1. National Book Festival
The 10th anniversary of this festival was held September 25 on the National Mall. More than 70 authors attended, including Ken Follett, Rae Armantrou, and Julia Glass. Last year, 130,000 attended.
2. Washington Life’s “The Young and the Guest List” Party
After hosting last year’s event in a raw industrial space, Washington Life went for a more refined, elegant location, gathering 400 people at the historic Washington Club to toast the 250 under-40 notables in politics, society, arts, and business.
3. Washingtonian’s Best of Party
More than 60 of Washington’s top restaurants offered their best dishes at this annual “Best Of” celebration on July 21. Hargrove and A. Dominick Events transformed the National Building Museum into a gourmet fair complete with carnival games, stilt walkers, and oversized lollipops.
4. The Week Opinion Awards Dinner
Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein, The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait, and The Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Rob Rogers were honored at The Week’s seventh annual awards dinner on April 15 at the W Washington. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was the guest speaker.
5. The PEN/Faulkner Awards for Fiction Gala
After considering more than 350 novels, Sherman Alexie’s War Dances received the top prize in fiction writing on May 8 at a gala dinner at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Previous winners of this prestigious peer-juried literary prize, which comes with a $15,000 award, include John Updike, E.L. Doctorow, and Philip Roth.
6. Scripps National Spelling Bee
The competition began with 273 spellers but only one could be named the champion, as 14-year-old Anamika Veeramani was in a live broadcast on ABC on June 4. The competition is held each year at the Washington Grand Hyatt and the 2011 enrollment began in August.
