Get Ready for the Festivities

What many people in the local literary community refer to as our “literary new year” will be here before you know it: The Baltimore Book Festival takes place on the weekend of September 25, 26 and 27 and offers a little bit of lit for everyone. The event is free and fun!

Tens of thousands of people visit the Baltimore Book Festival each year—it’s the largest celebration of the literary arts in the mid-Atlantic region. All of the regulars will be there: Maryland Writers’ Association, CityLit Project, Creative Café, Literary Salon, Children’s Bookstore Stage, and more!

This year's authors include Buzz Aldrin, Gwen Ifill, Ralph Nader, Chris Gardner, Amiri Baraka, Ingrid Hoffmann, Farai Chideya, Maureen McCormick, Dale DeGroff, Lourdes Castro, Adam Ried, Mordicai Gerstein and James Warhola.

The regular “Lit & Art at the Watermark” reading series will bring fiction, poetry, non-fiction, live music, original artwork, and refreshments to the Creative Café on Sunday. And you’ll find copies of Flightless Goose for sale at the tent of the Maryland Writer’s Association.

Learn more about the Baltimore Book Festival and all it has to offer at their official website.
http://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/

Learn more about the Lit & Art event at their website too.
http://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/index.cfm?page=schedules&id=477

International Celebration at Fitzgerald Conference

An international theme dominates this year’s F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference. The 14th annual conference is scheduled for October 17, 2009 in Rockville Maryland.

Popular novelist Julia Alvarez is the 2009 honoree for the prestigious F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Award. She will accept the award and give a reading from her work at the conference.

The keynote address, Teaching The Great Gatsby in Tehran, will be presented by Azar Nafisi. Literary Border Crossings is the subject of a panel discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize winner Henry Allen and featuring H.G. Carillo, Olga Grushin, and another panelist to be announced.

Workshops on subjects such as creative nonfiction, short story style, screenplay adaptation, voice, and novel writing are offered in the morning and afternoon.

Registration includes an international lunch representing three national food types and coffee throughout the day provided by Vermont Coffee Company — Julia Alvarez’s favorite coffee.

In being selected as an F. Scott Fitzgerald Honoree, Julia Alvarez Leonard joins an impressive group of talented authors. Previous award winners to accept the Fitzgerald award at the annual conference in Rockville include John Updike, Norman Mailer, E.L. Doctorow, Joyce Carol Oates, Ernest J. Gaines, Edward Albee , William Styron, John Barth, Grace Paley, Pat Conroy, William J. Kennedy, and Jane Smiley. Last year’s honoree was Elmore “Dutch” Leonard.

Support comes from the City of Rockville, Montgomery College, Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Gazette Newspapers, the Rockville Cultural Arts Commission, Peerless Rockville Historic Preservation, Ltd., Vermont Coffee Company, Roundhouse Theater, The Legacy Hotel & Meeting Center of Rockville, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society.

Learn more about Julia Alvarez and her work at her website.
www.juliaalvarez.com

Make plans to participate in the international literary celebration at the next F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference on October 17, 2009. Stay tuned to the conference website for details as they become available.

www.peerlessrockville.org/FSF