Dc autobiography authors

It turns out that a great way to combine a love of local history and a love of writing is to figure out where noted authors lived in your city.

That’s what poets and literary historians Kim Roberts and Dan Vera did in Washington, DC. They started with 15 authors in 2008.

Last night, at the HumanitiesDC space in the Uline Arena (more about that below), they shared their additions and improvements since then—345 authors tucked into a very friendly and searchable website at www.dcwriters.org.

Who’s In, Who’s Not

Their rules are that the author has to be dead, and their home has to still stand.

That covers famous authors like Carlos Fuentes (who lived here when his father worked for the Mexican Embassy) and Zora Neale Hurston (a student at Howard). Lesser known authors like poets Richard Bruce Nugent (here in his 20s) and Betty Parry (here most of her adult life).

Surprising authors (often memoir writers) like Myrna Loy and Ulysses S.