Jackson was born in Augusta, Georgia, but grew up in DC and lived most of his life in the city. He was the author of three books of poems, the posthumous My Specific Awe and Wonder (2024), Scattered Clouds (2019, finalist for the Feathered Quill Book Awards), and Fingering the Keys (1991, winner of the […]
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Toni Morrison
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Literature, an American Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Foundation’s Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the PEN/Saul bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Morrison is one of the most significant and groundbreaking of all contemporary […]
John Claggett Proctor
John Claggett Proctor lived his entire life in Washington, DC. He began working at age 15 as a printer, then earned a law degree from the National University Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1894. Proctor was active in several DC organizations, including the Masons, the Society of Natives, the Association of […]
George M. Lightfoot
A professor of Latin at Howard University for 48 years, George M. Lightfoot was editor of The Howard University Record, founder of the university’s Classics Club, and author of numerous articles on the Roman Classics, classical pedagogy, and civil rights. Lightfoot graduated from the Howard Academy (Howard University’s preparatory school) in 1887, and received an […]
Roy J. Carew
Roy J. Carew was a leading authority on ragtime, blues and New Orleans jazz, and had an extensive collection of Scott Joplin music and memorabilia. Carew moved from New Orleans to DC in 1919, taking a job as an auditor with the Internal Revenue Service. He published numerous articles on music, the culture of New […]
Jacklyn Potter
Jacklyn Potter was Director of the Joaquin Miller Cabin Poetry Series for The Word Works from 1984 until her death. She was famous for opening her home for receptions following each reading. She co-edited the anthology Cabin Fever: Poets at Joaquin Miller’s Cabin 1984–2001 with Dwaine Rieves and Gary Stein (2003). Potter taught English as a Second Language. She published her […]
Victor R. Daly
Victor R. Daly is the author of the novel Not Only War: A Story of Two Great Conflicts (1932), about African American soldiers in WWI and the racism they experienced while serving and after. It is believed to be the only WWI novel written by an African American veteran. After serving in France, where he received the […]