Lit in the District

This is a serious town. It is a town of valedictorians and overachievers, of dreamers and idealists, and, on the other side of that coin, it is a town of marginalized and underrepresented people who just want to get by (and maybe, just maybe, vote once in a while). It’s where laws are created and peace treaties are reached. It’s a place where ambassadors and dignitaries from around the globe are wined and dined, and where the future of nations rests on the yes's and no's of heavily-kissed asses. There are museums here, and monuments celebrating everything from civil rights victories to victories in great wars. The President lives here, in a house as recognizable as the Coca Cola script.

This is a non-fiction town, a town that writes about election strategies and budget crises. This is a town fluent in legalese that compiles years’ worth of evidence on political transgressions and displays them in thousand-page reports. Books about scandals and stained dresses live here. Presidential biographies live here. If you wanted to write a poem that captures DC, it would be long and bland, and rigidly structured with every last line rhyming with power or money. One could even go so far as to say that the biggest contributor to the DC fiction scene is the lies the politicians tell to get themselves elected (A serious case could be made that the ideas for how to fix a broken economy that originate from some members of our Congress is the basis for a Fantasy or Magical Realism novel.)

It’s a town deserving of so much more, literature-wise. DC is a town made up of distinct neighborhoods full of colorful characters that are overflowing with stories waiting to be told. Funny stories, magical stories, heartbreaking stories, none of which necessarily involve exit poll numbers or spies. And yes, there have been troubles and hard times: race riots and sky-high homicide rates, crack epidemics and terrorist attacks. But Southern writers from Twain to Faulkner to Barry Hannah have proved that quality literature can be born from the dark and difficult-to-talk-about. Baltimore turned its troubles into an award winning TV series. New York has spawned many novels about the 9/11 terror attacks. There's literature from the Pacific Northwest, and the Rocky Mountains, and the Southwest. What about DC? A town of this many people, where this many things happen, there should be a thriving literature "scene". Where is it?

The short answer is, it’s there. It’s small, but it's growing. It’s not quite here yet, but the future looks pretty bright. Literary magazines and publishers like are sprouting and organizing. 826DC, the latest chapter of Dave Eggers’ brainchild, is here, aiming to build a new generation of poets and writers. The longer, probably more accurate answer is that only time will tell. DC has potential to be a literature scene, has passionate, proud people with a unique voice, but it remains to be seen whether these budding poets and writers can ever compete with the wet blanket of seriousness that Congress and the White House hucks around. History has shown that it's an uphill battle.