Elaine's Literary Salon

Meet the Author: Dr. Stephen L. Cook serves as the Catherine N. McBurney Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at Virginia Theological Seminary, the largest of the accredited seminaries of the Episcopal Church (founded in 1823). He and his wife, Catherine, a psychotherapist, live on the seminary campus in Alexandria, Virginia, with their daughter from China, Rebecca.

Prior to joining the VTS faculty in 1996, Steph...

Meet the Author: A trial and appellate lawyer for many years, David writes history and historical novels. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Washington Independent Review of Books, was a reporter for the Staten Island Advance, and for 10 years wrote the monthly Supreme Court column for the American Bar Association Journal. He has also done on-air commentary for CNN, C-SPAN, Bloomberg News, and MSNBC.

About...

Meet the Author: Elizabeth Hodges was 38 when she got the news, “You have leukemia.” Six weeks later, she was told she also had adult cystic fibrosis. With three young children, intense fear set in that she might not live to see them grow up. Instead of giving in, she became determined to prioritize her role as a mother and lead a life driven by purpose and clarity, even with cancer. Over her eighteen-year journey, she ...

Experience QuinTango: Alexandria-based music group QuinTango made its splashy debut on the world stage in 1999 at the Clinton White House State Dinner for the president of Argentina.  Robert Duvall danced, and global news networks covered the event.  The following morning, QuinTango received an invitation to perform at an international music festival in Costa Rica, and they were off and running.  Twenty-eight years l...

When: Wednesday, September 02, 2026 from 6-9pm

Where: 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Get your free ticket: MatthewLavoie.eventbrite.com

We welcome debut novelist Matthew Lavoie to Elaine’s Literary Salon to share his debut novel, “Main Street Fringe.”

Our agenda for tonight’s event:

• 6pm: Meet, greet, and order food and drinks from...

Meet the Author: Irene Vinyard Bennett has wide experience as a writer and educational minister. Her debut novel, BATTLE OF THE ARTISANS: Making the Bells of Marquis Yi, won the International Proverse Prize of 2022.  It is the first story about the Bronze-Age Bells of Marquis Yi, a National Treasure of China. An international motivational speaker, workshop leader, and minister, Irene writes and edits academic articles for theo...

Meet the Author: Lynda Allen is a storyteller, author, poet, artist, and listener. She began her career in video post-production and documentary filmmaking before focusing her knack for storytelling on writing. She has written four poetry collections and the Liv Wilde Mysteries, featuring Flashes of Insight (book 1) and Flashes of a Dying Hour (book 2).

Lynda is also the author of the Liv Wilde Mysteries, in which menopau...

Meet the Author: Rebecca Morrison is the author of The Blue Dress,a novel based on her childhood as an Iranian immigrant trying to fit into her new American homeland and her family’s expectations of beauty.

Published by Macmillan’s imprint Farrar, Straus and Giroux, the book has received positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, a...

Today at Elaine’s Literary Salon in Alexandria, VA, we are thrilled to bring back to town author Bill Rapp, who began his professional life as an academic, teaching European History at Iowa State University. A graduate of Notre Dame (B.A.), the University of Toronto (M.A.), and Vanderbilt (Ph. D.), Bill has always been particularly intrigued by German history. He says the last 35 years working for the U. S. Government has bro...

Meet the Author: Jennifer began her writing journey at the age of 10 when she started her own neighborhood newspaper, “The Santa Clara Times,” printed it herself, and walked up and down her street, passing it out to all the neighbors. She graduated from the School of Journalism, Mass Communications, and Public Relations at San Jose State University in Northern California, and went on to have a ten-year career as a journ...

Meet the Author: Wanda Rawlings is a Christian fiction author, Bible study teacher, and speaker with over three decades of experience as a civilian Federal employee and a lifelong passion for encouraging spiritual growth through storytelling and the Word of God. She is the creator and facilitator of the Root of the Matter Virtual Women’s Bible Study, a thriving ministry she has led for more than five years, guiding women...

About Original Sound: A story about the rhythm of ambition, collaboration, and the price of authenticity.

Driven by the pulse and rhythm of Brooklyn and Queens, beat maker Danny Solis may have found his big break when his track is pilfered by pop star Ryan Reed. To keep Danny quiet, Ryan’s manager brokers a deal in which Ryan and Danny will collaborate on a few songs. Their work together introduces Danny to Manhattan’s ...

Meet the Author: Chandrani Ghosh is a former journalist (Time, Forbes, and Business Standard) who, many years ago, traded her press pass for a carpool one. Now that the carpoolers are drivers, she returns to the page. Drawing on her experiences of growing up in the chaotic worlds of Kolkata and Delhi, spending her twenties in London, Geneva, and Kathmandu, and eventually settling in Washington, Ghosh makes her literary debut with H...

Meet the Author: Daniel Grace is a London-born, California-bred, former owner of an international advertising agency who produces critically acclaimed Tuscan wines at his family winery, Il Molino di Grace, in Panzano-in-Chianti, Italy. He is a storyteller by trade and a mythologist at heart. Daniel splits his time between San Francisco and Tuscany with his wife, three daughters and English Setter. In the Wake of Golgotha is hi...

Hello friends! If you missed the book launch party at Elaine’s Literary Salon on April 2, listen and watch the impressive interview between Jeff and award-winning noir author Christopher Chambers, ChrisChamberNoir.com.

Help us celebrate the release of book 4 in the 4-part Nathan Burke series. “I wanted to write a story about what happens when devotion and duty collide, giving my protagonist — FBI Agent Nathan Burk...

Meet the Author: Dr. Joan Naidorf is a board-certified emergency physician trained at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia. After growing up in Highland Park, NJ, she obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia. She practiced for nearly thirty years in the busy emergency departments of Inova Alexandria Hospital and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Virgi...

About Bonnie Naradzay: As a mother, professional, teacher, and longtime volunteer, leading poetry sessions in prisons, a retirement community, and among the homeless, Bonnie has gathered much of both the lost and found, culminating in the publication of Invited to the Feast, a collection of poems and literary debut coming in her eightieth year.

Her poems appear in AGNI, New Letters (Pushcart Nomination), RHINO, ...

Meet the Author: Elizabeth Bruce’s collection, Universally Adored and Other One Dollar Stories(Vine Leaves Press, 2024), won the 2025 IBA Short Story Award and Literary Titan Gold Award in Fiction, as well as an IAN Book of the Year Finalist distinction. Her debut novel, And Silent Left the Place, won Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s Fiction Prize, as well as a ForeWord Magazine Bronze Prize and th...

Click here to sign up today for the March 21 workshop with John DeDakis!

Course Description: A series of topic-specific workshops designed to drill deeper into the finer points of storytelling. Writing exercises will help you hone your skills and give you the confidence to take your writing to the next level.

Deep Listening for Writers: ...