When:
September
28-30, 2012
Fri & Sat: noon-8pm
Sun: noon-7pm
Where:
Mt. Vernon Place,
centered on 600
North Charles St,
Baltimore MD 21201
The CityLit Stage features a variety of literary arts with special attention given to the region’s diverse mix of writers. The stage is presented by CityLit Project, Baltimore’s nonprofit literary arts center located at the University of Baltimore, and Urbanite magazine. Bookselling support provided by Cyclops Books.
Take a look below at the 2011 schedule. This year's lineup is coming soon!
Stage: Monument Circle South
12PM
Grab your lunch at the festival and swing by the CityLit Stage for dessert. Chat with Peachy Dixon, author of A Peachy Life, which recounts how her Italian-Catholic upbringing in Highlandtown spiraled downward upon marrying an abusive, heroin-addicted man. In the late 1960s, Peachy made the brave decision to leave her husband and supported her children through a series of waitressing jobs at famous Baltimore restaurants such as Johnny Unitas’ Golden Arm, Haussner’s, and Sabatino’s. Dessert provided by Di Pasquale's, a Highlandtown tradition for 100 years!
Event Details2PM-4PM
Join CityLit Project's Gregg Wilhelm and graduate students in the University of Baltimore’s nationally acclaimed MFA program for free one-on-one discussions of your writing. Aspiring authors and poets can bring up to five pages of prose or two poems to the CityLit Stage where they can sit down with another writer or publishing professional. Get advice on craft, the marketplace, and next steps. "Friday Feedback" is a service of CityLit Project, voted "Best of Baltimore" by Baltimore Magazine.
Event Details6PM
Hosted by SHYIB editor and literary shaman William Pat Tandy, the latest issue focuses on the HONness in us all, present everywhere, as possessable by one person or entity as air. Tease up your beehive and drape that boa around your neck while listening to great writers and music by the Degenerettes.
Event Details12PM
Be part of the 100,000 Poets for Change worldwide event! Poets Virginia Crawford and Laura Shovan are hosting a spontaneous poetry composition that you’ll want to try on for size. Attendees wearing Living Poetry Flash tee-shirts will “be arranged” into written on-the-spot, living poems. Tee-shirts can be made at home (instructions at www.authoramok.com) or picked up Friday and Saturday at the CityLit Stage. No tee-shirt? No problem. Flash your poetry prowess by composing a living poem on the spot. Poems will be photographed and posted at the 100,000 Poets for Change website: www.bigbridge.org/100thousandpoetsforchange.
Event Details12:30PM
Join Truth Thomas for a discussion about the role of poetry in social change and hear from poets whose conscientious work is forged by concern for a variety of issues. Panelists include Derrick Weston Brown, LindaJoy Burke, Dr. Kathleen Hellen, Melanie Henderson, Dr. Tony Medina, and Fernando Quijano III. Sponsored by Little Patuxent Review.
Event Details1:30PM
DC's activist-oriented Busboys and Poets launched an imprint in 2009 to extend its lit-based, food-fueled mission. This year B&PP released its first two poetry titles: Wisdom Teeth, the debut collection by poet-in-residence Derrick Weston Brown, and Suspended Somewhere Between by Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University (and frequent guest on the Daily Show). Introduced by Chic Dambach, recently President and CEO for the Alliance for Peacebuilding and author, Exhaust the Limits: The Life and Times of a Global Peacebuilder.
Event Details2:30PM
Former homicide detective Kelvin Sewell has seen it all: gang members burned alive; a baby unceremoniously stuffed into the ground by its own mother; a sex offender who killed a child in a delusional jealous rage. The constant grind of bearing witness to violent death has given Sewell an unprecedented perspective into the minds of killers. Joined by co-author Stephen Janis, Investigative Reporter, WBFF Fox45. Moderated by Chic Dambach, author, Exhaust the Limits: The Life and Times of a Global Peacebuilder.
