The old adage goes: “New year, new me.” In many ways, Old Town Books has embraced this concept (a new brick-and-mortar location and some new team members, to name a few), but one thing that will never change is our team and community’s love for events. Literary, bookish, nerdy; we want it all! Join us as we bask in the glow of our warm memories (and computer screens) of January and February’s roster of engaging and fun events.

Our community jumped right into creation in the new year, joining Old Town Books for writing workshops, a flash fiction contest, and more. Founder of MoonLit DC, Kris Zory King joined OTB proprietor for a workshop aptly titled “Writing at the End of the World.” King will be returning soon to host a three-part workshop series to help us “Spring into Writing,” beginning in April. To learn more and to sign up for these pay-what-you-can experiences, click here.

Local romance author Charis Michaels celebrated the day of love with us by hosting a Valentine’s Day workshop titled “Book Boyfriends and Why We Love Them.” She offered up book recommendations, trope do’s and don’t’s, writing formulas, and more. Attendees even had the opportunity to access exclusive worksheets to aid them in their own romance writing process.

Michaels also served as one of the guest judges, along with Lenora Bell, for Old Town Book’s first “Love is in the Air” flash fiction contest. Participants got to try their hand at bringing love and romance to the page, submit their pieces for judging, and then finalists got to present their works to the assembled Zoom audience prior to the announcement of the winner. If you fancy a performance, be sure to join us in April for several fun events, such as a Jane Eyre read-aloud or a virtual poety slam!

January and February saw the continued joy of many favorite OTB book clubs, as well as several new editions:

• The cheekily-named Bad Romance Book Club discussed Three Nights of Sin and One Night is Never Enough by Anne Mallory and The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon. Join them in March as they chat about the highly-anticipated Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers (mention BRBC at check-out and get 10% off while you get added to the invite).

• Our Sci-fi/Fantasy club explored two works by female-identifying authors: Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden and Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor. You won’t want to miss their next meeting, as they’ll be discussing Winter’s Orbit, billed as Ancillary Justice meets Red, White & Royal Blue! Click here to sign up.

• The Old Town Books Book(s) Club delved into The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr, discussing the profound and challenging subject matter via Zoom. April’s meeting is a virtual author event featuring author Naima Coster in conversation with DC bookstagrammer Lupita Aquino (@LupitaReads). Sign up in advance to join us.

• Our community of book lovers came together at the end of February for a fun Bring Your Own Book book club Zoom, complete with a reading app friend request exchange! (pictured above)

• January saw the introduction of a new club that was met with lots of interest. The Murder by the Book Club started with We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper (who joined in the virtual discussion!) and will keep the chills coming with The Babysitter, to be discussed on March 30’s club call. Be sure to mark your calendars for the follow-up author event on April 5th as well.

While our team of booksellers is hard at work getting the new shop location reading for browsing, our book-loving community continues to gather online for book clubs, workshops, and more. Whether you’re a fan of poetry, gardening, Shakespeare, or just books in general, we’ve got an exciting roster of events coming up this spring for you! Thank you, as always, for all of your support - we can’t wait to see you, in person or during one of our online events.

Blog contribution by Shannon McCarthy.
Additional photo contributed by Ally Kirkpatrick.