Board & Leadership Council

Executive Director: Carla Du Pree

Carla Du Pree has been the executive director of CityLit Project since the fall of 2016, replacing founder extraordinaire Gregg Wilhelm. She is an author, a national and state arts ambassador and a literary arts consultant. Carla was recently selected as the Maryland State Department of Education’s Arts Leader Spotlight in celebration of the Year of the Woman.

Carla holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English/Writing from the University of Pittsburgh, a Master’s Degree in Creative writing from Johns Hopkins University, and was an adjunct professor for many years at Johns Hopkins University’s Part-Time Graduate Writing Seminars. She is the recipient of several fellowships for her work in fiction, including Hedgebrook (where she received a stipend from the Whiting Foundation), Rhode Island Colony Writers of Color, Poetry Foundation through Furious Flower Poetry Center (twice), and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been awarded a Rubys Grant in Literary Arts, and a Maryland Individual Artist Award in Fiction.

Carla serves on several boards, all affiliated with the arts, primarily to stay abreast of the vibrant arts scene and to press the idea of inclusivity, equity and access at the leadership level. Her lifetime passion is driving writers to push boundaries of living and learning to write those stories meant to see the light of day and those poems that beg to land in someone’s ears.

Brian Davis Lyles, Immediate Past Chair

Brian is a corporate communications, marketing and development professional, with abilities in writing, publications management and media. A Baltimore native, his background includes work with Baltimore Magazine, the Baltimore Museum of Industry, and Baltimore Center Stage, in addition to freelance and career assignments in Washington, DC and Phoenix, Arizona. He also serves on the board of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts.

Greg Wilhelm, Interim Chair

Gregg Wilhelm is the Director of Mason Creative Writing, a community that includes BFA and MFA in Creative Writing programs at George Mason University. At Mason, he co-founded Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice and co-developed the Graduate Certificate in Publishing Practice and Minor in Dynamic Publishing. He started his literary arts career at Johns Hopkins University Press, launched three imprints, including one with a major independent bookseller, founded the nonprofit literary arts organization CityLit Project, and launched its CityLit Press imprint. His expertise covers book publishing, arts administration, and higher education.

Tracy Dimond, Vice Chair

Tracy Dimond is a 2016 Baker Artist Award finalist. She is the author of four chapbooks, most recently: TO TRACY LIKE / TO LIKE / LIKE from akinoga press. She holds her MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore. Find her online poetsthatsweat.com.

Francis G. “Bunky” Markert, Treasurer

Bunky is a former finance officer for Tuerk House, Maryland Historical Society, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, WCPN-FM Cleveland Public Radio, and the Maryland Department of the Environment, now retired. He joined CityLit Project in 2004, and continues to be energized by the creativeness of the organization and the events it produces while on a shoestring budget.

Mary Banks

Mary B. Banks is the publisher of La Muse Press LLC. She is committed to empowering women to share their transformative stories through journaling, book writing, and publishing.

Jasmine Bowens

As an art lover, specifically literature, Jasmine Bowens plans on doing her part to weave the literary arts into the very fabric of Baltimore City’s culture by way of the CityLit Project. She started her career as a journalist writing for various lifestyle and music publications in Philadelphia, PA. She eventually turned to building her career within the Federal Government. After relocating to Baltimore her passion for reading, writing, and the likes persisted and a strong pull towards community engagement prompted Jasmine to seek out CityLit and see how she could be of any assistance to their intrinsic mission. She plans to bring her business expertise, outgoing personality, and desire to uphold the importance of the literary arts in our community as a CityLit Board member.

Chelsea Lemon Fetzer

Chelsea Lemon Fetzer holds an MFA in Fiction from Syracuse University. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, Tin House, Mississippi Review, Minnesota Review, and Little Patuxent Review. Her essay “Speck” appears in The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about being Mixed Race in the 21^st Century. Fetzer has led writing workshops through PEN American Center’s “Readers & Writers" Program, the Black Writers Conference at Medgar Evers College, the New York Writers Coalition, The Create Collective, and independently. Fetzer currently teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Baltimore. She is a 2019 Rubys recipient for the Literary Arts.

Tonee Mae Moll

Dr. Tonee Mae Moll is a queer & trans poet & essayist. They are the author of Out of Step: A Memoir, which won the Lambda Literary Award in bisexual nonfiction and the Non/Fiction Collection Prize. Her latest book, You Cannot Save Here, won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize and is available now from Washington Writers’ Publishing House. Their poetry has also received the Adele V. Holden award for creative excellence and the Bill Knott Poetry Prize, along with nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of Net. Tonee holds an MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from University of Baltimore and a Ph.D. in English from Morgan State University.

Allyson Tearnan

Allyson holds a master’s and PhD in English from the University of Maryland (College Park) where she taught composition and literature while also working in the University’s outreach center to help plan academic conferences and professional development arts institutes for Maryland school teachers.  She left academia to run an online writing support service for 18 years to help learners from high school through graduate school improve their writing, revision, and critical-thinking skills. While Allyson has lived in Baltimore since 2007, raising two boys and running a business has largely distracted her from Baltimore’s literary arts scene – something she’s thrilled to rectify by joining CityLit Project.

Laura Weeldreyer

Laura Weeldreyer is the Executive Director for the Maryland Family Network, a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to family support and early childhood issues. She was most recently the Chief Program Officer for the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. Previously Laura worked nationally on a variety of education reform projects with school systems, state departments of education, and non-profit organizations, as a senior consultant for a public sector management consulting firm. Laura worked in the central office of the Baltimore City Public School System for eleven years. During her time with City Schools, she held several positions, including Deputy Chief of Staff and oversaw major systemic reform initiatives.

Marceline White

A two-time Pushcart Prize and recent Best of the Net nominee, Marceline’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in trampset, Culinary Origami, The Heartland Review, Prime Number, The Orchard Review, The Indianapolis Review, Atticus Review, Little Patuxent Review, Gingerbread House, The Free State Review, and The Loch Raven Review and others. She was a recipient of an Aspen Words Fellowship in 2023. When not writing, Marceline can be found serving her two cats, posting too many pictures of her garden, and telling her son to text her when he arrives at the party. In her spare time, she’s an award-winning consumer advocate and has written and advocated on gender and trade.

Cherrie Woods

Cherrie Woods is a 20-year plus public relations (PR) veteran who has worked at museums and in government. She is known for her work as a book publicist, PR consultant and workshop facilitator. Woods has been featured in several publications for her PR work. She has served as both president and vice president of the Maryland Writers Association – Baltimore chapter and is the author of Where Do I Start?10 PR Questions and Answers to Guide Self-Published Authors and an award-winning poet.