A homegrown D.C. queer story

During our group's illustrious 27-year history (and counting), we've read just a handful of books set in Washington, D.C., or the region. (And most of those are political or policy volumes.) Happily, a new novel sounds like a contender for our next reading list, as a way to start rectifying that sin of omission.

Benny B. Peterson’s debut novel, The Maidenheads, tells the story of an experimental punk duo in the early 2010s. D.C. native Jamie, a singer who (in a somewhat fictionalized version of Jackson-Reed High School) meets an enchanting musical collaborator and first queer love in the bullheaded Mari. Together they create the Maidenheads, an experimental punk duo on the cusp of success when their precarious romance falls apart.

In a Washington Post article Peterson explains: “It’s important for people to know that there’s a real city here, with real people and real culture and real history and a really vibrant music scene and a really vibrant queer scene,” they said. “I wanted to show a world that a lot of people don’t realize exists.”