CityLit Project

This is happening TODAY! Calling all writers. You already know where you need to be. The Lyric Baltimore. Free Fall! ✨Starting now!✨

CityLit Studio IX - ✨Sunday, October 13 from 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm in partnership with LYRIC BALTIMORE with three publishing professionals you don’t want to miss! Admission is FREE.
✨citylitproject.org✨ NEWS SECTION✨ Registration requested but not required.
✨WHO’S COMING?
🔥YAHDON ISRAEL🔥 SIMON & SCHUSTER

Acquiring Editor of Temple Folk by Aliyah Bilal

AALIYAH BILAL was born and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland. She has degrees from Oberlin College and the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. She’s published stories and essays with The Michigan Quarterly Review and The Rumpus. Temple Folk is her first short story collection.

“Temple Folk is a remarkable debut that does many things at once. It opens the door to a people we barely know, yet opens our eyes to the struggles that make us all human. People surprise and they disappoint. They stumble spiritually and soar morally. They love with all they have and lose all they’ve got. Put between faith and family, duty and self, Temple folk live through all the ties that bind and break.” –MARLON JAMES, WINNER OF THE 2015 BOOKER PRIZE.

✨WHO’S COMING?✨ 🔥KRISHAN TROTMAN🔥 Legacy Lit

Queens of Resistance series: Maxine Waters

“With its vibrant illustrations, confiding style, and upbeat energy, this series will galvanize both politically minded readers and those heretofore leery of politics.”
—Booklist (starred review)

✨WHO’S COMING?✨
🔥DAWN RAFFEL🔥

The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies

“A mosaic mystery told in vignettes, cliffhangers, curious asides, and some surreal plot twists as Raffel investigates the secrets of the man who changed infant care in America.”—NPR

“Fascinating, mysterious, and compelling...written with the energy of a can’t-put-down thriller.”—The Chicago Tribune

GLORY and LESLIE! Praisesong for the Books That Cradled Me!

We welcome the return of this remarkable creative to our CityLit Stage. Come on down to the 31st Street Stage (31st & Barclay) on Saturday to unwind with musical poetry in your ears. will prep you for our final event ✨THE HUNGER I FELT ✨These soft notes will send you home reflecting on your good time. Come alone or bring your friends.,

✨CityLit Studio IX ✨- CityLit in partnership with Lyric Baltimore bring this special edition on Publishing with industry professionals who are about the business of shedding light on what you need to do to get your work seen. ✨Not for the faint of heart. ✨For those who have set an intention to find a publisher to see their written jewel. ✨Sunday, October 13, 2024, from 1:00 - 4:00 at Lyric Baltimore. ✨FREE. Don’t miss an opportunity to learn from three of the finest publishing creatives who also write, curate podcasts, influence, and speak all things literary. ✨YAHDON ISRAEL ✨DAWN RAFFEL✨KRISHAN TROTMAN✨ We can barely contain our excitement. A FREE FALL BALTIMORE EVENT ✨For more information, visit the News Section ✨citylitproject.org✨

This Saturday! 31st Street Stage ✨CityLit features GLORY EDIM in conversation with Leslie Gray Streeter about her forthcoming work ✨GATHER ME.✨
An inspiring memoir of family, community, and resilience, and an ode to the power of books to help us understand ourselves, from the renowned founder of Well-Read Black Girl.

“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.”—Toni Morrison ✨f, Glory has contributed to the literary landscape with her best-selling anthologies Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves, and On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library.✨Glory returns for the Queendom of Literary Women - to highlight a sisterhood of readers and writers with four other organizations that will make you want to create your own village. For more information, visit citylitproject.org

Come alone or bring a friend. This one’s for you, Baltimore!

Where we’ll be this Saturday! 31st & Barclay - all day - CityLit at the 31st Street Stage.

We know the 💞Baltimore Book Festival 💞is on your mind but mark your calendar for a special edition of CityLit Studio IX: Writers on Craft, Creativity, & Community. In partnership with , we invite you to attend our IX iteration of the Studio as we present three accomplished publishing professionals. You don’t believe us? Look them up! ✨Sunday, October 13 from 1:00 - 4:00 pm as part of Free Fall Baltimore, introducing YAHDON ISRAEL (Simon & Schuster & KRISHAN TROTMAN (Legacy Lit), and DAWN RAFFEL (independent developmental editor). Our studios are informative, engaging, intense, and FREE! It doesn’t get better than that. This is for anyone working to figure out the publishing world and submitting your best work. ✨Spread the joy. ✨Gift someone the opportunity to grow. ✨Located in the Rehearsal Room at LYRIC BALTIMORE. Visit citylitproject.org for more information! We couldn’t do it without you!

