CityLit Project nurtures the culture of literature in Baltimore and throughout Maryland. A revised mission statement adopted as part of a new strategic plan focuses our mission to

• elevate enthusiasm for literary arts in the Baltimore metropolitan region, for the benefit of Maryland readers and writers.


• build and connect a community of avid readers and writers, through public events and publicity, workshops, web site, publishing, and collaboration.


• open opportunities for young people and diverse audiences to embrace the literary arts.

CityLit’s origins unfold like a good story, literally starting with a dark and stormy night.  Well, actually a dark and stormy weekend.  When Hurricane Isabel washed out the Baltimore Book Festival in 2003, the literary arts community rallied around the motivation that two whole calendar years should not pass without a celebration of literature in Baltimore.  So, the community organized a pared down one-day event at Enoch Pratt Free Library for a Saturday in December.  Since CityLit Project was just incorporated as a nonprofit, an original board member suggested calling the event CityLit Festival.  It was to present authors, poets, workshops, open mic, and panels on the writing life and about issues of importance to the community.  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the season’s only snowstorm fell on that day and cancelled the festival. 



Rain, wind, snow ... and now some lightning.  We finally staged CityLit Festival in April 2004, and ten days before the festival headliner Edward P. Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, attracting a large audience and capturing local and industry headlines.  Lightning struck again when, the following year, guest and Washington Post editor Steve Coll won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction just ten days before the festival.  Dubbed a “Best of Baltimore” by Baltimore Magazine, the joke circulated that if a writer wanted to win a Pulitzer, she should get on the CityLit Festival schedule.



Quality, diverse programs quickly became a hallmark of  CityLit Festival.  With the bar set high, we wondered how to top it for the festival’s third edition.  Although he did not win a Pulitzer, humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina—whose story was the basis for “Hotel Rwanda”—debuted his memoir.  More than 1000 people showed up for Rusesabagina’s presentation on a day that attracted nearly 2500 people to Pratt Library.

Not too shabby, and CityLit Festival VI presented both 2008’s Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction and 2008’s National Book Award winner for poetry.  The festival has featured poet laureates, Pushcart Prize winners, established authors, emerging voices, and a bustling Literary Marketplace where writers, editors, literary journals, and small presses can share their literary art with the community.

Now CityLit’s signature event, the free CityLit Festival serves as one of four anchor programs.  CityLit Stage at Baltimore Book Festival presents the same level of quality, diverse programming over the course of the Baltimore Book Festival’s weekend, also for free.  CityLit Teens inspires youth to enjoy reading and writing as forms of creative self-expression (participants write, create artwork, and title what becomes a published book of their own work at the end of the program).  Lit’s Not Dead brings younger authors and musicians together for a rock-n-read concert that targets 18-34 year olds, identified by National Endowment for the Arts’ reports as the demographic experiencing the steepest rate of decline in reading.

On-going throughout the year are the Write Here, Write Now workshops for adults.  Founded by Christine Stewart, workshops are held at Creative Alliance in the city and are expanding to offer more courses taught by a variety of instructors at new venues around the region. With partners Towson University and Johns Hopkins University, CityLit co-presents the annual Baltimore Writers’ Conference, a day-long series of sessions for poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and those wanting to learn more about the business of writing.  It also co-sponsors the Maryland Writer’ Association’s new Baltimore Chapter and the wonderful monthly 510 Reading Series.



To mark its fifth anniversary in 2009, CityLit Project unveiled a new logo, launched a new web site, and published its first new book under the CityLit Press imprint.  The mission of CityLit Press is to publish books that, because of literary quality or regional focus, would not likely find a home with larger publishers. The press advances the organization’s mission to connect a community of readers and writers.

CityLit’s success rests squarely on presenting lively programs, building dynamic partnerships, corralling an enthusiastic corps of volunteers (including many young people from area high schools and colleges), and cultivating an expert, working board of directors.  Board chairs have included the President and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding in D.C. who was a senior consultant at BoardSource, the current chair of the Maryland State Arts Council, and an internationally acclaimed writer of political thrillers.  Other board members possess expertise in law, politics, governance, finance, marketing, and the literary arts. CityLit collaborates with some of Baltimore’s leading cultural institutions, including Enoch Pratt Free Library, Walters Art Museum, Creative Alliance, and Baltimore Museum of Art.

Special thanks to Enoch Pratt Free Library, executive director Dr. Carla Hayden, communications director Roswell Encina, and two incredible, intelligent lovers of literature Judy Cooper and Reggie Harris.  Thanks, too, to Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts, executive director Bill Gilmore, and Baltimore Book Festival managers Kathy Hornig and Heather St. Clair.  Our appreciation extends to the entire staffs of these two excellent organizations, which help make CityLit Project’s two primary public programs not only of outstanding quality, but free for everyone to enjoy.



Click here to download a copy of CityLit Project’s brochure.

Click here to read CityLit Project’s strategic plan.

Click here to link to CityLit Project’s GuideStar entry.