When I moved to Baltimore in 1999, the Baltimore Book Festival was one of the biggest events of the fall. It spilled out of Mount Vernon Place with large stages, vendor tents, food, drinks, and crowds of readers in their first sweaters of the season. For a newcomer, it was a crash course in the city’s cultural life, all of it set in the shadow of the Washington Monument.
I’ve gone almost every year since, except for a few pandemic years. The basic idea has stayed the same, and it’s a good one. The festival brings writers, literary organizations, bookshops, and libraries together in one outdoor space, where you can wander, shop, and drop in on author talks, readings, and panels as you go.
The festival’s footprint has changed more than once. A move to the Inner Harbor gave it a very different feel, and then COVID shut it down entirely. When it came back, it came back smaller and closer to the ground: an independent festival in Waverly, revived by neighborhood bookshops and partners including Red Emma’s, The Ivy Bookshop, Urban Reads, and Waverly Main Street. It has stayed in Waverly and grows larger each year. This year is the first time the Mayor’s Office of Art, Culture, and Entertainment (MOACE) has taken on the leadership of producing the festival, after a full summer festival season in Baltimore.
The 2026 edition took place September 19 and 20 along Greenmount Avenue, centered on 30th, 31st, and 32nd Streets. It was free and open to all, and it ran alongside Waverly’s regular Saturday farmers market, so produce shopping and poetry happened on the same block. More than 100 literary vendors, independent booksellers, small presses, and community groups lined the streets.
Programming was spread across nine stages, most of them hosted by neighborhood partners: Red Emma’s, Urban Reads, Normals Books, Peabody Heights Brewery, the CityLit/Ivy Stage, and Charm City Cultural Cultivation (CharmCCC). There was also a dedicated children and teen stage and a flagship 32nd Street Stage.
Saturday: Big Names and Hometown Voices
Saturday opened with a hometown lineup on the 32nd Street Stage. “Stories Begin Here” brought together artist Derrick Adams, author D. Watkins, and writer Lawrence Burney for a conversation about contemporary Black life and culture in Baltimore. Adams founded CharmCCC, the Waverly nonprofit that hosted its own stage at the festival. That made the session a fitting start for an event so rooted in the neighborhood.
Later that afternoon, poet and scholar Alexis Pauline Gumbs presented Primary, her book written “after and with” painter Alma Thomas, in conversation with Joël Diaz. It was a highlight for visual art lovers.
The evening brought the biggest crowds. Ibram X. Kendi discussed his new book, Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age, with D. Watkins. Veteran White House correspondent April Ryan, a Baltimore native and Morgan State alum, presented Notes on a Blacklash. Baltimore’s Youth Poet Laureate, Marcellus Vinson, took the stage with support from DewMore Baltimore. Actress and advocate Laverne Cox closed the main programming with her memoir Transcendent, in conversation with Dr. Melanie Bryant. Afterward, readers headed to Peabody Heights for the After Dark Party with DJ Oji.
Sunday: Conversation, Community, and Zines
On Sunday, the CharmCCC stage hosted a series of stoop readings. Readers included City Councilmember Odette Ramos, Maryland First Lady Dawn Moore, and librarian and social media favorite Mychal Threets.
Artist and writer Molly Crabapple presented Here Where We Live Is Our Country, her history of the Jewish Bund. Austin Channing Brown discussed Full of Myself with Tarana Burke. At Red Emma’s, Monique Couvson marked ten years of her landmark book Pushout and introduced her new Black Stats in conversation with Baltimore Beat co-founder Lisa Snowden.
In the afternoon, Lawrence Burney returned for a One Maryland One Book spotlight on his debut essay collection, No Sense in Wishing, in conversation with New Yorker critic Doreen St. Félix. Over at Normals, contributors to Baltimore’s own Bruiser Mag showed that DIY print culture is very much alive.
Beyond the headliners, the schedule offered something for almost every reader. There were panels on cozy fantasy, dark fantasy, and supernatural romance. There were conversations on Black speculative fiction, Black publishing, and labor organizing. Poetry ran through both days, including Black Writer’s Pride programming with a poetry slam and a queer roundtable. Families had storytimes, zine-making workshops, double dutch with JUMP Maryland, hula-hooping with Baltimore Hoop Love, and the Storybook Trolley with roving librarian Ms. Maze.
A Festival That Fits Its Neighborhood
The Mount Vernon version of the festival was impressive, but this one feels more personal. Most of the stages belong to bookshops, breweries, and nonprofits that operate in Waverly all year. Many of the featured writers live and work in Baltimore, too. The festival has found a scale where national figures and neighborhood voices share the same streets, and that seems right for a city that once called itself “The City That Reads.”
The full archive of authors, speakers, and panelists is available at baltimorebookfest.com.
We hope you enjoy this photo essay by KT Kanazawich.
