Malawian Youth Wipe Away Unemployment Tears with Agribusiness

Africa, Editors’ Choice, Featured, Food & Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition, Food Sustainability, Headlines, Labour, Population, Poverty & SDGs, Regional Categories, TerraViva United Nations Food & Agriculture Youths like Feston Zale from Chileka area in Blantyre district of Malawi’s Southern Region are finding employment and a source of income in agribusiness. Credit: Esmie Komwa Eneya/IPSBLANTYRE,…

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International Women’s Day, 2021Women’s Leadership in the Global Recovery from COVID-19 Pandemic

Civil Society, Education, Gender, Gender Violence, Global, Health, Humanitarian Emergencies, Inequity, Labour, Poverty & SDGs, TerraViva United Nations, Women & Economy, Women in Politics, Women’s Health

Opinion

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark the upcoming International Women’s Day, March 8.

UN Women China Qinghai programme beneficiaries. Credit: UN Women

BEIJING, Mar 6 2021 (IPS) – Today is International Women’s Day (IWD), and the theme for this year’s celebration is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” We recognize the tremendous contribution and leadership demonstrated by women and girls around the world in shaping our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and a more sustainable future.


A global review of the progress achieved towards commitments made at the Fourth World Conference on Women 25 years ago in Beijing, conducted by UN Women in 2020, reveals that no country has fully delivered on the Beijing Platform for Action, nor is close to it. Globally, women currently hold just one-quarter of the seats at the tables of power across the board and are absent from some key decision-making spaces, including in peace and climate negotiations.

This reality is despite the advances that we can see globally: there are now more girls in school than ever before, fewer women are dying in childbirth, and over the past decade, 131 countries have passed laws to support women’s equality.

However, progress has been too slow and uneven.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is further exacerbating pre-existing inequalities and threatening to halt or reverse the gains from decades of collective effort – with data revealing that the pandemic will push 47 million more women and girls below the poverty line globally.

Siddharth Chatterjee

We also witness new global challenges emerging from the pandemic, such as the increased reports of violence against women trapped in lockdown throughout the world, forming a Shadow Pandemic. Women with disabilities facing further obstacles in accessing essential services. Women have lost their livelihoods faster, being more exposed to hard-hit economic sectors as they make up the majority of informal sector workers. Access to technologies have become a necessity, but the gender digital divide lingers, particularly in the least developed countries.

But in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, women have stood tall at the frontlines, serving as health workers and caregivers, where they make up 70% of the global workforce. Women also lead in their capacities throughout government and civil society to give vital assistance, bringing their irreplaceable perspectives and skills to the table.

Answering these complex global challenges while tearing down the barriers to women’s participation and leadership now requires bolder political commitment backed up by adequate resources and targeted approaches to accelerate progress towards parity through legislation, fiscal measures, programmatic change, and public-private partnerships.

China has made progress in safeguarding women’s rights and promoting gender equality. Notably, China’s poverty alleviation achievements have had a multiplier effect on advancing women’s empowerment beyond alleviating poverty among women. Advances in girl’s education, access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, social protection and assistance are admirable – and important not just for the advancement of women’s rights – but in creating a “moderately prosperous” Chinese society with a “bright shared future” for all. Yet, as in many countries, there are still challenges that persist across the course of women’s lives.

Like elsewhere, systemic issues remain in equal pay for equal work and promotion opportunities for decent work in China. Under-representation of women in senior leadership roles impacts many sectors, with less than 10% of board members of listed companies in China being women.

Smriti Aryal

Disproportionate sharing of unpaid care work leaves women in China carrying 2.5 times the burden of men, all of which impacting the female labour force participation rate. The shadow pandemic of gender-based violence, like anywhere else, continues to be a concern for women and girls in China as widely reported and discussed in media already.

The newly enacted Civil Code offers opportunities to strengthen legislation, including judicial mechanisms, law enforcement and service delivery for addressing sexual harassment, sexual abuse and violence against women and girls. Robust implementation of the provisions for ending sexual harassment and abuse will be a step towards China’s demonstration of “Zero Tolerance” towards ending all forms of violence against women and girls.

The 14th Five-Year National Development Plan, 2021-2025 and the new 10-Year Plan on Development of Women and Children, 2021-2030, also present opportunities for China to ensure gender equality and women’s empowerment are at the centre of the development agenda and address the remaining gender gaps and challenges in the country. The world now looks to China for continued leadership on the SDGs and the Beijing Platform for Action.

We welcome the Government of China’s recent commitment to prioritizing women’s empowerment in its future development cooperation and global engagement. This comes at a time, when we need stronger global action and multilateralism to alleviate the long-lasting impacts of COVID-19 and accelerate actions towards the achievement of the SDGs. As we look at women’s rights issues that many countries are grappling with – poverty, maternal health, livelihood and food security, access to continued education, to name a few – are also the areas where China has seen the most progress domestically. South-South cooperation enables China to share its lessons and continue learning from others, to achieve genuine empowerment for women and girls around the world.

We recognize that gender equality and women’s empowerment are drivers for transformative change and a prerequisite for the achievement of all SDGs. The UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, 2021-2025, signed between the United Nations System in China and the Government of China, is underpinned by this principle and prioritizes the advancement of women’s rights as a key programming area of its own. As the UN Country Team (UNCT), we stand ready to support and continue to work with the Government of China and all national actors for our concerted efforts towards advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.