When sister scribes come together, it’s a beautiful thing. ✨The Queendom of Literary Women✨featuring WINTERGREEN WOMEN WRITERS COLLECTIVE ✨YELLOW ARROW PUBLISHING✨ZORA’S DEN✨SCRIBENTE MATERNUM✨WELL-READ BLACK GIRL✨ in a discussion about their origins, significance, and impact. How to claim a space for the work and connection. Represented by a few phenomenal women: The dynamic leads the conversation. Saturday, September 28, 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm on the 31st Street Stage! Visit ✨citylitproject. org - News Section ✨to learn more. For EVERY woman writer in need of a village.

✨CityLit opens the 31st Stage (31st & Barclay) with ROXANA ROBINSON in conversation with MARION WINIK about her riveting book, Leaving. ✨A chance meeting✨A passion reignited ✨Loving in your 60’s✨Unfinished business✨”As much about Loss as it is Fulfillment.” Saturday, Sept 28: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm. ✨The Baltimore Book Festival is BACK. It’s LIT.🔥 If you’re a writer or reader, you know where you ought to be. ✨COME OUT!

The return of the ✨Baltimore Book Festival✨means hearing remarkable poets, scholars, and writers at a time when we most need them. In partnership with our good friends on the CityLit Stage (31st Street Stage @ 31st & Barclay) we present ✨KAZIM ALI✨in conversation about his new work on Lucille Clifton, Black Buffalo Woman, with The Clifton House Director of Programs and poet, Joël Díaz. We’ll end the night with poetry ringing in our souls as five poets grace our stage with truth. ✨The Hunger I Felt✨speaks to Lucille’s ✨The Truth is Furiously Knocking.✨

Ain’t no stopping us now, BALTIMORE! Come Thru!!! The Baltimore Book Festival has come roaring back. Join us on Saturday, September 28 from 11:00 am - 7:45 pm when we feature literary artists ✨ROXANA ROBINSON✨GLORY EDIM✨KAZIM ALI✨LADY BRION - for her first appearance as Maryland’s 11th Poet Laureate! ✨We will recognize FIVE literary organizations that have built a sisterhood of writers. ✨We will showcase 12 Baltimore Women Writers curated by Yellow Arrow Publishing. We will groove to the music of formerly Like Water. We will end feasting on poetry with ✨The Hunger I Felt✨

Get ready! You already know where you need to be!

It’s 2 weeks away!!!!! What can you expect at this year’s ? The Festival will be spread across the neighborhood of Waverly, running from 30th Street to 32nd Street, between Greenmount & Barclay. There will be about 150 authors presenting, plus more signings popping up at various places, and around 80 vendors - a mix of publishers, bookstores, authors, and community organizations. We have three outdoor stages (one each on 30th, 31st, and 32nd), and indoor stages at all of our local bookstores plus at Peabody Heights! Plus food, beverages, and more! It’s going to be big!! There is a full schedule up at baltimorebookfestival.com and more info on what, where, how, and when coming soon! Real talk y’all: this has not been easy to pull together, and we are stressed, and have some feelings, but you know what? We LOVE our literary community and our neighborhood partners and this event is going to be SO WORTH IT 🎉 So clear your schedules next weekend and let’s BRING BOOK FEST BACK together!!!

✨Get ready, Baltimore!✨We’re not playing, the Baltimore Book Festival is where you want to be. Don’t miss out. Huge props to Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse

Less than one month until the Baltimore Book Festival is back!

Our full schedule so far: https://redemmas.org/BookFestival2024/ (and this is just our stuff, not all the other stages)

Writing opportunity alert from our friends at Hand Papermaking! ✨Check them out!✨ ✨Applications for Hand Papermaking’s Black Writers Fellowship Program 2025 are now open!

✨The Black Writers Fellowship: Researcher is offered annually to a Black writer who proposes a research topic relevant to hand papermaking and indicates an ongoing investment in research and inquiry in the field. The article will be long-form and eligible for publication in Hand Papermaking magazine, Summer 2026 issue.

✨The deadline to apply is October 15, 2024!
For more information about this fellowship, please check the website:
https://www.handpapermaking.org/post/apply-to-our-2025-2026-black-writers-fellowships

Fall's coming and so is CityLit Joy.

Save✨The✨Dates✨
💫Mark.💫Your💫Calendar!

Stay tuned for what's next, including a special gift for Maryland mothers who write.