Event Details3:30PM
Nicolle Wallace, former Communications Director for the Bush White House, is a bestselling author and political commentator who appears regularly on news programs such as ABC’s Good Morning America, Fox News’ Sean Hannity, and Morning Joe on MSNBC. She follows up her New York Times bestselling debut with It's Classfied, a story about the nation’s first female President's female Vice President, who attempts to redeem herself after a botched television interview by wading headlong into a sensational terror investigation. Hosted by Lisa Robinson, WBAL-TV 11 News Weekend Today.
Event Details4:30PM
2010 Harriss Poetry Prize winner Bruce Sager reads from his winning chapbook Famous (CityLit Press, 2011). Special reading by prize honoree Clarinda Harriss. Hosted by Gregg Wilhelm, publisher of CityLit Press.
Event Details5:30PM
Each year, the Maryland State Arts Council awards grants to working artists residing in Maryland. For literary artists, the grants alternate between fiction writers and poets. Listen to this year's poetry award winners: Norma Chapman (Frederick), William Derge (Montgomery), Meredith Davies Hadaway (Queen Anne's), Hailey Leithauser (Montgomery), Greg McBride (Montgomery), Katherine McCord (Carroll), Robert Schreur (Baltimore County), Justin Sirois (Baltimore County), Ellen Wise (Kent), and Ivan Young (Wicomico). Hosted by MSAC literature program manager Christine Stewart.
Event Details6:30PM
Discover writers who have traveled to Baltimore from parts near and far, mostly far. Baynard Woods, originally from South Carolina, Coffin Point: The Strange Cases of Ed Meter, Witchdoctor Sheriff; Mike Young, Massachusetts by way of California, We Are All Good If They Try Hard Enough; and Dominic Smith, Texas by way of Australia, Bright and Distant Shores. Hosted by Aaron Henkin, co-host of WYPR's "The Signal." Music by Cliff Murphy and Her Fantastic Cats.
Event Details12PM
Maryland Writers' Association is dedicated to promoting the art, business, and craft of writing. MWA strives to convene writers of all levels and disciplines, encourage writers to reach their full potential, and promote writing within the community. Check out a sampling of the writing offered by MWA members. Hosted by MWA President Nicole Schultheis.
Event Details1PM
Host Christophe Casamassima developed Furniture Press in 2003 with a handful of likeminded friends at Towson University. He works closely and collaboratively with each writer in order to create artworks that complement the writer’s vision. Hear from three Furniture Press poets: Ryan Eckes, Old News; Chris McCreary, Undone: a fakebook; and Elizabeth Savage, Grammar.
Event Details2PM
National Lampoon contributor and frequent Food Detectives guest, Adam Ruben is a seven-year veteran of graduate school, a stand-up comedian with an undergraduate degree from Princeton, and, as of this past May, a PhD from Johns Hopkins that cost him a small piece of his soul. "You'll laugh until you matriculate," says The Chronicle of Education* (* = not a real quote.)
Event Details3PM
Books by two Baltimore writers have recently been published that are described as "a novel in stories": Eric D. Goodman's Tracks and Susi Wyss's The Civilized World. Join Eric and Susi for a reading and discussion about the form, which seems to be back in vogue. Hosted by Dave Rosenthal, Baltimore Sun.
Event Details4PM
Did Charles Dickens suffer from mental disorders, especially during the burst of productivity that created A Christmas Carol? Kimberley Lynne's play A Dickens of a Carol explores not the tale but the story of the man who wrote it. Then listen to another tale of a writer facing a mid-life crisis and a much-more-famous father in Matthew Norman's debut, Domestic Violets.
Event Details5PM
From a special forces operative who wants out of the game to the path a scholarly boy takes toward terrorism to a journalist on a crusade, these authors will keep readers riveted and pages turning. Join Stephen Gordon, In the Name of God; Danuta Hinc, To Kill the Other; and Robert Sanabria, The Last Californio for reads on the wild side. Hosted by Celeste Sollod, the Baltimore Bibliophile and blogger, "Baltimore Books."
Event Details
