National Book Award Winner Headlines 11th Annual CityLit Festival

This Saturday, April 12, get ready to celebrate the Baltimore literary arts in a big way! The 11th annual CityLit Festival takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Enoch Pratt Free Library Central Library, 400 Cathedral Street in downtown Baltimore.

This year, the headliner is the 2013 National Book Award winner James McBride. Past participant in the festival have been Edward P. Jones, Junot Diaz, Stanley Plumly, and George Saunders.

The event will include a multitude of programs from readings to lectures, and the literary market place will be in the main hall all day.

I’ll be there with copies of Tracks: A Novel in stories, Flightless Goose, and information about the next Lit & Art at the Watermark.

Learn more at the CityLit Festival Facebook Page!
www.facebook.com/pages/CityLit-Project/216742435019875

Baltimore Book Fest Underway Now

Rain or shine, lit-lovers are in for a festive weekend. What many people in the local literary community refer to as our “literary new year” is here: The Baltimore Book Festival.


The book fest began today and is already underway. It runs through Sunday and offers a little bit of lit for everyone. The event is free and fun!


As a part of the festival, the “Lit & Art at the Watermark” series will bring fiction, poetry, non-fiction, live music and original artwork to the Baltimore Free School Lit and Language Tent on Saturday, September 24 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Featured readers include
Katherine Cottle, Barbara Morrison, Liz Mozer, Holly Myers, Rick O’Connor, Fernando Quijano III, Nitin Jagdish, and Sally Whitney. The Lit and Art house band Red Tractor Factory and Manzar will provide music. There’s even an open mic session, so bring five minutes of your own work to share, and be prepared for a short sample from Tracks.

http://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/schedule/event-detail/158/Lit-&%20Art%20&%20You


Chime in on the event’s Facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=259032807452195


Then, on Sunday at 3 p.m. join me, Susi Wyss (The Civilized World) and Dave Rosenthal (The Baltimore Sun) as we discuss the novel in stories as a format, and read from our own debut novels in stories. As the festival’s website puts it, “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.”
http://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/schedule/event-detail/21/Novels-in%20Stories


Chime in at the event’s Facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109402892495986


These events, and the Baltimore Book Fest as a whole, have gotten lots of ink in The Baltimore Sun, City Paper, and in the media. Here are a couple of recent shout outs.


CBS Baltimore:
http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2011/09/19/connecting-readers-and-authors-16th-annual-baltimore-book-festival/


CityLit Project:
http://www.citylitproject.org/index.cfm?page=news&newsid=98


Note that Tracks, my novel in stories, will be on sale throughout the weekend at Cyclops Books, next to the CityLit Stage. Catch me at one of my events and I’ll be happy to sign your copy. And look—my very own Baltimore Book Fest author’s page!
http://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/participants/author/178/Eric%20D.-Goodman


Learn more about the Baltimore Book Festival and all it has to offer at the festival’s official website at www.baltimorebookfestival.com.

Or, just stop by!

CityLit Fest 8 is Sure to be Great

Mark your calendar for April 16—that’s the date for the 8th annual CityLit Festival. Once again the CityLit Project partners with Enoch Pratt Free Library to present the annual CityLit Festival, Baltimore's day-long celebration of literature. Don't miss what Baltimore magazine has called "a can't miss event on the city's cultural scene."

Tracks will chug its way into the festival. Look for the Tracks table, where you’ll be able to pick up some Tracks swag—a card, postcard, press kit, press release, or maybe even a train pencil or bumper sticker.

Headliners of this year’s CityLit Festival include Danielle Evans, Andrei Codrescu, and Jaimy Gordon. Also there will be Jessica Anya Blau, Ron Tanner, Elissa Weissman, Susi Wyss, and a Maryland Writers Association presentation of the new anthology Life in Me Like Grass on Fire.

This busy festival features several concurrent programs and a bustling Literary Marketplace that showcases Baltimore’s rich literary community.

The event takes place at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in downtown Baltimore, 400 Cathedral Street, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Learn more at http://www.citylitproject.org/.

My Guest Spot in Baltimore Sun’s Read Street

As a panelist at tomorrow’s CityLit Festival, I was asked by the editors of the Baltimore Sun’s Read Street to submit a guest column.

In my spot, I wrote about my own history with the CityLit Project — my own introduction to Baltimore’s thriving literary scene. I also talk a bit about my book, Flightless Goose, which is being featured in the exhibitor’s booth all day long, is available at CityLit’s official bookseller, Barnes & Noble, and is one of the “fist books” featured in one of the panel discussions.

The CityLit Project (and the CityLit Festival in particular) is one of the reasons for Baltimore’s lively literary community. If you love literature, you won’t want to miss tomorrow’s day-long event.

Read my column in the Baltimore Sun’s Read Street.