Photos in the order of appearance:
✨An audience Q & A at the 20th CityLit Festival (2023) at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall - photo credit:

Lit Life with CityLit:
✨A Home for the Heart to Live In - a gathering of Cave Canem poets at the Motor House - photo credit:

✨Joy Harjo at the 20th CityLit Festival at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company - photo credit:

✨Jason Reynolds & Hanif Abdurraqib at the 20th CityLit Festival in partnership with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra - photo credit:

CityLit joins James Baldwin’s centennial celebrations across the globe by spotlighting Blue Note from our very own Shannon J. Effinger for Meshell Ndegeocello’s new work
No More Water - The Gospel of James Baldwin!
A great read. A celebrated author.
The gospel of Jimmy reigns today, people. ✨Enjoy!!✨

MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO "NO MORE WATER: THE GOSPEL OF JAMES BALDWIN" - Blue Note Records By Shannon J. Effinger The prescience of James Baldwin is alive nearly forty years after his passing, a testament to his enduring impact. A prolific writer, his essays, novels, plays, and poetry have assessed and often reproached the human condition. As an activist, his oratory prowess in the 1960s....

✨We’re off to a great start so far! There’s still time to come check out the amazing writers and artists here at the 21st CityLit Festival. Come. Gather. ✨

Didn’t we say there’s a West Coast CityLit Festival you needed to check out for our literary peeps in Seattle?! ANGELA GARBES! One of three perfect sessions offered for mothers who write! ✨✨💞

Seattle Writer-Moms! Have we got an exciting event for you THIS SATURDAY, April 20th. The incredible Angela Garbes brings her expertise in writing about women, labor, and our own personal histories to her workshop "The Work That Makes All Other Work Possible." This session will explore the history of why care work is undervalued, then challenge and expand our understanding of what ‘mothering’ and care labor is and can be. We’ll explore our own care journeys – the memories, emotions, and physical sensations – that brought us to where we are today and reframe care work as rich terrain for writing and storytelling, including the parts largely unspoken but strongly felt.

This event is part of a whole half-day of events with writer-moms. Sliding scale prices start at $27. We cannot wait to see you there!

Register at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/scribentematernum/1106927

We can’t begin to tell you what an incredible evening of poetry and song it was. These photos capture a bit of the magic. Stay tuned for more!

✨We launch our 21st free CityLit Festival with some BOSS poets and writers starting this FRIDAY, April 12 . There’s no other place you need to be. ✨Visit citylitproject.org✨ ✨Don’t drive yourself crazy - FOMO - GET THERE!
✨Friday, April 19 with - Re*****on. ✨Daylong at the in partnership with ✨We’re not telling you what to do … but consider yourself told. Calling writers, lit lovers, we are honoring you this month. ✨ ✨

✨A Master Class with Jami Attenberg✨Friday, April 19, 2024, at ✨ SHUT UP & ‘Speak’: Ways to Shut Down the Noise and Write Your Next Best Thing✨ The 21st CityLit Festival and we get to shine our light on this New York Times bestselling author. ✨Jami has been called a “writer’s writer”. ✨Someone who gets what it takes to be intentional. Her became a worldwide grassroots literary movement. Need to jumpstart your writing life? Want to best serve your own creative process? It’s not often you get to be inspired by a writer doing it at another level, who fully understands what it means to create in a world like this. Don’t miss your chance. In person at one of Baltimore’s favorite bookstores. Greedy Reads - Re*****on. It can’t get much better than that. ✨Friday, April 19th. 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm. ✨Pre-register $10 or meet us at the door $10. It’s not often CityLit will ask you to pay. We want you to invest in YOU or gift a writer who could use a lift. Jami is headed to Baltimore. Visit citylitproject.org or just show up. What are you waiting for? 1000 words a day. ✨Plus, the book is a gem. 💎

✨PRAISING the Mouth That Speaks✨featuring:
Mahogany L. Browne✨Black Assets✨DewMore Youth Poet Laureate A’niya Taylor✨BSO’s Wordsmith✨Nancy Murray✨Ryan Jafar Artes✨Latorial Faison✨Matt Honer✨with poet Alexa Patrick as our Mistress of Ceremonies! We don’t know a better way to start our 21st CityLit Festival in partnership with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Chesapeake Shakespeare Company where this event takes place. It’s National Poetry Month! Are you ready for this. ✨Visit citylitproject.org Events Section with more details in the News Section. ✨ We think you should make it your business to join us next Friday, APRIL 12, 2024 from 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm at the fabulous CSC. A book signing and reception to follow. This event is free and made possible but so many incredible organizations that know we are Baltimore Strong. Mark your calendar and by all means, don’t come alone. An evening of poetry & song with an assembly of illustrious poets. ✨Join us.✨