What do writers in Baltimore need most?
This is a question I’ve been talking about (ad nauseum, my friends know!) for more than a year now, ever since I learned that the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Annual Conference & Bookfair (AWP) is coming to Baltimore this year.
Running March 4-7, AWP is huge. Upwards of 10,000 writers, editors, agents, publishers and more descend on a different city every year, spilling beyond the official conference site and flooding local bookstores and bars. In addition to the already packed four-day schedule of official AWP events, hundreds of grassroots “off-site events” expand the conference’s reach, often lasting very late into the night (and often turning into dance parties). Usually free, always eclectic, off-site events create a four-day fringe festival that’s really special. Plus, it’s accessible even for people who don’t attend the conference itself—which means that YOU, dear reader, should go!
Kate Reed PettyIn a time when arts funding has been stolen by our mafia of a federal government and AI writing bots are creating headaches and panic attacks, AWP is a reminder that so many of us still dedicate our lives to the deeply human practices of storytelling and beauty in language.
In a time when arts funding has been stolen by our mafia of a federal government and AI writing bots are creating headaches and panic attacks, AWP is a reminder that so many of us still dedicate our lives to the deeply human practices of storytelling and beauty in language. And for Baltimore, AWP is an opportunity to feed and nourish our local community with money, attention, and creative energy.
But what do writers in Baltimore need? And how might AWP be an opportunity to realize it?
To find the answer (or answers), I’ve spent the past year volunteering with a large, diffuse, grassroots group of writers, poets, and lit orgs in Baltimore who are all excited about the same question. We chatted individually over coffee and gathered for a community happy hour. We created a survey with CityLit Project that got more than 200 responses. In September, graciously hosted by The Ivy Bookshop and Bird in Hand, we convened as a group of 12 lit org leaders to brainstorm and plan.
Two project ideas grew out of these many conversations. The first was to create a new literary map of Baltimore. (Because, sure, plenty of tourist resources will direct you to Edgar Allen Poe’s grave, but shouldn’t we also share our community’s many living, thriving literary sites?) The second idea was to create a “roll call,” i.e., a centralized online resource for literary artists and entities to showcase our abundant offerings and co-promote each other’s events.
Visit the BmoreArt table at the AWP Bookfair
BmoreArt is thrilled to play a role this year at the AWP Bookfair, with our newest issue featuring AWP Keynote Speaker: John Waters. Come by table 1166T – and say hello, discover our books, magazines, and beautifully designed swag.
Follow BmoreArtI’m over the moon that both of these ideas have now come to life. It’s thanks to the resourcefulness, flexibility, dedication, and talent of the Baltimore literary community.
It was Ailish Hopper (part of the Baltimore Poetry Coalition) who suggested that young people should be the ones to create the map. Whitney Birenbaum (Executive Director) and Albert Phillips, Jr. (Program Director) of CHARM: Voices of Baltimore Youth, took the idea and ran with it; CHARM’s youth editorial team collaborated with young writers, poets, and artists from DewMore, Wide Angle Youth Media, and Writers in Baltimore Schools to create a gorgeous new, youth-let literary map of our city, illustrated by Yifan Luo and unveiled at a party at Unity Hall last month:
The map includes a QR code linking to a live, online listing of all of the AWP off-site events that feature Baltimore writers and orgs—a version of the roll call idea. My count shows more than 180 off-site events listed on the AWP website; by highlighting our hometown community events, we’re working to drive attendance, and to showcase the abundance of Baltimore’s writers, poets, and lit orgs.
There’s no way to credit everyone who contributed to this work, but I want to share a small sample (with my deep apologies to those I have mistakenly omitted), just to illustrate how many people helped make this all happen. Carla Du Pree (Executive Director of CityLit Project) has been a driving force for the project, just as she has driven and uplifted so much of Baltimore’s literary community. Andy Cook, who founded Made in Baltimore, was an original champion and dedicated so much time to shaping the strategy, along with Alix Fenhagen and Shaq Stewart at the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. Poets Tracy Dimond and Steven Leyva have been generous with advice and insights, and it was Joël Diaz (Executive Director of The Clifton House) who created the workplan and timeline needed for collaborative, city-wide cross-promotion.
The list goes on. The William G. Baker Fund and The Robert W. Deutsch Foundation provided funding for the map—and did so on a very quick timeline, in a shining example of the kind of responsive, flexible funding models that all arts funders should follow. With those funds, CHARM printed 2,000 copies of the map, which are now hanging in bookstores and on community bulletin boards, and which the Enoch Pratt Library distributed through all 20 of its branches city-wide.
WYPR’s Midday with Tom Hall featured the project on Friday, in an episode guest-hosted by Dr. Carla Hayden. The map is also running in the Baltimore Beat this week in a dedicated literary issue, and copies of the Beat will be handed out at the AWP registration table—so thousands of visitors will see Baltimore through the lens of our next generation of writers and poets.
Baltimore is a wonderful place to be a writer. SMU DataArts ranks Maryland in the top five states for arts vibrancy nationwide; we are number one in state arts funding, thanks in part to Baltimore-born programs like the Baker Artist Portfolios and Awards. Our colleges and universities attract exceptionally talented writers like Danielle Evans (who’s piece for LitHub, “Five Reasons a Writer Should Move to Baltimore,” makes this point much better than I’m doing here).
