A local LGBTQIA book festival will run for two days in June. Hosted by Capitol Hill’s local, independent queer bookstore, Little District Books, the festival will feature author book signings, panels, and an on-site bookstore. Several queer authors, including locals, who write across multiple genres will be featured at the festival. Fantasy fiction writer Andre Bradley, romance author Dallas Smith, and poet and spoken-word artist Tony Keith Jr. will be in attendance. Other authors expected at LavenderCon include Aaron H. Aceves, the author of the young-adult queer romance This Is Why They Hate Us, and Rasheed Newson, who wrote My Government Means to Kill Me—a novel exploring the coming of age of a gay, Black man in New York City in the mid-’80s. Little District Books’ LavenderCon runs June 29 and 30 at the National Press Club. lavendercon.com. $35–$95. —Kaela Roeder
LavenderCon, June 29 through 30