2021 is only the beginning of our journey on the Decade of Action for the SDGs. We have an unprecedented opportunity to do things differently for current and future generations of women and girls. On International Women’s Day, we call upon our partners and supporters to celebrate the leadership and contribution of China’s women, and become advocates, champions, and influencers that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment today, and every day.

Siddharth Chatterjee, UN Resident Coordinator in China & Smriti Aryal, Head of Office, UN Women in China
On behalf of the UN Country Team in China for International Women’s Day 2021

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International Women’s Day, 2021A Just COVID-19 Recovery – Not Without Women’s Leadership

Civil Society, Economy & Trade, Education, Gender, Gender Violence, Global, Headlines, Health, Humanitarian Emergencies, Labour, Poverty & SDGs, TerraViva United Nations, Women & Economy, Women in Politics

Opinion

NEW YORK, Mar 5 2021 (IPS) – Almost exactly a year ago today, I packed my computer and a couple of necessities in the office in New York, hugged the colleagues, and headed home to what most people thought would be a couple of week’s Covid-19 lockdown. Little did we know.


Katja Iversen

Despite Trump and the blows he and his administration had dealt to sustainable development, women’s leadership, LGBTQI rights, and the right of women to decide on their own bodies and lives, there were still some optimism on the gender equality front. The number of women in politics across the globe was slowly creeping upwards; new innovative contraceptives were hitting the market; the role of girls, women and gender equality in sustainable development, was getting a lot more traction; there was a growing attention to gender smart investing; and the worldwide Generation Equality Forum, hosted by the governments of Mexico and France with UN Women, was coming up as a unique opportunity to refuel and accelerate action around Sustainable Development Goal 5.

Taking stock today on International Women’s Day 2021 with its theme: “Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world,” the bag is a lot more mixed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened inequality at large, and has disproportionately affected girls and women. They constitute the vast majority of the frontline health and social workers across the globe; they carry even more of the unpaid care work at home in locked down families than before; they are the victims of the dramatic surge in domestic violence spurred by lockdowns; many women have lost access to essential sexual and reproductive health care, like family planning and safe childbirths; and women have – to a much larger extend than men – lost their jobs and economic opportunities.

Women’s rights organizations have worked tremendously hard in the communities and on the fore-front of COVID-19. Back in the first weeks of the pandemic, I myself and the civil society led Deliver for Good campaign worked with the UN Secretary General and his team on how we could place girls, women and gender equality at the center of the UN’s COVID-19 work, and we also made sure that the UN COVID-19 response and recovery fund got a solid gender lens.

However, throughout the world, women have largely been left out of decision making on essential COVID-19 efforts. Only 3.5% of national COVID task forces have gender parity according to a study in British Medical Journal, and the brand new Global Health 50/50 report being launched on 8 March 2021 suggests that rhetoric is often used as a substitute for action, and reveals that the vast majority of programmatic activities to prevent and address the health impacts of COVID-19 largely ignores the role of gender.

There is a certain irony to this, as countries with women at the helm, like New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, Taiwan etc. have fared a lot better in dealing with the pandemic – and as countries with more women in political leadership in general do better in terms of both lowering inequalities and driving stronger economies. The answer to this dichotomy might be found in the latest Reykjavik Index by Women Political Leaders and Kantar, that measures how people feel about women in power. It shows that support is stagnating, and that it is even decreasing among younger men.

So, hard won progress has been rolled back. But there are also good news, which I as an eternal optimist, want to include in today’s stocktaking:

The global cry for racial justice has propelled a much and long needed focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in political, economic and social life. We are also seeing a surge in gender smart investing, with 2020 bringing some big, new and achieved gender-smart allocations. A global survey from Women Deliver and Focus 2030 from January shows that the vast majority of the surveyed voters consider gender equality to be an important cause governments should work towards, and support involving women in all aspects of COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. And the Biden/Harris win in the United States is manifesting in very diverse political appointments, in budget allocations, in commitments to sustainability and to gender equality, and the revoking of the republican Global Gag Rule that has prevented support to reproductive health across the globe.

The global Generation Equality Forum was postponed a year, and the work of its six action coalitions is gaining speed. Over the next three months all actors – heads of states, leaders from corporates and civil society organizations, celebrities, journalists, activists, young and old – will be meeting – mostly virtually – on multiple occasions to commit to transformative action, and show that a gender equal world is a healthier, wealthier, and better world for all.

So – as I am celebrating International Women’s Day 2021, it is on a backdrop of hope, some apprehension, and a lot of determination. The inclusion and leadership of girls and women, in all their rich diversity, is needed in every arena and at every level – in COVID-19 efforts, in politics, in the economy, and in general. If we don’t prioritize and invest in women’s leadership, the COVID recovery will be less effective, and the future will be less just and less sustainable. That is not the world we want!

The author is an executive adviser and leading global advocate on sustainability, gender equality, and women’s health and leadership. Katja was a member of President Macron’s and Prime Minister Trudeau’s G7 Gender Equality Advisory Councils, an advisor to the Clinton Global was one of the original members of 100Women@Davos, and was recently named Dane of the Year, as well as included in Apolitical’s Top 20 of the Most Influential People in Gender Policy.

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International Women’s Day, 2021#MarchWithUs: 5 Activists on Dismantling “Gender Lies”

Civil Society, Crime & Justice, Economy & Trade, Education, Gender, Gender Violence, Global, Headlines, Health, Human Rights, Humanitarian Emergencies, Inequity, Labour, Poverty & SDGs, TerraViva United Nations

Opinion

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark the upcoming International Women’s Day, March 8.