The low cost of living in our city convinces graduates of our many local writing programs to stay and make their art here. The University of Baltimore’s Creative MFA, especially, has been the inspiration behind so many local small presses and communities, including Mason Jar Press, Publishing Genius, and Bruiser Mag. Don’t even get me started on our beautiful, well-stocked, thoughtfully curated, exciting bookstores (all included on the youth literary map).
For all of these reasons and more, our writing and poetry community punches above our weight. In 2025 alone, we saw DewMore alum and former Baltimore Youth Poet Laureate Hannah V. Sawyerr’s novel-in-verse, Truth Is, named a finalist for the National Book Award; Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson’s biography Claire McCardell named to The New York Times 100 Notable Books list; and Lawrence Burney’s memoir, No Sense in Wishing, named a best book of the year by The New Yorker.
When I started getting involved in preparing for AWP a year ago, I knew all of this. What I’ve learned, as part of the local writing and poetry community organizing for the event, is that we’re even more creative, abundant, and generous than I could have imagined.
So now, when I think about what writers in Baltimore need and how we can realize it through AWP—audiences, resources, and attention are the easy answers. But as these preparations have galvanized our community to connect and take stock of the distinctive assets we already have, I’ve found what we fundamentally need is each other. In seizing this moment, we’re affirming our shared belief that Baltimore’s writing and poetry community deserves to be celebrated on the national stage. As the saying goes, the real AWP is the friends we made along the way.
Kate Reed PettyAs these preparations have galvanized our community to connect and take stock of the distinctive assets we already have, I’ve found what we fundamentally need is each other.
Whether you’re a writer or a poet (don’t be shy about calling yourself one!), a reader, or just looking for a good dance party, here are some of the ways you can take advantage of the amazing opportunity AWP presents to discover, enjoy, and be part of Baltimore’s writing and poetry scene.
You can register to attend AWP events on-site at the Baltimore Convention Center, especially if you want to learn about the craft of writing, the business of publishing, and the lives and habits of writers and poets. You’ll hear directly from big-name writers, including Baltimore’s own Laura Lippman and Sujata Massey in conversation with Angie Kim (Friday 3:20pm-4:35pm), or John Waters’s keynote address (Thursday, 8:00pm-10:00pm). I’m also very excited for Crabs in a Pot, Collaborating: How Maryland Arts Organizations are Sustaining Together in a Time of Funding Crisis (Friday, March 6, 10:35am-11:50am).
If you can’t make it during the workweek, or if the full registration price is too steep, come on Saturday, when you can get in on a one-day pass for $25. You can spend a long and satisfying day just walking the bookfair floor, where 650+ booths showcase literary journals, MFA programs, bookstores, independent publishers, writing retreats, and every other aspect of the publishing industry. You’ll discover books and publishers you can’t find anywhere else; bring a tote bag for all the books you’re going to buy.
No matter what, come out for the off-site events which, it bears repeating, do not require an AWP registration and are mostly free. These events are eclectic, creative, exciting, and unexpected, and they show the kind of delightful energy that Baltimore is known for. Here are a few of my off-site recommendations:
Wednesday, March 4: Start the night at Barcocina for Yellow Arrow’s 10 Year Anniversary Reading at 6pm. Then head up to The Club Car for Balancing Act: A Literary Circus, organized by Baltimore-based fifth wheel press and Mason Jar Press, along with DC-based JackLeg Press. This evening of burlesque, drag, and literary performance is hosted by drag artist The Workshop Prince and features more than a dozen local readers.
Thursday, March 5: I’m excited for 1,000 Cigarettes + 3 Readings, a pop-up gallery opening featuring paintings by Nate Brown, with readings at 5pm from Lydi Conklin, Jane Lewty, and Sylvia Jones, hosted by Kira Wisnewski. Afterwards, choose between special AWP editions of two of Baltimore’s beloved ongoing reading series: FRUITCAKE, a quarterly queer reading series, will be at The Belvedere starting at 6pm, and Mess and Friction, the monthly series sponsored by CCBC, will be at its normal spot in the upstairs bar at Fadensonnen. (Whichever you choose, go to the other one next month!)
Friday, March 6: Celebrate CHARM’s youth literary map, help support their work, and hear Albert Phillips, Jr. read at Split Lip & Friends Reading and Benefit, hosted at Unity Hall. Over at 4MLK, CityLit Project is spearheading Hard Times Require Furious Dancing, an enormous dance party with DJ Chris Brooks, light bites, a photo booth, and a cash bar, co-hosted by national and local literary organizations.
Saturday, March 7: Close the weekend with Read the Room: A Celebration of Literary Baltimore at 2640 Space. The editors at The Hopkins Review are hosting a reading starting at 5:30pm, with food from Blue Pit BBQ and a silent auction benefiting local lit orgs. At 7:30, the dance party starts, co-hosted by literally dozens of bookstores, lit mags, MFA programs, reading series, and others in the Baltimore writing & poetry community.
You can find more off-site events on the Baltimore Hosts AWP 2026 page, hosted by CityLit Project.
Learn more about AWP and register for the 2026 Conference and Bookfair here.
