Whether or not the great American novel has been written, the great Washington D.C. novel, arguably, has not. Much that happens here is documented—there is an archive for nearly everything—but the inner lives of our citizens are seriously underreported. Spiritual…
Because E. Ethelbert Miller’s poetry maintains a steady and accessible attachment to our national narrative, Kirsten Porter, editor of The Collected Poems of E. Ethelbert Miller, is able, before launching into a formal discussion of his poems, to ask "if…
Depending on whom you talk to, the translation of poetry is either a subspecies of art, science, imitation, mime, magic or, as Robert Frost (in)famously implied, an infernal combination of all of these and, therefore, a horror. Perhaps the only…
If two writers are obsessed by a subject, if one — Leslie Pietrzyk — is a storyteller, and one — Maureen Corrigan — a scholar in a literary age obsessed by memoir and the uses of memoir, what kind of…
Potomac Review, located near Washington, D.C., in the river basin which lends it its name, is burdened and blessed with initials that stand for something very important here. In this city and its environs, where every decision, policy or otherwise,…
With its attendant echoes of the biblical account of creation near at hand, it is a mark of distinction around here for someone to say that they were "present at the creation," a Washington term of art taken from the…
We're acknowledging authors of the DC Metro area, those with books hidden in independent bookstores and squished between best sellers. Visit us each month for a review or two of under-appreciated talent. Feel free to contact us with any suggestions of local…
Late starts do not typically presage momentous contributions, but originality has at least as many fathers as victory does, and whether or not their late arrivals on the scene had anything to do with it, these local luminaries made and…
Associate Editor Albert Kapikian inaugurates our book review thread with his thoughtful reading of two books: one, The Last Girl, by poet Rose Solari, and the other, The Wizard and the White House, by local author and associate editor Mike…