Protest for women’s rights in Kathmandu, Nepal. Credit: Sanjog Manandhar

PARIS, Mar 5 2021 (IPS) – Today, despite centuries of activism and mobilisations, women and non-binary people continue to remain disadvantaged in almost every sphere – from “public life” to the “shadow pandemic” of gender-based violence.


In light of COVID-19, some struggles have been considered in theory, but most continue to be ignored in practice. How can we dismantle the “gender lies” perpetuating in the 21st century? How do we start taking into account the diverse experiences of women, without excluding black and indigenous voices on the basis of power and privilege?

Afghanistan, Nepal, Bolivia, Mexico and Uganda: five activists tell us how they transform the ways their communities think and act around gender.

Afghanistan: rap music to save child brides

Sonita Alizadeh, is a survivor of two attempts at forced marriage, and now a rapper and activist fighting for the liberation of women against forced marriage. Born in Herat, Afghanistan, under the Taliban regime, she grew up in Iran, as a refugee with her family. At 10 years old, she narrowly escaped a forced marriage. Her family again tried to sell her when she was sixteen, she escaped. Afghanistan has the 20th highest number of women married before the age of 18 in the world, with 28% of Afghan girls married off as minors, according to Girls Not Brides.

My mother was a child bride, and she did not meet her husband until their wedding day. By marrying me off at a young age, she was simply repeating the cycle. This tradition makes me want to raise awareness of this harmful issue with the help of millions of others around the world through my music,” says Sonita in an interview with Forus.

Witnessing her friends swiftly disappearing as they were forced to marry, Sonita wrote the song “Daughters for Sale”, which kick-started her work as a human rights activists and rapper.

Music touches people in a way words cannot – it is deeper and more emotional. People listen to music and young people pay attention to the lyrics. Music can be a powerful way to hear important messages. That is why I always rap about things that need to change in the world, or ideas that young people need to hear, to dream big.”

Today, Sonita uses her tracks and success to give young girls self-confidence. She sings to tell: “Hold this hope in your heads and your hearts. Hold this hope for the future. Never give up.”

Nepal: Fighting “period poverty”.

As 2020 drew to a close, protesters across South Asia took to the streets and to social media, calling on their governments to end the perpetuating cycle of widespread sexual violence against women and children.

In Nepal, hundreds of activists returned to the streets after a 17-year-old girl was raped and strangled to death. Some protesters wore black over their eyes to symbolize public authorities closing their eyes to sexual violence. Activists say that although the country’s constitution guarantees equal rights to women, there is a clear disjunction between theory and practice.

“How do we make sure that there is no gap between law and social progress?” asks Jesselina Rana, a human rights lawyer, co-founder with engineer Shubhangi Rana of Pad2Go, a social enterprise focusing on menstrual health and the taboos surrounding it.

It is estimated that around 83 percent of menstruating individuals face some form of restriction or exclusion during their menstrual cycle in Nepal.

“From a very young age, menstruating individuals are made to believe that their menstrual cycle makes them impure, and it can only be talked about behind closed doors,” Jesselina explains.

With Pad2Go, Jesselina distributed over 80 sanitary napkin vending machines across Nepal. She collaborates with pad manufacturers, to provide pads at less than market rate in order to ensure affordability. She also organises discussions with both men and women to normalise conversations around menstruations.

“Nepal being a patriarchal society, men engagement is crucial to overcome social issues faced by women. Socially we need to get men into those spaces of conversation, at a young age, to make sure that everyone is part of the discussion to end the toxic cycle of gender discrimination.”

Protest in Mexico. Credit: Melanie Isahmar Torres Melo

Bolivia, Mexico: “Ni Una Menos”

Cradled in the “machismo culture”, Bolivia has one of the highest domestic violence rates against women in South America. The annual average of 110 femicides in the past 7 years persists, despite a 2013 law establishing measures to prevent and prosecute gender-based violence.

During the Covid-19 crisis, the economic consequences of the pandemic disproportionately affected Bolivian women. Government restrictions reduced access to food, aid programs did not adequately address the needs of communities, increasing their vulnerability and insecurity.

During the lockdown the slogan “Stay at Home” was widely promoted across Bolivia, yet for many women and girls victims of violence, that actually meant a very dangerous “Cállate en casa” (shut up at home), explains Iris Baptista from Red Unitas, a platform funded in 1976 that reunites 22 NGOs in Bolivia.

“Red Unitas created the campaign “SIN VIOLENCIA ES MEJOR” (Better Without Violence), to raise awareness of the fact that women are doing most of the work during the pandemic, to fulfil their role as mothers, wives and workers, yet they continue to face violence at home,” Iris explains.

But, violence against women and femicides are not just common in Bolivia—they are prevalent throughout the region. Global data is difficult to gather due to differences in reporting standards, however, the 2016 report, “A Gendered Analysis of Violent Deaths” founds that fourteen of the twenty-five countries with the highest femicide rates are Latin American.

Defined as “a pandemic within the pandemic”, gender-based violence has spiked since COVID-19 broke out. Writer Lynn Marie Stephen believes that laws and initiatives to protect women, “fail to indict the broader systems that perpetuate these problems, like social, racial, and economic inequalities, family relationships and social mores”.

“It’s not that there was less violence against women in the past, it’s just that it wasn’t made as visible as it is today,” says Melanie Isahmar Torres Melo, a photojournalist covering women issues in Puebla, Mexico.

