CityLit Project partners with Enoch Pratt Free Library for the eighth time to present the annual CityLit Festival, Baltimore's day-long celebration of literature.  Don't miss what Baltimore magazine has called "a can't miss event on the city's cultural scene."

CityLit Festival
Enoch Pratt Free Library
400 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Saturday, April 16, 2011
10 am - 5 pm



Scroll to link at bottom of page to download the complete festival brochure.

Special guests include Danielle Evans, Andrei Codrescu, and Jaimy Gordon.

Danielle Evans’ short fiction and reviews have appeared in The Paris Review, American Book Review, Phoebe, Black Renaissance Noire, and The L Magazine. Her work has been included in Best American Short Stories 2008 and 2010, and nominated for several Pushcart Prizes. Her first short story collection, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, published in September and a novel titled The Empire Has No Clothes is forthcoming.
 
Andrei Codrescu is an award-winning poet, novelist, essayist, and NPR commentator. He edits the online journal Exquisite Corpse and taught literature and creative writing at Louisiana State University for twenty-five years before retiring in 2009 as the MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English. His recent work includes The Poetry Lesson, The Posthuman Dada Guide, and Jealous Witness: Poems.

Jaimy Gordon, a Baltimore native, won the 2010 National Book Award for fiction for Lord of Misrule. She is the author of three previous novels, Shamp of the City-Solo, She Drove Without Stopping, and Bogeywoman. Gordon has been a Fellow of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the Bunting (now Radcliffe) Institute at Harvard. She lives in Kalamazoo, and teaches at Western Michigan University and in the Prague Summer Program for Writers.

This busy festival features several concurrent programs and a bustling Literary Marketplace that showcases Baltimore’s rich literary community.  CityLit Festival’s complete schedule follows:
 
CENTRAL HALL
 
10:00 AM – Doors Open and Exhibitor Set-Up

10:00 - 5:00 – Literary Marketplace
Visit an array of self-published authors, literary organizations, small presses, magazines, and lit journals who make up Baltimore's diverse and talented literary arts community.
 
10:30 AM – Welcome by Dr. Carla Hayden, Pratt Library Executive Director and Gregg Wilhelm, CityLit Project Executive Director.  Mayoral Proclamation.
 
12:00 PM – Write Here, Write Now Mini-Workshops
 
FORMER MARYLAND ROOM
 
11:30-12:30 Outdoor Sculpture in Baltimore
A pictorial guide to 250 sculptures found throughout Baltimore with eighteen walking and driving tours, each with accompanying maps to make finding the pieces easy.
Cindy Kelly and Edwin Remsberg
 
12:30-1:30 A Peachy Life
Born in Highlandtown, Peachy Dixon lived the quintessential Italian-American life until she married an abusive husband addicted to drugs.  She then decided to leave him -- a brave decision for a woman in the 1960s -- and supported her kids by waitressing in some of Baltimore's most famous restaurants.
Leonora "Peachy" Dixon
In a conversation with Michael Olesker

2:00-3:00 Sisters of Fortune: America's Caton Sisters at Home and Abroad
US debut about the four Caton sisters who were born in late 18th century Maryland. They were the first American heiresses to take Europe by storm after the battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Jehanne Wake
In a conversation with Ric Cottom, WYPR's "Your Maryland"
 
POE ROOM
 
10:00 Glass House of Dreams
The Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens (Druid Hill Park)
Peggy Stansbury leads an exhibit and book talk (photography by David Simpson)
2nd floor exhibit and gallery talk
Peggy Stansbury
 
10:45-12:00 Life in Me Like Grass on Fire
Special MWA Poetry Book Launch
Laura Shovan
Dennis Kirschbaum
Ann Bracken
Barbara Westwood Diehl
Fernando Quijano III
Heidi Mordhorst
Shirley Brewer
 
12:00-1:30 Poetry I
Ethelbert Miller, How We Sleep on the Nights We Don't Make Love
(Introduced by Dr. Carla Hayden)
Vincent Cellucci, An Easy Place / To Die
Gerry LaFemina, Vanishing Horizon
Michael Salcman, The Enemy of Good Is Better
Hosted by Marianne Amoss, Urbanite, and Stephen Reichert, Smartish Pace
 
1:30-3:00 Poetry II
Ned Balbo, The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems
Ginny Crawford, Touch
Truth Thomas, Bottle of Life
Hosted by Marianne Amoss, Urbanite, and Stephen Reichert, Smartish Pace

3:30-4:30 Publishing in the Digital Era
Charisse Carney-Nunes, Award-Winning Children's Book Author (I Am Barack Obama) and Founder of Brand Nu Words (digital publishing)
David Drager, Poet, Entrepreneur, Software Engineer, and Founder of Lit4.us
Allissa Richardson, Knight Foundation’s Institute for Interactive Journalism Grant Recipient for cutting-edge mobile journalism (“MOJO”) lab at Morgan State University
Rachel Stark, Freelance Editor and Editorial Assistant, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Felicia Pride, Moderator, Professional Writer, Book Blogger for AOL, Publishers Weekly Contributor, and Founder of BackList, an organization that specializes in producing engaging and interactive content across platforms

FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT
 
11:30-12:45 Men and Memoir
Chic Dambach, Exhaust the Limits: Life and Times of a Global Peacebuilder
James J. Patterson, Bermuda Shorts
In a conversation with Dave Rosenthal, The Sun
 
1:00-2:00 Women and Words
Jessica Anya Blau, Drinking Closer to Home
Amy Stolls, The Ninth Wife
Elissa Weissman, Nerd Camp
Hosted by Shannon Morgan, Maryland Life
 
2:00-3:00 Moonface: A True Romance
At the age of eighteen, Angela Balcita had reached a point in her life when her health could not keep up with her optimistic personality. After suffering kidney failure and after her body's rejection of the kidney her brother donated to her, she was in desperate need of a transplant. She then found the ultimate partner: her boyfriend, Charlie.
Angela Balcita
In a conversation with Donna Hamilton, WBAL-TV

3:30-4:30 510 Reading Series
Janice Eidus, The Last Jewish Virgin: A Novel of Fate
Ron Tanner, Kiss Me, Stranger
Susi Wyss, The Civilized World: A Novel in Stories
Hosted by Jen Michalski
 
WHEELER AUDITORIUM
 
11:00-12:15
Letters About Literature
Maryland Humanities Council
 
12:30-1:30
Danielle Evans
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self
Introduced by Carla Hayden
 
1:45-2:45
Jaimy Gordon
Lord of Misrule (2010 National Book Award Winner for Fiction)
In a conversation with Tom Hall, WYPR's "Maryland Morning"
 
3:00-4:00
Andrei Codrescu
The Poetry Lesson
Introduced by Marc Steiner, "The Marc Steiner Show" (WEAA) and Pratt Library Director

CITYLIT FESTIVAL is made possible with support from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts, and the Baltimore Community Foundation. The 2011 festival is additionally supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional support provided by the Johns Hopkins University MA in Writing Program.

BOOK SALES throughout the festival is provided by Barnes & Noble.

Click the link below for the CityLit Festival brochure:
Click here to download PDF