The DC area has seen it’s share of unconventional vending machines: pasta and tiramisu, tarot cards, enamel pins, and even bánh mì sandwiches. Author and Brightwood resident Lauren Woods hopes to add another item to the list, launching a fundraising campaign for a vending machine stocked with books by local writers. For Woods, the vending machine is a way to bring attention to the area’s literary scene. It can be hard for DC’s small press authors to get their works in bookstores—even locally owned shops—and the vending machine represents a space intended for those writers. Woods plans to order a custom-designed machine with 23 slots for books, three of which will be picture books. Stock will rotate monthly to highlight as many authors as possible. The first run of local literature will span genres, from memoirs (GMU professor Kyoko Mori’s Cat and Bird) and fiction (A Particular Kind of Black Man by Tope Folarin and Erin Becker’s YA novel Crushing It) to poetry (Ice by David Keplinger) and beyond. In addition to the Kickstarter, Woods received funding from the Awesome Foundation, a philanthropy group that gives $1,000 to new projects every month. The cash infusion inspired Woods to continue with her plans. “I got that grant, and it just lit a fire under me,” she says. While the location has not been secured yet, Woods says she has been in contact with the management at Union Station, where people passing through DC would be able to grab a book for their travels. She has also been considering a spot near the Wharf.The post A Vending Machine for Books Could Be Coming to DC first appeared on Washingtonian.