Volume 10:2, Spring 2009 FIRST BOOKS ISSUE Introduction by Kim Roberts This special issue highlights recent book publications by five authors with strong ties to Washington, DC. Although these authors range widely in age, backgrounds, and styles, all share singular, distinctive voices that have made their first full-length, single-author books notable: they are cohesive collections that are fascinating to read. Although two of the authors have appeared previously on the site, none has been a featured author in Beltway Poetry. Their books have been published by five different presses; we thank Coffee House Press, Gival Press, New Issues, Washington Writers Publishing House, and The Word Works for their permission to reprint selections here. If you enjoy what you read, please support these authors and buy their books! Links to each press is provided at the bottom of each web page. Although I highlight five notable authors in this issue, I can highly recommend many other recent full-length first books by authors with DC ties as well. Please also look for these terrific titles: Andrea Carter Brown, The Disheveled Bed, CavanKerry, 2006 Sarah Browning, Whiskey in the Garden of Eden, The Word Works, 2007 Heather Davis, The Lost Tribe of Us, Main Street Rag Books, 2007 Thomas Sayers Ellis, The Maverick Room, Graywolf Press, 2005 Patricia Gray, Rupture, Ren Hen Press, 2004 Chungmi Kim, Glacier Lily, Red Hen Press, 2004 Hiram Larew, More Than Anything, Vrzhu Press, 2007 Gary Copeland Lilley, The Subsequent Blues, Four Way Books, 2004 Dwaine Rieves, When the Eye Forms, Tupelo Press, 2006 Ken Rumble, Key Bridge, Carolina Wren Press, 2007 Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, The Insatiable Psalm: Poems, Wind River Press, 2005 Dan Vera, The Space Between Our Danger and Delight, Beothuk Books, 2008 Rosemary Winslow, Green Bodies, The Word Works, 2007 >>>> Table of Contents A.B. Spellman Hellfighters on Parade On Hearing Sonny ("Newk") Rollins After Vallejo The City Poet on the Stroll Sandra Beasley Theories of Falling You Small Kingdom The Flood The Angels Kathi Morrison-Taylor Hula Hoop Diagram of the Female Reproductive System, Translated Sea Monkeys Playing Our Birthdays On Heritage Night at My Children's Elementary School Brandel France de Bravo Breath Eureka Kibosh Pariah Wedlock Gregg Shapiro Color Blind in the Emerald City The Men Want to Be with the Men Roy's Roosevelt Island My Next Boyfriend