Every day, 10 women are killed in Mexico. The number of femicides has increased by 137% in the past five years and reached its highest monthly rates in 2020. Despite this number, only 5% of all crimes committed in Mexico are punished. This dichotomy between numbers is often the result of a “single crime” vision, rather than a sociological phenomenon, linked to the idea of patriarchy and sexism.

“Most perpetuators are never caught; this has triggered ‘social anger’ around the issue of feminicides in Mexico. There is no respect for victims, they are blamed for being killed. New movements are rising led by different collectives and civil society organisations. People are taking to the streets and shouting “Ni Una Menos” no woman should be killed,” says Mela.

Uganda – creating an enabling environment for civil society

I was arrested and shamed for leaked nudes”, model and activist Judith Heard explains. When nude pictures of her were published without her consent in 2018, she was widely criticized and was arrested under the Anti-Pornography Act. Her situation is far from unique, a survey conducted in 2016 found that 50% of Ugandan women aged between 15 and 49 has experienced violence by an intimate partner. As a result, in February 2019, Heard launched Day One Global, an advocacy organisation that seeks to curb sexual harassment and rape.

From Marion Kirabo who led a women’s protest against rising tuition fees, to Rosebell Kagumire, editor of the African Feminism digital platform opening “discussion and dialogue on feminist issues throughout the continent”, activists and “gender advocates” in Uganda, are creating innovative forms of “transnational feminism” both online and offline.

Yet, a recent report by Forus International, shows that only 1% of gender equality funding is going to women’s organizations worldwide, and that promoters of gender equality need increased protection. Even more worryingly, attacks on women organisations and civil society more generally, have been reinforced by the current COVID-19 crisis.

Overall, organizations that engage in monitoring the state’s conduct and advocate for human rights, anti-corruption, accountability, and democratic governance are experiencing growing obstacles. One of the most recent examples is the Uganda Communications Commission Guidelines for everyone posting content online, including bloggers and online news platforms, which aims to control people’s freedom of speech.

“While the Ugandan government welcomes the social services many civil society organizations provide, at the same time it feels threatened by the possibility of political mobilization and empowerment of the population that come with self-organized practices; needless to say, such threats to the government’s grip on power yield conflicts between the state and civil society actors,” according to the Uganda National NGO Forum, an umbrella organization with more than 650 member NGOs across the country.

#MarchWithUs

Despite the considerable progress, more than half of the world’s girls and women—as many as 2.1 billion people—live in countries that are not on track to reach key gender equality-related targets by 2030.

However, a new survey from Focus 2030 and Women Deliver, covering 17 countries on six continents—reveals that citizens are eager for sustained and strengthened political and financial investments to accelerate progress towards gender equality. In particular, the global public supports the need for women to play a role in all aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic response, with 82% of survey respondents on average saying they believe women should be involved in the response at all levels.

To build a recovery plan and a roadmap for the future, a gender lens must be applied. With the digital campaign #MarchWithUs, Forus is taking a full month to reflect on the voices of women and non-binary activists who are on the frontline of social change. It is time to act to turn “gender lies” into gender promises.

The authors are members of Forus Communication team.

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International Women’s Day, 2021The World Not Only Needs Women Leaders – It Needs Feminist Leaders

Civil Society, Crime & Justice, Economy & Trade, Education, Featured, Gender, Gender Violence, Global, Headlines, Health, Human Rights, Humanitarian Emergencies, Inequity, Labour, TerraViva United Nations, Women & Economy, Women in Politics

Opinion

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark the upcoming International Women’s Day, March 8.

Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO

PARIS and REYKJAVIK, Mar 5 2021 (IPS) – International Women’s Day pays tribute to the achievements of women worldwide and reminds us what still needs to be done for full gender equality. In 2021, we are taking stock of the many ways in which COVID-19 has disproportionately affected women and girls around the world.


The pandemic has created a new landscape. Although women have played a key role in responding to the crisis, gender inequalities have widened across the board. In education, 767 million women and girls were impacted by school closures. Eleven million may never return to class, joining the 132 million already out of school before the crisis struck. From the economic perspective, the recession is pushing 47 million more women and girls into poverty, destroying their economic independence and making them more vulnerable to gender-based discrimination and violence.

As we look at this landscape, we have to ask ourselves: if gender equality is our goal, what kind of leadership will the world need moving forward?

It is not enough to just count the number of women in the highest positions of power. No single person at the top of the pyramid can repair the damage being done to the progress that has been made in gender equality since the world adopted the Beijing Declaration on women’s rights 25 years ago.

What we need are leaders for gender equality – and we need them everywhere in our societal structures. Leaders of all ages, all gender identities and from all backgrounds. These leaders are not just agents of change, but designers of change. They lead through their example and engagement. They expose injustices and unequal opportunities. They know that gender inequalities stem from discrimination and exclusion and that it is only by lifting these barriers that real change can happen. This is feminist leadership.

Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland

Feminist leaders tackle power structures. They name and deconstruct all forms of exclusion and marginalization. They empathize with the vulnerable and voiceless, and champion their causes. They open new doors and take risks, courageously blowing the whistle on hidden injustice, and unmasking structural barriers perpetuating inequalities. They are all around us. Be it the activist defending an indigenous community, the schoolgirl mobilizing her generation to save the climate, or the poet raising her voice to promote social justice.

