Poems of the Unexpected—and the Struggle to Connect
Two words I’d use to describe the poems in this collection—their language and imagery—are muscular and unexpected. By muscular I mean the words and images aren’t just substantial, they flex and push against you as you read; a reader feels pulled into grappling with them. Unexpected images and metaphors—that sometimes don’t initially seem to fit the tone—and unusual words surface a lot. This makes the reading experience satisfying work. It doesn’t shut the reader out, but demands something from them.
Where a Poetic Repository of Gesture Becomes a Spiritual Release
Gestures carry the weight of words. Think of the hand wave that signals “hello” or “goodbye,” or blowing a kiss to someone. These tiny actions can hold such significance. Gestuary by French-Senegalese poet Sylvie Kandé, translated into English by Nancy Naomi Carlson, is a repository for gestures that carry cultural significance and instances of violence, as well as historical significance. The original was published as Gestuaire by Éditions Gallimard in 2016 and received the 2017 Prix Louise Labé. Carlson’s translation, issued by Seagull Books, came out this year.
“She told me and I remember knowing”
Displacement, memory, raising a child in a new country—these are some of the themes that Burgi Zenhausern treats in her first full length collection, White Door. The fact that these fine poems were written in Zenhausern’s second language makes this achievement even more impressive.
We Are Arden
Do you need a break, but not too much of a break, from our political madness? The Folger Theatre, enacting the vision of Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels, presents Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It as a subtle parable for the multifaceted realities of life in Washington, D.C. The creative team is positing that vibrant cultural and community life has long flourished here, apart from, and often overshadowed by, the focus on federal government matters, and that we should appreciate and celebrate the qualities of this realm. Without being blatant, the production weaves in the notion that we can, and do, benefit sumptuously from these wellsprings of local identity.
Regenerating a Scattered Family
Bsrat Mezghebe’s debut novel, I Hope You Find What You’re Looking For (Liveright/Norton, 2026), is an affecting portrait of three Eritrean women living in Alexandria, Va in 1991, as their country’s long war for independence from Ethiopia enters its final push. The story, weaving the prosaic and the extraordinary, juxtaposes day-to-day struggles in the DMV with the brutal war for independence back home. It unfolds through the alternating perspectives of these three strong-willed characters.
Getting into the magic
What a moment for a show juxtaposing truth and deception. In Nothing Up My Sleeve … Simple Deceptions for Curious Humans, master illusionist and actor Dendy delivers a wondrous, multifaceted solo performance perfectly calibrated to confound your mind, tickle your fancy, and touch your heart. This world premiere runs through March 15 at Round House Theatre in Bethesda.
A tense, gripping story of survival
Prudence Wright has made it. She’s overcome a traumatic past, beaten the odds, and is now living a comfortable, upper-middle-class life. Perhaps even the American Dream. Big house in Washington, D.C. Beautiful clothes. The occasional fancy night out with her husband, Davis. She and Davis are well-educated, cultured, accomplished, and beautiful. And yet she is weighed down by personal challenges and the constant reminder that the color of her skin defines much of her reality.
“Where does tranquility exist?”
True Blue, while ostensibly a journey through the pandemic, in fact ranges widely through interiors (both physical and mental), nature and cities, and memories in search of those consolations.
In Memoriam
Washington Unbound is honored to present eminent D.C. poet, writer, and literary historian Kim Robetts’ In Memoriam list of DMV authors who passed away in 2025.
“I started including “In Memoriam” notices in the Poetry News section of Beltway Poetry Quarterly when I founded the journal in 2000. I continued them for 15 or 16 years, until I stopped including the Poetry News as a regular online feature,” Kim told us.
“What’s More American?”
Tawny Chatmon’s art would be well worth seeing for its sheer beauty alone. But come closer and look deeper: These pieces contain multiple levels and tell important stories. It is because of this historical and narrative dimension that we have chosen to review a visual art show in our publication.
Step inside poetic art and emerge with new perspectives on humanity
Enter through the door on the cover of Reasons for Étant Donnés by Sara Cahill Marron and you enter a world of mystery. Like the peepholes ofMarcel Duchamp’s last major artwork, Étant Donnés, Marron’s poetry is a window into a world of mysteries—Water, Marriage, Kingdom, Transfiguration, and Body—that are open to interpretation and reinterpretation by the reader.
An interwoven tapestry of belonging, family, and homeland
Restitution (Regal House, 2025) is a quiet but powerful novel about place, belonging, and family. It asks us to consider what it means to belong to a place, to a person, or to a people. And what does it mean to not belong? What do we owe each other? And can we ever understand the truth of the past?
Washington Unbound’s 2025 Winter Booklist
It’s been a whirlwind year, and many of you are probably feeling a mixture of relief that it’s almost over and amazement that the end is so near. Here at Washington Unbound, we’re very grateful that our publication, launched barely eight months ago, has taken off so spectacularly. We would like to express our gratitude to our readers and supporters by sharing book recommendations from our contributors, local authors and literary institutions, and of course, the Washington Unbound staff.
The chaos lurking beneath the “perfect” family holiday
Just in time for the holidays, Round House Theatre presents the U.S. premiere of Sam Holcroft’s Rules for Living, which runs through January 4 and features a dysfunctional family coming together and trying (far too hard) to have the perfect Christmas dinner.
I am looking at just a crow, only one, and wait for more.
One of the most welcome new books by a DMV poet is J.D. Smith’s The Place That Is Coming to Us (Broadstone Books, 2025). Smith is a long-time mainstay of the D.C.-area poetry community and, from the evidence on view in this collection, his powers have not diminished.
Kinship requires a leap of faith and a keen eye for beauty in darkness
What Haunts Me by Bernadette Geyer is an intimate look at kinship and all the responsibilities and history it comes with. The narrator of these poems is looking at nature, their family, and events to find the source of kinship and whether they are deserving of it.
Of mountains and good men
Dixon, Descending is an extraordinary book. It’s hard to say what I loved more as I read it—the rich characters or the lively, convincing descriptions of both everyday moments and literal, top-of-the-world moments in the lives of the main character, an educator and amateur mountain climber, and his brother.
If you leave, try this book
If You Leave, the richly-drawn debut novel by Margaret Hutton (Regal House Publishing, October 2025), is the story of two women who are unlikely friends. But whereas the trope of unlikely friends usually signals a well-trod exploration of those aforementioned opposites, protagonists Lucille and Audrey offer something fresher and more relatable because they resist those neat, contrasting boxes.
One local writer’s vision of make-believe living
The stories in Lauren D. Woods' debut collection, The Great Grown-up Game of Make Believe (Autumn House Press, October 2025), pendulum between the speculative and the real, embodying how many people live their lives: half in imagination, half in the material world. These tales tremble with an unusual sense of stasis and imbalance, like someone who knows they’re susceptible to vertigo, yet keeps glancing over the edge of a high balcony anyway.
“Part of you wants to believe this poem was written by a human”
Using a wide array of emotional tones and an equally varied set of forms and styles, Knapp engages directly with many of the issues affecting our nation and our planet as a whole. By turns humorous, sad, ironic, witty, angry, resigned, these poems are essential reading and vital acts of resistance.