One-on-One 30-Minute Editorial Critique Sessions

10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Lord Baltimore Hotel
Speakeasy, 1st Floor

*New this year: First Come, First Served

PARKING
Download a map here.

______________

Returning this year we have our One-on-One, 30-minute editorial critique sessions with esteemed editors who are donating their time in service for those who want to up the ante on their work, for those who need that extra eye on their manuscript, for those who could use a fresh take on a piece they have been mulling over for months. For $10, these editors provide their expertise on your five pages. No need to submit in advance, as the editors will read when you arrive. Since it’s first come, first served, which is new this year, you will want to arrive early and preferably have your $10 in cash or submit $10 through the CityLit website to donate upon your arrival. Sessions begin at 10:00 am and run through 12:00 pm. Each editor will have and honor a sign-up sheet. Writers, it’s time to submit, for those who need encouragement to get published. It doesn’t get better than this. Dust off those pages. Get fed in a different way. Karen Houppert is a journalist, the author of three nonfiction books on topics ranging from the menstrual products industry to the public defender system, and the Director of the MA in Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University. Bret McCabe is a Baltimore-based arts writer and editor.  Rebekah Kirkman is a writer and editor in Baltimore whose work focuses on art, work, and community. Chelsea Lemon Fetzer is a multi-genre writer. She teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Baltimore, serves on the board of CityLit Project, and is a contributing editor at BmoreArt Magazine. “An editor is like a mirror, reflecting your work with a critical eye, helping you see the potential that might be hidden beneath the surface.” 

KAREN HOUPPERT – creative nonfiction/ fiction

REBEKAH KIRKMAN – creative nonfiction

BRET MCCABE – creative nonfiction

CHELSEA LEMON-FETZER – poetry, fiction

______________

Guidelines:

• Five pages of poetry OR Five pages of prose:

• Double-spaced
• 12 pt. font
• 1 inch margin

• Numbered pages

• Name must be included

(NOTE: If you are feeling ambitious, please know only the first five pages will be critiqued!)

______________

Karen Houppert was a contributing writer at The Washington Post Magazine and the editor of Baltimore City Paper. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsday, The Nation, Mother Jones, and The Village Voice, among other places. She is the author of three nonfiction books, The Curse (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) and Home Fires Burning (Ballantine/Random House), and Chasing Gideon (The New Press). The London Review of Books described The Curse as “lively, well-researched and wide-ranging.” The New York Times called her second book, “Gripping…[A] thoughtful and absorbing study of military wives today.” The LA Review of Books called her third book “essential,” noting, “[w]e need these stories, lest we mistakenly believe that equality before the law is equality in practice.” She is the Director of the MA in Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University.
www.karenhouppert.net

Bret McCabe first moved to Baltimore in 1988 to study biomedical engineering, graduated with an anthropology degree, and spent the next 21 years paying off his significant college loans as an arts journalist. In addition to freelance writing and editing, he currently works in higher education and fondly appreciates the Chicago Manual of Style.
Instagram: @bretmcbret

Rebekah Kirkman is a freelance writer, editor, and fact-checker in Baltimore whose work focuses on art, work, and community. Her writing has been published in the Baltimore Beat, Johns Hopkins Magazine, the Real News Network, and elsewhere. She has done freelance/contract editing for Texas Monthly, Seven Stories Press, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, A Blade of Grass, various universities, and other outlets and organizations. She was previously the managing editor at BmoreArt and the visual arts editor at the Baltimore City Paper.
rebekahkirkman.com

Chelsea Lemon Fetzer earned her MFA in Fiction at Syracuse University in 2008. She is a 2019 Rubys recipient for the Literary Arts and a recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council’s 2022 Independent Artist Award. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, Tin House, Mississippi Review, and Minnesota Review. Her essay “Speck” appears in The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about being Mixed Race in the 21st Century. Fetzer teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Baltimore, serves on the board of CityLit Project, and is a contributing editor at BmoreArt Magazine.

______________

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.