Best of Arlington 2016
Editors’ Picks
Notable Authors
Want to read local? We checked in with Eileen McGervey, owner of our favorite independent bookstore, One More Page Books (onemorepagebooks.com), to bring you these recommendations.
Bethanne Patrick
A writer, author, critic and journalist in McLean, Patrick has built a career writing and talking about books. In 2009, she founded the popular #FridayReads hashtag under the Twitter handle
@TheBookMaven. She is also the author of two books: An Uncommon History of Common Things (co-authored with John Thompson); and An Uncommon History of Common Courtesy, both from National Geographic Books. Her latest, The Books That Changed My Life (due out in March from Simon & Schuster), is a compilation of 100 original interviews with prominent literary and cultural icons.
Richard Peabody
Peabody is co-founder and editor of Gargoyle Magazine, a literary journal now on its 64th issue, and editor (or co-editor) of more than 20 anthologies. He has authored a novella, three short story collections and seven books of poetry. His most recent book, The Richard Peabody Reader (2015), offers a wide-ranging selection of his poetry and prose. An Arlington resident, Peabody has taught fiction writing workshops in the D.C. area since 1985 and is considered one of Washington, D.C.’s foremost literary voices and champions.
Glen Finland
Finland’s memoir Next Stop: An Autistic Son Grows Up (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, 2012) expands upon her May 2009 feature story for The Washington Post Magazine about parenting an autistic child to adulthood and then learning to let go. The McLean resident works with the community group Advocacy for Young Adults and Autism Awareness, as well as with various parent resource groups at local schools.
Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Shang’s most recent young-adult book, The Way Home Looks Now (Scholastic Press, 2015), was included on The Kojo Nnamdi Show’s 2015 Children’s & YA Summer Reading List and was a featured Cooperative Children’s Book Center Book of the Week. A former juvenile justice attorney, tutor and Court Appointed Special Advocate, Shang lives in Falls Church and volunteers for Ready 2 Read, a nonprofit that brings library programs to preschools.
Kathleen McCleary
Upon the release of her novel Leaving Haven (William Morrow, 2013), McCleary embarked on an indie bookstore road trip that covered 1,397 miles, seven states and 23 independent bookstores. A journalist and author who has also worked as a bookseller, bartender and barista (all great jobs for gathering material for fiction), the Falls Church resident is also the author of A Simple Thing and House & Home. McCleary has taught writing at American University and is currently an instructor with Writopia Labs, a nonprofit that teaches creative writing to kids.