Feminist leaders have the courage to create, report, educate, experiment. Think about Azata Soro, actress, film director and producer who broke her silence on sexual harassment and violence in the African film industry. Think about Maria Ressa, risking jail for her brave investigative journalism. Think about Yande Banda, a tireless advocate for girls’ education in Zambia and beyond. Think about Katalin Karikó, who overcame the many challenges faced by women in science and was instrumental in developing the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. As stories like these become known, they challenge people’s intimate convictions of what is achievable and by whom. These women are, in all their diversity, feminist leaders.

However, feminist leadership is not the prerogative of women alone. Gender equality isn’t just a women’s fight, it’s a fight for social justice. Men also need to be involved in the construction of a fairer society. Many of them are showing the way. The Congolese gynecologist, Dr Denis Mukwege, won a Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy to stop rape from being used as a ‘strategy of war’. And there are many others like him, all over the world.

On this International Women’s Day, we stand committed to building future generations of feminist leaders through education. We support women who dare to create and do what is necessary to prevent them from censorship and attacks. We call on the international community to ensure the safety of women journalists who address gender inequalities through their reporting. We also stand side by side with men who dare to care and reject toxic masculinities and behaviours and open up spaces for women to influence decision-making or participate in scientific discovery and innovation.

Let us support these feminist leaders, from all walks of life. Let us take action so that women can affirm their leadership and be powerful role models for generations to come. Because gender equality not only serves to advance the cause of women – a fairer society benefits us all.

Audrey Azoulay is Director-General of UNESCO and Katrín Jakobsdóttir is Prime Minister of Iceland.

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18 books that capture the spirit and essence of living in D.C.

One year ago, the coronavirus was already in Washington, but most people hadn’t yet experienced significant disruption to their daily lives. How naive we were.

Through the quarantines and stay-at-home orders, with restaurants closed, theaters dark and treasures locked up tight in museums, what some of us miss most is the spirit of city — D.C., not Washington — in all its wonderful, unpredictable, maddening glory.

One of the easiest ways to recapture those missing experiences is through literature, so we asked a spectrum of authors, librarians, booksellers and book critics to tell us about their favorite book written about D.C. — one that captures the essence of D.C., reminds readers how special living here can be, or shows a side of the nation’s capital that outsiders often miss.

Even the most jaded of book lovers should find a surprise in these recommendations. All but one are in print, which means you can find them on library shelves or order a copy from your local independent bookstore. After all, we want our neighborhood shops to be able to introduce us to the next great Washington novel.

Responses have been lightly edited for length.

“Heartburn” by Nora Ephron

(Vintage)

If you’re invited to a dinner party in Washington, chances are you’ll be seated by someone connected to journalism or politics. It’s true today — and it was true in 1983, when Nora Ephron’s watershed “Heartburn” was published. Writing a laugh-out-loud novel about the dissolution of a marriage because of infidelity seems counterintuitive, but Ephron, whose divorce from Carl Bernstein is widely considered to be her source material, succeeds brilliantly. Her observations about D.C. and the characters who populate it seem nearly as fresh today as when she penned them. A bonus: Woven throughout the chapters are recipes, including a delicious-sounding one for key lime pie. There’s also some diabolical inspiration on what to do with it, if you like your revenge served up sweet.

Sarah Pekkanen, whose books include “The Wife Between Us” and “You Are Not Alone”

Ephron’s 1983 roman à clef remains more compulsively readable than any political thriller. It contains no intrigue beyond some credit-card snooping, no world crisis greater than the battle to make truly crisp hash-browns, no power struggle other than that between a couple whose marriage is about to explode, but read the first page and I promise you won’t be able to stop. Ephron describes her heartbreak in the nation’s capital with such sharp wit and endless charm that D.C. readers will feel proud to have once been able to call her a Washingtonian. It’s a bittersweet thought, though, because I can’t help thinking that 2020 would have been at least a little easier if we’d had Nora Ephron to see it through with us.

Katherine Heiny, author of the upcoming “Early Morning Riser”

“You Can’t Take a Balloon into the National Gallery” by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman and Robin Preiss Glasser (illustrations)

(Robin Preiss Glasser)

While a grandma is giving her grandchildren a tour of the museum, their red balloon — left tethered outside — slips its moorings and blows recklessly through the city, offering us a gloriously playful look at some of D.C.’s most iconic sights. It also gives us glimpses of some of the famous women and men (Ben Franklin, Abe Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt and many others) who have contributed to Washington’s rich history. Back at the museum, we are treated to meticulously rendered works of art by the likes of Winslow Homer, Matisse and Manet. Full of fun, and painlessly educational, every place and person and painting is a pleasure to encounter in this wordless wonder of a book.

Judith Viorst, whose books include “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”

This book is out of print, but widely available online.

“Creatures of Passage” by Morowa Yejidé

(Akashic Books)

Set in Anacostia in 1977, the book revolves around Nephthys Kinwell, a taxi driver who ferries troubled passengers, citywide, in a haunted ’67 Plymouth Belvedere. Nephthys grieves the loss of her brother Osiris, murdered and dumped in the river, who returns in another form in a quest for vengeance. There are a multitude of characters, none given short shrift, all richly observed, and though the plot turns are sometimes harrowing, the author locates the humanity in a community that comes to together in the face of their own personal hardships to save an endangered child. “Creatures of Passage” shines a light on a section of the city mostly ignored by fiction writers. In its luminous prose, and its nods to mysticism and myth, the novel brings to mind the best of Toni Morrison. It’s that good.

