Author Next Door: Making HERstory | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation

On Sunday, November 15th at Busboys and Poets Shirlington, join us for Author Next Door: Making HERstory, the next installment in our rotating celebration of community storytellers from across the DMV.

This panel will spotlight local women authors, each of whom has a powerful story to share. Our featured authors will read from and discuss their writing, come together for a conversation about the intersections of their books, and answer questions from the audience. We invite you to come listen, engage, and support these local authors and their powerful stories.

The Enchantress Queen and the Ghost Who Made Me by Lori Rottenberg

Winner of the Changing Light Prize, The Enchantress Queen and The Ghost Who Made Me is an all-too-American story of a life created and lived in the changing norms of the late 20th century. It centers on a girl whose accidental conception irrevocably alters the life trajectories of her teenaged parents, and who witnesses her parents' inevitable divorce, her family's subsequent fall into poverty, and her mother's struggle to find a new partner in the disco era and cope with her life trauma and mental health issues. The girl comes of age amid these challenges and ultimately makes peace with the imperfect people who loved her.

The Nonprofit Paradox: What We Don't Talk About, When We Talk About Giving by Nehal Gandhi

The Nonprofit Paradox invites readers to see nonprofits not only through the lens of charity, but through purpose, financial sustainability, and the structures required for lasting change. Written in the aftermath of the dismantling of USAID, the world's largest aid agency, this book reflects on the fragility of nonprofit systems and the opportunity to rebuild them. Drawing on two decades of experience in international development and philanthropy, Nehal Gandhi blends interviews, personal stories from India and the United States, and data to unpack how the business of nonprofits really operates. Nehal writes not as an outsider criticizing the sector, but as someone who has loved it, built within it, and wrestled with its limits.

Unshattered Glass: Volume 1: Brooke Isn't Broken by J. J. Mercier

The military prides itself as an unbreakable moral spine-an institution built on camaraderie, honor, and integrity. For many, that promise is real. For others, it is complicated. Brooke Walton understands both. A senior Naval officer with an impeccable record and a relentless sense of duty, Brooke enters the military believing—like so many do—that excellence, discipline, and loyalty will be enough. Behind the uniforms and ceremonies is a closed system that can protect power at the expense of people-one where nepotism and false narratives take root. Sexual misconduct is too often minimized. Negligence too often escapes accountability. Told with unflinching honesty and sharp, often dark humor, this candid nonfiction account follows Brooke as she navigates both the promise and the peril of the military institution. Brooke's journey moves through courtrooms and command halls, friendships and betrayals, moments of absurdity and devastating loss. Along the way, she claims her voice, her agency, and her humanity. This is a story about growth, accountability, and what it truly means to serve with integrity in an imperfect system.

Human of the Year by Beka Wueste

Released from a Maryland prison after nearly twenty years served for a crime he committed during high school, Matt is reunited with his younger sister, Jenny. Matt has to prove to his parole officer, his family, and himself, that he can survive as a free man for the first time in his adult life, while facing the challenges of re-entry into a world that drastically changed during his sentence.

Knowing that reaching the first year without returning to prison is critical to Matt's long-term odds of staying out permanently, Jenny brings him to live with her husband Hector and young daughter Julia, neither of whom Matt has ever met.

Despite Jenny's best efforts, she struggles to integrate her brother into the life she's built, and to protect him from people who think he belongs back in prison—including their parents.

Realizing that they have grown up into strangers, the siblings seek support from their community of family, friends, and colleagues.

Copies of each author’s book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and all authors will be signing following the program.

This event is free and open to all. Doors open at 4:30pm and there will be full dinner service throughout the program. The program begins at 5:00 pm and will be followed by Q&A and book signing. Please note that this event is in-person.

We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Lori Rottenburg is an award-winning writer and educator. She is the author of The Enchantress Queen and the Ghost Who Made Me (Livingston Press, 2026) which won the 2026 Changing Light Novel-in-Verse competition. Her various works, including poetry and flash- and non-fiction, have been published in multiple literary journals and anthologies. Rottenburg served as a Visiting Poet for Arlington Public Schools for over a decade. She holds an MFA in Poetry from George Mason University, where she teaches writing to international students and poetry to Honors College students. ​

Nehal Gandhi is a nonprofit financial strategist with over two decades of experience in the development sector, specializing in financial operations, budgeting, and compliance. Born in India, her journey across three continents gave her a practitioner's view of how philanthropy actually moves (and stalls) across borders and cultures. Shaped by Masters’ as a DFID Scholar in the UK before moving to the US, Gandhi, through her consulting and her writing, delves into how philanthropy and nonprofits can transcend outdated assumptions. She currently lives in Vienna, Virginia, with her husband and two sons.

J. J. Mercier, pen name of Tyesha N. Walker, is an author, U.S. Army veteran, mother, and Northern Virginia resident whose writing explores resilience, womanhood, faith, family, identity, and the complicated journey from surviving adversity to becoming whole. Walker served as a U.S. Army Adjutant General Officer, ultimately attaining the rank of Major, before turning her attention more fully to writing. Through both fiction and future scholarship, she hopes to create space for honest conversations about resilience without romanticizing trauma, faith without abandoning inquiry, and the power of reclaiming authorship over one's own story.

Beka Wueste is the author of multiple works of fiction, including the family drama, “Human of the Year,” which earned a Kirkus star. Her first two novels, The Unsent Letters of Lucy Prior and Fireflies in a Jar, were lauded by multiple publications. In 2025, her debut short story collection, My Side of the World and Other Tales of Death, was a finalist for Short Story Collection of the year in the the Reader Views Reviewer Choice Awards.

Born in Texas and raised in Virginia, Beka earned a B.A. in art history from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA, and an M.A. in art history from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Beka is also an award-winning visual artist who exhibits her work frequently in regional and national shows. Beka lives with her husband and their rescue Shiba Inus in Northern Virginia.

BOOK DETAILS

The Enchantress Queen and the Ghost Who Made Me

By Lori Rottenberg

June 1, 2026 | Paperback | 126 pages | $19.95

The Nonprofit Paradox: What We Don't Talk About, When We Talk About Giving

By Nehal Gandhi

August 01, 2026 | Paperback | 220 pages | $20.99

Unshattered Glass: Volume 1: Brooke Isn't Broken

By J.J. Mercier

January 28, 2026 | Paperback | 216 pages | $20.99

Human of the Year

By Beka Wueste

June 9, 2026 | Paperback | 416 pages | $25.00