John William DeForest, Charles Dickens, Joan Didion, John Dos Passos, Frederick Douglass, Allen Drury, W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Ralph Ellison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Allen Ginsberg, Marita Golden, Louis J. Halle, Bret Harte, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Joseph Heller, Christian Hines, Andrew Holleran, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, Langston Hughes, Washington Irving, Henry James, Edward P. Jones, Ward Just, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, Denise Levertov, Sinclair Lewis, Alain Locke, Archibald MacLeish, Norman Mailer, Thomas Mallon, Mary McCarthy, Herman Melville, E. Ethelbert Miller, May Miller, Solomon Northrup, George P. Pelecanos, David Graham Phillips, Susan Richards Shreve, Upton Sinclair, Margaret Bayard Smith, Allen Tate, Mary Church Terrell, Alexis de Tocqueville, Jean Toomer, Frances Trollope, Mark Twain, Gore Vidal, Charles Dudley Warner, Booker T. Washington, George Watterston, Walt Whitman, Reed Whittemore, John Greenleaf Whittier, Edward Christopher Williams.

From the Introduction:
““Washington has always been a magnet for writers, a source of interest and fascination for poets, essayists, and novelists no less than for journalists, commentators, and other media figures who report on life in the nation’s capital. However, the nature of the writing has changed, becoming more varied and sophisticated over the past two centuries, as the city has evolved from a frontier village to a metropolis with instant, global connections. The first writers were outsiders: visitors, tourists, and short term residents…After the Civil War, professional writers, such as Mark Twain and Bret Harte, drawn to the city by jobs in politics and journalism, began to see it as a place to work and live—temporarily, if not permanently. African American writers especially——Frederick Douglass, Anna Cooper, and Paul Laurence Dunbar, for example——were attracted to the city by the hope of employment and the promise of equal treatment by the national government that controlled the city, with the important consequence that Washington became host to an African American literary community before any other kind of literary community took hold…From the early days of the Republic, Washington has had a writing scene that is national in scope, created mainly by outsiders with national reputations and an eye for controversy or a big story—authors such as John Greenleaf Whittier, Norman Mailer, or Mary McCarthy. These writers are often personally involved in political debates over nationally contentious issues such as abolition, the Union, the Vietnam War, and the Nixon-Watergate debacle; or they are eager to investigate and write about shadowy government operations or scandals—influence peddling, congressional profiteering, presidential improprieties, and the like—centered in the nation’s capital. The two traditions—the one local, the other national—have developed side by side, often with a good deal of interplay between them, making Washington writing an unusually rich and resonate, if sometimes schizoid, body of work, with the national government serving as a backdrop, or foil, to the featured lives of local residents.””

Literary Washington, D.C., ed. Patrick Allen (Trinity University Press, 2012)

Nonfiction, fiction and poetry. Part of an ongoing Literary City Series.

35 contributors:
Henry Adams, Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Bishop, Connie Briscoe, Sterling A. Brown, Christopher Buckley, Alan Cheuse, Charles Dickens, Emily Dickinson, Rita Dove, Alan Drury, Carlos Fuentes, Marita Golden, Patricia Browning Griffith, Joy Harjo, Robert Hayden, Essex Hemphill, Carolivia Herron, Langston Hughes, Henry James, Randall Jarrell, Edward P. Jones, Ward Just, Elizabeth Keckley, Garrison Keillor, Archibald MacLeish, Larry McMurtry, H.L. Mencken, Willie Morris, Susan Richards Shreve, Jean Toomer, Frances Trollope, Mark Twain, Gore Vidal, Walt Whitman.

From the Preface:
““Ernest Kroll called Washington ‘an invented city, neither Rome nor home.’ A city reclaimed from swampland and based on imperial models, Washington in undoubtedly artificial, a construct. But that historical fact is only part of the story of the city’s culture and way of life. In this stage set of a city, people make their homes, work, have families, go to school, worship, and are buried. While there is a dichotomy between ‘official Washington’ and ‘domestic Washington,’ the two come together, both in this city itself and this collection.””

Special thanks to Dan Vera, for photographing many of the book covers, and technical assistance that made this survey possible.

Kim Roberts is the editor of the anthology By Broad Potomac’s Shore: Great Poems from the Early Days of our Nation’s Capital (University of Virginia Press, 2020), selected by the East Coast Centers for the Book for the 2021 Route 1 Reads program as the book that “best illuminates important aspects” of the culture of Washington, DC. She is the author of A Literary Guide to Washington, DC: Walking in the Footsteps of American Writers from Francis Scott Key to Zora Neale Hurston (University of Virginia Press, 2018), and five books of poems, most recently The Scientific Method (WordTech Editions, 2017). http://www.kimroberts.org