George Pelecanos, who has written 21 novels set in or around Washington, most recently “The Man Who Came Uptown”

I’m a transplant to the D.C. area, so I know it in a broad way: monuments and museums and obvious landmarks. Morowa Yejidé’s forthcoming novel shares what might be the opposite of my experience. Set in 1977, it points a microscope at Anacostia, using this focus to reveal truths about the wider city. Mind you, this isn’t the real Anacostia. Yejidé’s version churns with myth and magic. We view the neighborhood through the eyes of characters both living and dead. It’s a haunted, supernatural place. In a way, Yejidé writes how D.C. feels, rather than how it strictly is. As if those two states are separable. Reality notwithstanding, the novel’s characters taught me a wise, D.C.-specific lesson: Wherever you are in our city, that’s the center. Landmarks be damned. D.C. asks us to know our neighbors where — and how — they live.

Zach Powers, author of “First Cosmic Velocity” and “Gravity Changes”

“Creatures of Passage” will be released March 16.

“The Lost Diary of M” by Paul Wolfe

(Harper)

Much fiction springs from the “what if” crevices of a writer’s imagination. “M” refers to the ex-wife of CIA operative Cord Meyer, Mary Pinchot Meyer, who had an affair and shared LSD with John F. Kennedy in the White House (1962-63). Months after the president’s assassination, Mary Meyer was mysteriously murdered in broad daylight while walking along the C&O Canal in Georgetown. The accused assailant was found not guilty. “The Lost Diary” refers to the journal Mary kept, later found by her sister, Toni Bradlee, then married to Ben Bradlee, later executive editor of The Washington Post. Toni turned her sister’s diary over to their friend James Jesus Angleton, CIA chief of counterintelligence. The diary was never seen again. Until this novel …

Kitty Kelley, author of biographies on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra and others

“Lincoln in the Bardo” by George Saunders

(Random House Trade Paperbacks)

I had often passed beautiful Oak Hill Cemetery on my walks around the city, but I didn’t get obsessed with it until I read “Lincoln in the Bardo,” a novel that might be described as a phantasmagoric “Spoon River Anthology” with footnotes. Set at the cemetery, and told by ghosts, it’s hilarious, disturbing and poignant by turn. George Saunders was inspired to write it after hearing about Lincoln’s visits to the cemetery to see his young son Willie, who temporarily lay in the Carroll Family Mausoleum after his death in 1862. The first time I tried to visit Oak Hill it was closing time, but an employee told me I could get a key and enter any time if I bought a plot, an idea I haven’t entirely ruled out. In the meantime I’ll make due with visiting hours.

Julie Langsdorf, author of “White Elephant”

“Lost in the City” by Edward P. Jones

I’ve come to really bridle at the term “the Washington novel,” which almost always describes a book that has little or nothing to do with the city itself. For me, the perfect antidote is Edward P. Jones’s matchless story collection, “Lost in the City,” which turns a relatively small patch of (mostly) Northwest D.C. into an infinitely rich terrain of love and loss. Jones is so attentive, so gentle, so precise and so open to possibility that, no matter how long you’ve lived here, you can’t help seeing D.C. with new eyes.

Louis Bayard, whose books include “Courting Mr. Lincoln”

(Amistad)

This collection of short stories lifts the political veneer off the nation’s capital to reveal the unheralded neighborhoods of what was once Chocolate City. Ordinary people doing ordinary things, yet extraordinary in the telling. Jones’s stories squirrel into the depth of humanity, leaving us breathless, at times horrified, sometimes chuckling and often heartbroken. An array of characters so vivid — from “The Girl Who Raised Pigeons” all the way to “Marie” — we feel their joy and shame, their pain and resignation, and their connection to a persistent city much of the world never sees. Jones shows us that these lives do matter. We see the majesty of D.C. in the small interactions between its residents, and we come to understand that life is lived in each precious moment.

Melanie S. Hatter, whose books include “Malawi’s Sisters” and “The Color of My Soul”

The stories, sometimes called a “Dubliners” for D.C., are unsparing yet rich in detail and insight into the lives of African Americans living in D.C. Communal and family ties are torn as the city is gentrified, deepening the characters’ sense of displacement throughout the book.

— Aaron Beckwith, co-owner, Capitol Hill Books

“The Passover Guest” by Susan Kusel and Sean Rubin (illustrations)

(Neal Porter Books)

A stunning new picture book made me gasp over the beauty of Washington and linger over the pages. Set in 1933, the story follows the story of a girl named Muriel who meets a magician at the Lincoln Memorial and goes on to take part in a miraculous feast that brings her community together during Passover. From the cherry blossoms in bloom to scenes of the Washington Monument, the White House and the Capitol building, this book is a gorgeous celebration of the Passover holiday, as well as the vibrant Jewish community that has long made the D.C. region their home.

Hena Khan, whose books include “Amina’s Voice” and its upcoming sequel, “Amina’s Song”

“Henry and Clara” by Thomas Mallon

(Vintage)

Henry and Clara Rathbone shared the box with President Lincoln and his wife on the day of Lincoln’s assassination. In fact, Henry was stabbed by John Wilkes Booth when he tried to restrain him after the shooting. What makes this book particularly appealing to D.C. residents is how Mallon uses streets and landmarks in D.C. that are as familiar and recognizable today as it must have been in the 1860s. We ride in the coach with the couple as they pass through Thomas Circle on their way to Ford’s Theatre. Thomas Mallon takes full use of the local geography.

