Western Market just installed a brand new vending machine — but you’ll have to look elsewhere for a soda. Washington’s first book vending machine opens for business this Saturday in the Foggy Bottom food hall near the I Street entrance. The machine holds 23 titles from DC-based authors across genres, from picture books to poetry.
Brookland-based author Lauren Woods launched a campaign last fall to bring this book dispenser to life. Inspired by similar machines in European train stations, Woods thought the convenience and curation of a vending machine could inspire literacy and bring some attention to DC writers. “Most people wouldn’t start a bookstore with just local authors because they think that will never be profitable,” says Woods. “So this is my chance to test that on a really small scale.”
After reaching her $5,000 fundraising goal late last year, Woods faced problems finding a location for the inaugural LitBox, as she calls the machine. “I never knew that it’s extremely competitive to get space for a vending machine,” she says. But on her way to dinner at Founding Farmers earlier this year, she stopped to check out Western Market and saw an empty space with an outlet that used to house an ATM. “I immediately thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s it,” Woods says. She liked the idea of the LitBox standing in a non-retail location where passersby could spontaneously browse—and consider grabbing a book to go alongside their lunch. So she reached out to the Western Market team and they agreed to participate.
The starting lineup of literature is focused on fiction, including Duet for One by Martha Anne Toll and Rion Amilcar Scott’s short story collection The World Doesn’t Require You. This spotlight on storytelling was intentional for Woods, who wanted to step away from the policy hot takes and big-name political memoirs that people associate with DC publishing. “Great literature is really about empathy and kind of deeply getting outside of your own framework and inhabiting another person’s consciousness,” she says. The books will rotate on about a monthly basis, but titles that sell especially well will be refilled. The bottom row will remain focused on children’s books.
Woods started the project to bring something positive to the DC literary community at a time when the state of the publishing industry has left some people feeling dispirited, and she says the recent slashing of public funding for the arts has only made her project feel more pertinent. “I want to give writers and people in this town something to feel excited about,” she says. “I wanted to bring a little bit of optimism into an otherwise bleak moment.”
A launch party for LitBox will take place May 17 at its Western Market location (2000 Pennsylvania Ave. NW) from 3-4 PM, with readings from featured authors Sandra Beasley, Kyoko Mori, and Martha Anne Toll.
