Mark your calendar
After a summer slumber, Baltimore’s literary scene will pick up this month. Some events that you should place on your calendar now:
One Maryland One Book. In the first statewide reading program, Marylanders are being asked to read and discuss A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind, the true story of a young man who journeyed from one of Washington’s roughest neighborhoods to an Ivy League university. The Maryland Humanities Council, which organized the program, has scheduled discussions at libraries and community centers statewide.
Baltimore Book Festival, Sept. 26-28. This year’s event, which will be held in Mount Vernon in the 600 block of N. Charles St., includes more than 150 author appearances. Among them: Dr. Cornel West, Naomi Wolf, Walter Mosley, Daniel Mark Epstein and Omar Tyree. At 11 a.m. Sept. 28, Nancy and I will appear on a panel with Heather Johnson, a local book blogger, to talk about changes in book reviewing. Hope to meet some of you there.
Charmed to Death, Oct. 9-12. Baltimore will host an international convention of mystery writers, including Lawrence Block, John Harvey and Baltimore’s own Laura Lippman. There is a registration fee for convention events, which include panel discussions, but many authors will also appear at local libraries.
National Book Festival. Sept. 27 on the Mall. Unfortunately it overlaps with the Baltimore festival, but if you insist on heading south, you'll find a slate of authors that includes Salman Rushdie, Philippa Gregory, Tony Horwitz and Geraldine Brooks.
Baltimore Comic Con, Sept. 27-28 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Another Baltimore Book Festival overlap, but if Diary of a Wimpy Kid is as popular as I've heard, you might want to take a trip downtown on Saturday. Featured guests include Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney, Bernie Wrightson, Jim Lee, Brian Bendis and Mike Mignola.
Henry Louis Mencken Day, Sept. 13 at the Central branch of the Enoch Pratt library. The daylong celebration honoring H.L. Mencken includes exhibts, the annual meeting of the Mencken Society and the Mencken Memorial Lecture, presented by Susan Jacoby. Jacoby is the author of The Age of American Unreason and Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism.
Comments
I'm posting a link to this page on my blog later this week. :)
Posted by: Heather J. | September 2, 2008 5:30 PM