— Mark LaFramboise, head buyer at Politics and Prose Bookstore

“Red, White & Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston

(St. Martin’s Griffin)

When you hear “book set in Washington D.C.,” it’s easy to think “the White House, K Street, dirty politics, bad clothes, worse behavior.” But in 2019, Casey McQuiston gifted us with “Red, White & Royal Blue.” Yes, it has politics and a woman (!) in the White House, but also good clothes, great characters and so much charm. The question on the cover is: “What happens when America’s First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?” The answer: the romance novel D.C. didn’t know it needed. It’s fun and frothy, with a dash of the passionate political activism that brings so many young people to Washington, and it reminded me that D.C. can be a glamorous city — even a sexy city — if you look at it through the right red, white and royal blue lens.

Karin Tanabe, whose books include “The Gilded Years” and “A Hundred Suns”

“The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears” by Dinaw Mengestu

(Riverhead Books)

Customers (especially tourists, when we used to have tourists) often ask me to recommend a “D.C. book.” There are lots of wonderful potential answers, but my first response is always “The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears.” Dinaw Mengestu’s novel is the story of Sepha, an Ethiopian immigrant running a corner store here in the mid-1990s. It’s beautifully written with vivid characters, but the Logan Circle setting, on the cusp of gentrification, makes it a very D.C. story — a thoughtful look at the tensions between old and new, Black and White, and residents’ competing definitions of “progress.” Come for the gorgeous writing; stay for a story showing that Washington is not just the White House, Capitol Hill, or Georgetown. Our neighbors and neighborhoods are so much more.

— Emilie Sommer, book buyer at East City Bookshop

An impressive debut novel set in the gentrifying Logan Circle neighborhood of the mid-aughts, this is the moving story of an immigrant’s struggle for assimilation and acceptance, and the unlikely friendship that both will test and fulfill these desires.

— Jake Cumsky-Whitlock, co-founder, Solid State Books

“Bel Canto” by Ann Patchett

(Harper Perennial)

I’m invoking creative license in naming “Bel Canto.” Ann Patchett’s exquisitely told story does not take place in D.C., but it does take place in the residence of an unnamed nation’s vice president. His guests for the evening — diplomats, polyglots, artists, expats and business leaders — remind me of the people I’ve met around town. On occasion, I’ve mingled in embassies eating small bites from small plates with instrumental music floating in the air. I’ve listened to soaring voices, like that of Roxane Coss, fill the gilded hall of the Kennedy Center. D.C. being D.C., there were probably some in the audience who, like Patchett’s characters, revel in the fine arts almost as much as they revel being in the company of people who love the fine arts. And because truth is stranger than fiction, this year a group of terrorists stormed the Capitol looking for our sitting vice president. What transpired lacked all the elegance of Patchett’s novel but had Washingtonians duly riveted and eager for a peaceful denouement.

Nadia Hashimi, whose books include “The House Without Windows” and “When the Moon Is Low”

“When Washington Was in Vogue” by Edward Christopher Williams

Edward Christopher Williams was the first African American professional librarian in the nation. Between January 1925 and June 1926 he serialized his only novel in The Messenger, called “Letters of Davy Carr, a True Story of Colored Vanity Affair.” But it wasn’t until 2003 that the novel was “rediscovered” by scholar Adam McKible and published as a book. “When Washington Was in Vogue” is an epistolary novel, written as a series of letters from our hero, Davy Carr, to an old Army friend. Carr moves to D.C. at the end of World War I and rents rooms in the Rhodes home, where he socializes with the owner’s two daughters and attends a range of social events at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. As Carr is a little slow on the uptake, we see him fall in love long before he does, in this hilarious novel of manners — in which not a single White person appears.

Kim Roberts, co-creator of D.C. Writers’ Homes and editor of “By Broad Potomac’s Shore: Great Poems from the Early Days of Our Nation’s Capital”

(Harper Perennial)

I was struck by this novel when it was “discovered” in the magazine archives and republished as a book in the early 2000s. It gives a vivid picture of Black Washington’s social elite in the 1920s in a fictional series of letters between a visiting scholar working on a research project in D.C. and a friend back in New York. I recognize many of the traditions that continue to characterize middle-class Black life in Washington. Long before social media, people have felt compelled to humble-brag, chronicle their every move and share it. I also recognized the tall skinny rowhouses, the homecoming games and dances, and society debates about respectability, privilege and colorism.

Natalie Hopkinson, author of “Go-Go Live” and “A Mouth Is Always Muzzled”

It’s a fantastic champagne glass of a Harlem Renaissance novel about the Black elite scene in D.C. in the 1920s. New York City wasn’t the only place where Black art and literary culture was thriving in the ’20s, and this is a wonderful book for anybody who wants to read more about D.C.’s gorgeous and diverse cultural history.

Amber Sparks, author of the short story collection “And I Do Not Forgive You”

“The Hopefuls” by Jennifer Close

(Vintage)

Theatrical presidents and quotable senators suck up all the limelight in Washington, but staff members, administrators and bureaucrats actually keep the government running. Jennifer Close’s comic novel “The Hopefuls” (2016) gives an insider’s view of what that world is like. Close knows from personal experience. When her husband got a job working on Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign, she stopped editing in New York and moved to Washington. She was happy for her husband and optimistic about the campaign but found the hyper-politicized culture of D.C. deeply annoying. Fortunately, she funneled all her irritation into “The Hopefuls,” and the results are pitch perfect. Everyone the narrator meets is a grown-up version of the most eager kid from high school student council. They all wear ID cards around their necks, speak entirely in acronyms and brag about their security clearance. The only currency these civil servants and campaign aides care about is access to People in Power. As funny — and true! — as “The Hopefuls” is, what makes it sing is Close’s tender portrayal of a marriage caught in the vice of this frantic, idealistic, infuriating town.

