Foggy Bottom readers searching to find a taste of the local literary community lucked out as a Washingtonian installed a brand-new book vending machine in Western Market on Saturday.
Next to Duke’s Grocery now stands a “LitBox,” a tall, tan-colored vending machine featuring the District’s flag, images of Martin Luther King Jr. and various monuments. The machine is not filled with snacks to grab on the go but instead contains 23 books written by DMV-based authors.
District author Lauren Woods, who led the initiative, said she noticed a disconnect between writers in the DMV and the more widely recognized names in the publishing world, adding that during her visits to D.C. bookstores, she rarely saw local authors represented on the shelves. Inspiration struck for Woods about a year ago when she came across a photo of a literary vending machine in a European train station — an innovation already seen in countries like the United Kingdom, France, Romania and Germany.
After a year spent researching, securing licenses and fundraising, Saturday’s launch marked D.C.’s first literary vending machine.
A gold ribbon wrapped the vending machine in preparation for Saturday’s launch event, waiting for eager customers to find their new summer reads, as three featured authors read excerpts from their books. Organizers used social media to advertise the event and friends of authors, encouraging local readers to stop by the event and utilize the machine.
The vending machine features memoirs, flash fiction, poetry and children’s books with prices varying from $12 to $28. On the back patio of Western Market, over 20 attendees listened to authors and eagerly lined up Saturday afternoon to be the first customers of LitBox. Current book options include “The World Doesn’t Require You” by Rion Amilcar Scott and “Crushing It” by Erin Becker, and options will be rotated on a monthly basis, with Woods choosing authors based on recommendations and a literary salon she and her husband, a fellow author, run monthly.
Woods said the literary salons are held in their home, where five to six authors read each other’s work, inspiring the collection of books included.
According to LitBox’s website, Woods held an online fundraiser to raise funds to purchase the machine after realizing through the salon that D.C. has an “enormous supply” of local literary talent that deserve more attention. More than 75 people contributed $5,392 to Wood’s campaign, surpassing her $5,000 goal.
The website said Woods worked with local artist Billy Howell to design the machine and license the brand, making LitBox a “D.C. based LLC.”
She said she thought Western Market’s location was a “nice intersection” between GW students and people working in Downtown D.C., adding that she timed the machine’s opening to overlap with Commencement weekend in order to “hit some of the student community” before they leave.
Other than the Campus Store and Reiter’s Books on G Street, the vending machine is one of the few booksellers located in Foggy Bottom.
“The GW community was really important to me because I think that people in the college age are especially open to big ideas and read more widely than other people,” Woods said.
Woods said LitBox has a “multiyear” contract with Western Market and hopes to stay as long as it makes a profit. She said she hopes to expand the machine throughout the District “if it does well” and is currently scouting locations near the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station, another area with constant foot traffic due to nearby offices.
She said, being a local author, she intentionally put other local authors in the machine to give them a platform to distribute their work. Woods said she hopes LitBox will bring an opportunity to explore D.C.’s “incredibly artistic” side, beyond the political reputation the city holds.
“I hope it brings people together a bit more,” Woods said. “We’re hoping to do summer events like this and to have people support each other, learn about their writing and to brand D.C. as more of a literary setting.”
Valerie D. Johnson’s children’s book “1 2 3 Count with Me on Granddad’s Farm,” which follows the narrator through a farm and teaches readers how to count animals, sits among the other picture books. Johnson — a Virginia-based former K-12 teacher with 32 years of teaching experience — said she is “elated” that her math-centered book is being featured in the LitBox, adding that she hopes it teaches kids to enjoy math.
“The traditional bookstore, it may be overwhelming to see lots of different genres and lots of different books, but here she has a curated list of local authors,” Johnson said.
Johnson said she thinks it’s “fabulous” that D.C. authors are being celebrated and hopes the presence of the vending machine will inspire more people to write and encourage local authors to include their work in the LitBox.
“Maybe one day, get their books in, so I hope we’re inspiring other authors and then also inspiring people to be vocal and then just inspire people to write,” Johnson said.
George Mason University creative writing professor Kyoko Mori read at the unveiling from her book “Cat and Bird: A Memoir” about her relationship with house cats and finding a home in the world. Mori said she met Woods after a friend attended one of her literary salons, and she knows some of Woods’ husband’s fellow faculty members at American University, which led to Woods featuring her work in the box.
Mori said she appreciates the location because people who are eating can easily grab a book. She said she would like LitBox’s presence to expand throughout the District and hopes to put one in Union Station where people are commuting to and from work.
“I hope it impacts the local writing and reading community in making books more available anytime people are gathered eating. They should have access to a book, too,” Mori said.
Anna Stolley Persky, a student at George Mason University, said she was at the event to support Mori, her professor. Persky said the LitBox’s Western Market location allows locals and tourists who visit the market for a quick bite to see local authors’ work featured and said it was a “brilliant” idea that appeals to both demographics who want an authentic taste of the DMV’s literary community.
“We should be emphasizing our local artists and writers,” Perskey said. “This is a way to do that.”
Author Martha Anne Toll also read from her newly released romance novel “Duet for One” about two musicians falling in love at Saturday’s opening. She said Woods reached out to her this spring asking her to be a part of the first batch of books sold in the machine.
Toll said her books have been featured in DMV bookstores Politics and Prose, People’s Book and Wonderland Books but has never heard of a book vending machine — until LitBox.
“I think we Americans kind of love vending machines,” Toll said. “I love the idea that it’s not potato chips, it’s something wonderful and good for you.”
