The Baltimore Book Festival is next weekend~ September 23-25!
*The photos were taken at last year’s Book Festival by Theresa Keil and Matt Kelley.
Given declining rates of reading, decimation of brick-and-mortar bookstores large (Borders) and small (Looking Glass in Portland, OR, as just one example), and the boring homogeneity of reading different types of books on the same e-reader, one might think that the phrase “book festival” is an oxymoron. But not only does Baltimore’s literary community defy that perception, it does so twice a year with two book festivals. In April, CityLit Festival with partner Enoch Pratt Free Library presents seven jam-packed hours of indoor literary programs. In September, in less than two weeks in fact, the three-day outdoor Baltimore Book Festival sprouts up in Mt. Vernon.
The latter often takes an unfair hit as being somehow less bookish and more formulaic with its music, beer, and food stands (here’s the same festival recipe, insert random cultural focus here). Some raise an eyebrow with “author” line-ups that include the likes of Tim Gunn, Candace Bushnell, and whoever the actress is who played Marcia Brady. I may not be a fan of these celebri-writers either, but I know what makes for a good festival. The Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts, which produces the festival, strikes the perfect balance with its annual autumnal salute to the written word. In full disclosure, CityLit Project has been a programming partner with the Baltimore Book Festival for several years.
We can hide away in a corner and read a book to ourselves, which I often do. But a festival is something different. It is communal, noisy, and at times, raucous. Take a fresh look at the Baltimore Book Festival by surfing its new web site, which epitomizes all that is good in any festival: quality, diversity, fun, and collaboration. That last word is important, because it is the way things get done in these recession-anchored times. But even before it became fiscally prudent to act collaboratively, the Baltimore Book Festival was partnering with writers, publishers, and literary organizations to provide much of the weekend’s content. Those partnerships now include, in addition to CityLit, the Baltimore Free School, The Children’s Bookstore, Johns Hopkins University Press, the Maryland Humanities Council, and Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffee House. These entities often further collaborate with other organizations to cover the spectrum of the region’s literary community: the local literary scene, literature and language, children’s literature, academic and regional literature, the humanities, and political/social awareness issues.
Festival managers also add their own programming notes primarily for the Literary Salon stage. Authors featured this year include Sherman Alexie (author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the Maryland Humanities Council’s One Maryland One Book selection); Myla Goldberg, most widely known for her 2000 debut novel Bee Season and who represents the vanguard of Brooklyn-based writers; Tavis Smiley, talk show host and political commentator; New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger, master of psychological thrillers; Erin Morgenstern, whose debut The Night Circus is part-J.K. Rowling, part-Neil Gaiman, part-Stephenie Meyer that’s being positioned–for better or for worse–as the post-Potter torchbearer; and Terry McMillan with Getting to Happy, a sequel to her bestselling hit Waiting to Exhale.
Want a more social justice edge to your festival experience? Check out CityLit Stage’s Saturday program, its special presentation, “Writing About Crime and Justice” on Sunday in the Literary Salon, or “Social Movements and State Repression, Then and Now” at the Radical Bookfair Pavilion on Sunday afternoon. Families will find a variety of programming in the west park.
Mix in plenty of food vendors, beer, and music (band Red Sammy takes its name from a Flannery O’Connor short story), and here is a festival that celebrates the written word, the artists who create it, and the readers who enjoy it.
I have attended several book festivals with different venues, formats, and footprints. It is hard to beat the combination of selection, navigability, collaboration, and community building found at the Baltimore Book Festival. (For the record, I think the Boston Book Festival, Decatur Book Festival, and Texas Book Festival are excellent, too.) Few Baltimore city events do as admirable a job as the book festival in catering to so many tastes while still making the event what every festival should be: FUN.
NOTE: What Weekly contributor Baynard Woods appears on the CityLit Stage at Baltimore Book Festival on Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 with Mike Young, We Are All Good If They Try Hard Enough; Dominic Smith, Bright and Distant Shores; and music by Cliff Murphy and Her Fantastic Cats.
Gregg Wilhelm
Executive Director
CityLit Project
The Baltimore Book Festival is next weekend~ September 23-25!
*The photos were taken at last year’s Book Festival by Theresa Keil and Matt Kelley.