Ron Charles, book critic for The Washington Post and host of TotallyHipVideoBookReview.com

“King Suckerman” by George Pelecanos

(Back Bay Books)

It’s 1976. Our protagonists are just normal D.C. guys playing ball and living and working. When they run into trouble, classic Chandler or Big Lebowksi-style, the whole city takes center stage, showcasing Chocolate City as it unabashedly, divinely was. “King Suckerman” is a gripping crime story, one that doesn’t raise up criminals or criminality. Through the ’70s-era glory of music, cars, cultural life and early home-rule, you can see the roots of what the ’80s bring to D.C.

— Scott Abel, co-founder, Solid State Books

“Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of Chocolate City” by Natalie Hopkinson

(Duke University Press)

Either by movement — willing and not — or by birth, we all inherit a city. Many in the capital region have inherited one of the most dynamic cities in the world, one caught in the throes of an ironic post-Obama administration transition from being “Chocolate City” into being … something else. Many of those who make up the changing Washington have heard the recent demands of the Don’t Mute D.C. campaign, but fewer really understand the braided story of people, politics and music that brought us to this contentious moment. Natalie Hopkinson does, and she offers a compelling glimpse in her book “Go-Go Live.” Part memoir, part ethnography, part case study of Black American urban sociopolitical life, the book starts the party at the soon-to-be redeveloped Reeves Center (a.k.a. Club U), dances us on a steady groove through go-go’s displacement from U Street to Prince George’s County, from live shows and cassette tapes to radio and streaming. If you find yourself thinking earnestly about what we should be preserving of the D.C. we have inherited, you should definitely read Hopkinson’s book and then keep your ears tuned to the sounds it amplifies.

Kyle Dargan, poet and associate professor of literature at American University

The spirit of D.C. is in our music, and until we can go to live shows again, dive into some of the many books and films documenting D.C. punk and go-go. Start with the catalogue to Roger Gastman’s 2013 exhibition “Pump Me Up — DC Subculture of the 1980s” for a visual feast of go-go posters, punk fliers and street art that will dispel any notion that D.C. is an uptight government town. For a deeper understanding of the importance of Go-Go music in a rapidly changing city, read Natalie Hopkinson’s “Go-Go Live.” D.C.’s underground music scene has been thriving for over 40 years — check out Cynthia Connolly’s “Banned in DC” and Farrah Skeiky’s “Present Tense” for photos and interviews from D.C. punk past and present.

— Michele Casto, D.C. Public Librarian and co-founder of the D.C. Punk Archive

“This Shared Dream” by Kathleen Ann Goonan

(Tor/Forge)

To use cinematic analogies, imagine a combination of “Inception,” “Back to the Future” and “Jumanji,” set largely in D.C. and Northern Virginia. Kathleen Ann Goonan’s characters attend Dunbar High School, take in movies at the Uptown Theater and ride the right Metro lines. Yet this beautifully written novel’s 1991 D.C. isn’t quite ours: John F. Kennedy wasn’t assassinated and Martin Luther King Jr. is about to become head of the United Nations. At the heart of the thrilling and intricate plot — some of which builds on Goonan’s award-winning 2007 book, “In War Times” — is the depiction of a wonderful Washington family and a house where the jazz record collection and the children’s board games might hold the secret to altering history. Goonan grew up in D.C. and in recent years taught creative writing at Georgia Tech. To the immense sorrow of her family, friends and readers, she died Jan. 28 of cancer at the age of 68.

Michael Dirda, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post Book World

“Speak No Evil” by Uzodinma Iweala

(Harper Perennial)

Uzodinma Iweala introduces us to an original, evocative main character in Niru, whose complex humanity defies conventional expectations — and threatens to undermine his closest relationships. Like the city in which it takes place, “Speak No Evil” is alternately sparse and gilded, hauntingly elegiac and completely real, a confluence of identities and influences that is greater than their sum.

— Angela Maria Spring, owner of Duende District Bookstore

“111 Places in Washington That You Must Not Miss” by Andréa Seiger

(111 Places)

A friend gave me this book as a gift last year. I was going to use it as a guidebook for taking trips around the city. I wanted to comfort the poet in me, find and touch my Walt Whitman. Being retired, I wanted to see the city anew and take in what I had been missing. However, the pandemic put an end to what would have been my summer exploring the city with new eyes. I wanted to return to Cedar Hill and visit the home of Frederick Douglass. I hoped it would be the nudge to begin reading David Blight’s biography of Douglass. Instead, this book with its beautiful pictures rests by my desk, asleep with its pages unturned. If I look to the future, I want this book to be my favorite, I want to celebrate a city that rediscovers not just its vibrancy but its breath. Sadly, a few weeks ago I walked down to Fort Stevens, a site included in the book. There I took pictures with my cellphone. I stood where Lincoln stood in 1864, watching Union troops defend Washington from a Confederate attack. I thought about the recent Confederate flag someone carried into the Capitol on Jan. 6. I wish it had been fiction. To hold Seiger’s book in one’s hand today, it is to think of all the things not to miss, and all the things to hold dear.

E. Ethelbert Miller, poet and literary activist

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