Making a Life as an Artist: Writers as Entrepreneurs
90-minute craft intensive
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Lord Baltimore Hotel
Hanover Suite B – Mezzanine
PARKING
Download a map here.
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Designed to encourage … force writers to engage in meaningful ways in what living a life as an artist looks like, four industry professionals share their know-how and describe ways to access the business side of an artist’s life. It’s not enough to simply write the book. They provide data with real life measures to manifest the artist life you envision or hadn’t considered. They will map out ways to prepare and execute a book tour with intention and impact. This 90-minute craft session will leave you with enough material to put your game plan together. Only the serious need apply. Described by artists as a “goal fairy,” Diane Scott uses the power of artists’ stories and community to take the magic out of the “non-art” part of an enduring artist’s practice. Founder of the Artist INC program, Scott’s book Artist Entrepreneurship for Life: Making Art Work for You has one simple goal in mind. “I want artists to continue to make art throughout their lives; in other words, to have enduring art practices … The business end of an art practice is about how to make your work known, how to allow yourself sufficient time to produce it, and how to gather the financial resources to purchase the needed components and tools.” Andrew Simonet is a choreographer and novelist and organizes with artists in Baltimore and beyond through Artists U. His most recent novel, A Night Twice As Long, was published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Dimitri Reyes is a Puerto Rican multidisciplinary artist, content creator, and educator from Newark. He is the author of 3 books and has been featured both on PBS and NPR. “In Papi Pichón, Dimitri Reyes reminds us of the wisdom of beloved Walter Mercado: ‘We are stars until we become constellations” as we are guided to listen to the wind and be attentive to what it carries,” writes Dr. Raina J. León. Moderator Cherrie Woods is a seasoned communications expert. She is also an author, PR strategist, and sought-after workshop presenter who has helped over 100 authors amplify their brands. “Her book (Where Do I Start? 10 PR Questions and Answers to Guide Self-Published Authors) provides information that will help your book to become visible and accessible to its target audience,” writes Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram.
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Diane R. Scott (she/her) is an arts administrator, educator, and writer specializing in the development of resources and programming to support artists in the management of enduring artistic practices. The Director of Artist Services at the Regional Arts Organization Mid-America Arts Alliance, Scott is the founding director and principal designer of the Artist INC professional development program. Diane is also a noted professor, winning numerous teaching awards. Combining her experiences in both non-profit artist services and higher education, Diane operates as a liaison between collegiate arts entrepreneurship education and artist professional development in the field. She specializes in creative entrepreneurship and has worked with thousands of artists of all disciplines in traditional classrooms and professional development settings to improve their strategic planning, marketing, project planning, financial, fundraising, leadership, and communication skills. Scott’s book Artist Entrepreneurship for Life: Making Art Work for You was released by Routledge in 2025.
www.dianerscott.com
Instagram: @dianereneescott
Andrew Simonet is a writer and choreographer in Philadelphia. From 1993 to 2013, he co-directed Headlong Dance Theater, creating dances like CELL (a journey for one audience member guided by your cell phone) and This Town is a Mystery (dances by four Philadelphia families in their homes). Andrew left Headlong to focus on writing fiction. His debut novel, Wilder, was published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2018; his second novel, A Night Twice as Long, was published by FSG in 2021. In 2006, Andrew founded Artists U, an incubator for helping artists make sustainable lives. Through free, open-source workshops, he has worked with over 8,000 artists. Making Your Life as an Artist, his free and open-source guide, has been downloaded by 200,000 artists worldwide. He has received a Pew Fellowship, an Independence Fellowship, a Bessie for Choreography, and residencies at Yaddo, Ucross, The Kyoto Art Center, The Studios of Key West, The Santa Fe Art Institute, and Hambidge.
andrewsimonet.com
Dimitri Reyes is a Puerto Rican multidisciplinary artist, content creator, and educator from Newark, New Jersey. He has been named one of The Best New Latinx Authors of 2023 by LatinoStories.com for his most recent book, Papi Pichón (Get Fresh Books, 2023), which was a finalist for the Omnidawn chapbook contest and the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. “These poems have heart, play, humor, rage, longing, and grief. The drum is beating, a bomba rising, a dancer’s skirts punctuate sharp change in quick flicks that clack in their call and response. In this master work, which seems to be in conversation with writers like Willie Perdomo, Martín Espada, and Sandra Garcia Rivera, these lines ring out: “Atabey, I wish for more worlds where we’ll know … La isla is beautiful in every iteration / and we’ll still be here with or without the rising of the oceans levels,” says Dr. Raina J. León, a founder of The Acentos Review. His other books include Every First and Fifteenth, the winner of the Digging Press 2020 Chapbook Award, and the poetry journal Shadow Work for Poets, now available on Amazon. Dimitri’s work has been featured on NPR and PBS, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Anthology. He was an inaugural poetry fellow for the Poets & Writers Get The Word Out publishing incubator as well as a 2024 fellow with the NJ Arts Professional Learning Institute. You can find more of his writing in Poem-a-Day, Verse Daily, Até Mais: Latinx Futurisms, and elsewhere. Dimitri is the Marketing & Communications Director at CavanKerry Press.
dimitrireyespoet.com
Instagram: @dimitri__reyes
Cherrie Woods is a seasoned public relations (PR) professional with over 20 years of experience. As a PR consultant, book publicist, and workshop facilitator, she empowers authors, creative entrepreneurs, and small nonprofits to achieve their goals. Woods has held leadership roles in museums, government agencies, a public market system, and a PR agency. She has supported over 100 authors, presented PR and marketing workshops at more than 40 events, and authored Where Do I Start? 10 PR Questions and Answers to Guide Self-Published Authors. “Cherrie Woods has compiled an invaluable resource for new authors looking to promote their work. She provides a comprehensive, yet succinct, look at all that’s needed to create an effective PR plan,” says Melanie S. Hatter, The Color of My Soul, winner of the Washington Writers’ Publishing House Fiction Prize. Cherrie is also an award-winning poet, and has been featured in The Baltimore Sun, WJZ-TV, WEAA 88.9, SiriusXM, and Maryland Public Television.
eclecticpr.com
Instagram: @cherriewoods
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CityLit Project in partnership with Lord Baltimore Hotel and Red Emma’s present CityLit Festival: Our Stories Give Light To Our Future. This celebration of the arts showcases a bevy of leading poets and writers on April 5, 2025. We’re talking fiction, nonfiction, poetry galore, and ways to up the ante on your craft.
Download the CityLit Festival: Our Stories Give Light To Our Future flyer.