From Bethesda Magazine: MoCo lawyer, state delegate have books publishing in July

’The Great Wherever,’ ‘Elected American’ are the latest options by local authors

July 9, 2026 3:00 p.m. | Updated: July 2, 2026 3:49 p.m.

Shannon Sanders and Lily Qi — Shannon Sanders (left) and Lily Qi. Photo credit: Courtesy photos

Sanders cover — Photo credit: Courtesy photo

Farm Fiction

About eight years into her career as a lawyer, Shannon Sandersstarted participating in workshops at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda in 2014. She was curious to explore writing and says she was hooked right away. Sanders’ debut short story received the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers in 2020 and she went on to compile a book of short stories that was published in 2023. Her debut novel, The Great Wherever (Henry Holt and Co.), comes out in July. The 41-year-old, who grew up and still lives in Silver Spring, did this while juggling her day job and raising three boys (now 8 and 5-year-old twins). “Writing a novel was really fun and invigorating—even though it was quite a challenge,” Sanders says. “It felt a little bit like training for a marathon. It just became part of my daily practice.” She wrote most nights after the kids went to bed and on weekends. The novel is about a young woman from D.C. who inherits a family farm in Tennessee that is filled with secrets and ghosts. Sanders drew inspiration from her 93-year-old grandmother, who co-owns a farm in Tennessee with her siblings, a place Sanders visited for summer reunions as a child.

Outsider Rising

Looking for literature on immigrant communities and political engagement, Lily Qisays she came up empty. So, the first Chinese-born member of the Maryland House of Delegates decided to fill the void by sharing her story in Elected American: From Red China to Blue Maryland (Temple University Press, July 2026). “So much of our discussions about immigration are about legal and illegal, unfortunately,” says the 62-year-old North Potomac resident. “I want to elevate this conversation to focus on immigrant integration—not just culturally—but also politically, because that is the ultimate frontier of immigration.” Qi moved to the United States by herself in 1989 with $300 and became a citizen 10 years later. She has an MBA from American University and held various positions with Montgomery County, including liaison to the Asian American community and assistant chief administrative officer on economic and workforce development. Qi, a Democrat, has represented the state’s 15th legislative district in Montgomery County since 2019. “Despite all her flaws and the contradictions, this is still the only country in the world that I can think of where people like me—an ultimate outsider, as a woman, minority and immigrant who speaks English as a second language—can choose to belong by stepping up,” Qi says. “This is the community that I jokingly said that elected a name that they still cannot pronounce.”

More Recent Books By Local Authors:

The Breast Is Yet to Come: Cartoons for Nursing Moms (Blue Star Press, April 2026) by Bethesda residents Jan and Howard Bennett 

Draw Near to Me (Keylight Books, July 2026) by Glen Echo resident Michelle Brafman

- Advertisement -

Heartlines: A Blood Triangle (Bloomsbury, March 2026) by Chevy Chase resident Chandrani Ghosh 

Liberty Island (St. Martin’s Press, May 2026) by Chevy Chase resident Virginia Hume

The Neighbors Are Watching (Minotaur Books, June 2026) by Bethesda resident Aggie Blum Thompson

Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen (Dafina, January 2026) by Silver Spring resident Cheryl Thompson 

Digital Partners

Originally published at Bethesdamagazine