We went to the CityLit Festival mostly because of our curiousity about City Sages: Baltimore. The book is an ambitious undertaking by editor Jen Michalski (and Gregg Wilhelm, publisher of CityLit Press) to create an anthology of stories penned by some of Baltimore’s most gifted writers. The collection includes classic Baltimore writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald as well as contemporary writers Michael Downs, Ron Tanner, Maud Casey, Jane Shepard, Rafael Alvarez and Rosalia Scalia.

We’ve been watching Jen for many, many moons… it all started with an innocent assignment from The City Paper.  Her efforts to expose the rich literary talent in Baltimore have since been on our radar. If you’ve been hiding your prose in the bottom of a Vans shoebox that’s filled with old, crinkled receipts and memorabilia from your last European backpacking trip somewhere in the depths of your closet, it’s time to break out and contribute to a reading.

Check out the 510 Readings, a fiction reading series, at Minas Gallery in Hampden at 5pm every 3rd Saturday of the month– “for the rest of your life.”

Rafael Alvarez with moderators Nancy Knight and Dave Rosenthal from the Baltimore Sun. Rafael Alvarez is an author, journalist, and television writer and producer. You may have come across some of his work in a lil’ ol’ t.v. show you may of heard called ‘The Wire’ or ‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ and you can learn more about his work as a journalist in two anthologies of his stories written while working for The Baltimore Sun entitled ‘Hometown Boy’ and ‘Storyteller.’

Rafael is involved in a project dubbed “The Daily Camden.” If you can point and shoot, you’re in.

How fortuitous is it to ask for directions only to be pointed towards the Executive Director and Founder of CityLit as well as the publisher of the CityLit Press Gregg Wilhelm and Founding Board Chair Charles Dambach? Photo op anyone? Here’s Gregg holding up CityLit Press’ first offering, City Sages: Baltimore.

Devlon Waddell and the ‘Indie Book Man’ himself, Brad Grochowski, were at the CityLit Festival representing Authors Bookshop, an online outlet for independent writers to release their work. Devlon recently published Syrup Sandwich while Brad was selling his children’s book ‘The Secret Weakness of Dragons.’

Author Bookshop carries dozens of titles by independent authors. If you love to read, bookmark the website and tell your friends. The folks at Authors Bookshop understand the changing dynamics in the publishing world. They’re making their mark and we’re cheering them on.  You can also check out Brad’s blog and online radio show indiebookman.com.

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