Join us for a book talk with Charlotte Taylor Fryar, who will speak about her new book, Potomac Fever: Reflections on the Nation’s River. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.
About the Book: As she walks the length of the Potomac River, clambering up its banks and sounding its depths, Charlotte Taylor Fryar examines the geography and ecology of Washington, DC, with all manner of flora and fauna as her witness. The ecological traces of human inhabitancy provide her with imaginative access into America’s past, for her true subject is the origin of our splintered nation and racially divided capital.
From the gentrified neighborhood of Shaw to George Washington’s slave labor camp at Mount Vernon, Potomac Fever maps the troubled histories of the United States by leading us along the less-trafficked trails and side streets of our capital city, steeped in the legacy of white supremacy and colonialism. In the end, Fryar offers hope for how “we might grow a society guided by the ethics and values of the places we live.”
A compelling synthesis of historical, environmental, and personal narrative, Potomac Fever exposes the roots of our national myths, awash in the waters of America’s renowned river.
About the Author: Charlotte Taylor Fryar is a writer, historian, educator, and herbalist. She holds a PhD in American studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lives in Glen Echo, Maryland, less than seven hundred feet from the banks of the Potomac River. Potomac Fever: Reflections on the Nation’s River is her first book.
To order Potomac Fever, please see below for the New Dominion Bookshop book order form or call the shop at 434-295-2552.
"Both a love letter to the Potomac and a sharp critique of American myths, Potomac Fever is a lyrical and thought-provoking debut."
—Arlington Magazine
New Dominion Bookshop Book Order Form
Shop local and support your community bookstore! Order books from New Dominion Bookshop by filling out the contact form below. Please make sure that you list the book title(s) that you would like to order. We will give you a call when your order is ready. If you are placing a pre-order for a book that has not yet been released, your book will be ready on or soon after the book’s release date. There is no need to pre-pay. We will collect your payment when you pick up your order or when your order is shipped. If you would like your book(s) to be signed and/or inscribed, please include that information in the “Message for Our Booksellers” field.
Charlotte Taylor Fryar Photo Credit: Piper Hartman