CityLit Project

We hope you’ve marked your calendars because THIS Saturday, September 19, CityLit Stage 2026 kicks off at 10:00 am on the corner of 31st and Barclay!
We’ve poured everything we have into this incredible event chock full of inventive and thoughtful writers (& musicians) and we don’t want you to miss it!
Swipe for the full schedule of events.

*For more information about our authors, visit the News Section at citylitproject.org*

The long-awaited CityLit Stage Full Schedule is here!! Check out our daylong line-up of remarkable authors featured in sessions spanning a range of topics, humor, grief, identity, and justice.

Don’t forget that THIS Saturday, September 12th at 6:00 pm, Claudia Rankine graces the SNF Parkway Theatre with Kaye Wise Whitehead to discuss her new book Triage in ✨Among the Rubble.✨This free event, in collaboration with Red Emma’s and the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Culture and Entertainment, is not to be missed, so click the link in our bio to register! If you don’t register, feel free to join us, as RSVP tickets will be honored until a designated time; then seats will fill up to capacity.

Check out BMore Art’s article with an interview with Claudia Rankine (also linked in our bio).

We also want to give a huge shoutout to our Baltimore Book Festival partners and our CityLit Stage official bookseller, Greedy Reads. This year’s Baltimore Book Festival is a testament to the power of Baltimore’s literary community and truly a team effort. We cannot wait for you all to experience the fruits of this collaboration on September 19th and 20th!

*For more information about our authors, visit the News Section at citylitproject.org*

No better way to cap off a full day of incredible literary events than with some jaw-dropping music!
Join conjure womxn Amorous Ebony and producer, composer Antonio Eyez for ✨Soul Evolution: A Soul-Stirring Journey Through Time, Space, & Sound✨ with soulful interpretations of covers by Sam Cooke, Ella Fitzgerald, Al Green, and Prince, along with original tunes. The performance blends classic soul with experimental sound, inviting audiences to witness, to ponder, and experience a soul evolution. Through these musical renditions, this production is an ancestral veneration, bridging the past and the present in a powerful celebration of identity and perseverance.

This session will be introduced by motivational speaker Karenthia A Barber, a Maryland Port Commissioner, leadership strategist, and author who has trained over 300,000 people nationwide. A perfect ending to a day of exploring the beating heart of literary brilliance in Baltimore and beyond —going right to the soul with a blend of beautiful music by two Baltimore creatives.
*For more information about our artists, visit the News Section at citylitproject.org*

✨The Knotted Path of Becoming✨leads PHIL BRANCH to the CityLit Stage on Saturday, September 19th, 2026!
phillbranch discusses his new book The Double Dutch Fuss: A Memoir with acclaimed storytellers Jess Solomon, Diana Veiga and Heather Moyer at the CityLit Stage! Join CityLit for a session of hard truths, personal struggles and finding ways to connect through it all.
CityLit Stage events are free and open to the public.

Saturday, September 19, 2026
11:30 am- 12:30pm
@ CityLit Stage - East 31st Street & Barclay

In this ‘Moth’-like presentation, Phill Branch, Diana Veiga and Heather Moyer—moderated by Jess Solomon— discuss difficult conversations with equal parts insight, depth, and humor. Author, storyteller, and regional Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Phill Branch knows well the power of humor in broaching heavy subjects. His new memoir The Double Dutch Fuss discusses the conflicting expectations of growing up a boy, Black and q***r as well as the tangled paths between fathers and sons. Joining Branch is Diana Veiga—whose one-woman show I’m Just Doing My Job premiered at the Capital Fringe Festival in 2022—and Heather Moyer, a communications professional and one of the founding members of the Baltimore Improv Group.

*For more information about our authors, visit the News Section at citylitproject.org*

Baltimore’s q***r authors deserve a celebration!

Join CityLit Stage, fifth wheel press, and for ✨QUEERING BALTIMORE LIT✨ a showcase of q***r authors and contributors at the Baltimore Book Festival. Experience readings of poetry and prose covering discussion of LGBTQ+ issues, family, legacy and identity.

Saturday, September 19, 2026
2:30PM –3:30PM
Stage– 31st St. & Barclay St Baltimore, MD 21218

Featuring Alison Lubar, Ashley Elizabeth, T. Mae Moll and Aldrin Badiola. Moderated by The Workshop Prince (Zoe Leonard). Produced by nat raum and Persephone King (Sarah Daniels).

*For more information about our authors, visit the News Section at citylitproject.org*

Help us kick off the 2026 CityLit Stage with ✨Funny Ladies: Stars of Comic Fiction Talk Shop✨, where three acclaimed women authors come together to talk about their latest books, the craft of humor, and the role of comic fiction in the current social and political landscape. CityLit Stage events are free and open to the public!

Saturday, September 19, 2026
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
@ CityLit Stage - East 31st Street & Barclay

This meeting of great comic minds promises to be inspiring, profound, and laugh-out-loud funny. Novelist Susan Coll (Susan Coll) is the former president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the events advisor at Politics and Prose Bookstore, whose ninth novel, Word Salad, “beneath this witty comedy of manners is a moving, thoughtful exploration of the complicated nature of grief and the power that books have to help us find ourselves when we’re lost,” writes national bestseller Grant Grinder. Amy Fusselman’s latest book Cloud Six (which goes on sale September 22nd) is a comic novel about an unfortunate couple navigating the lowest tier of heaven. Sydney Rende (Sydney Rende) is a writer and editor based in Baltimore, and the author of I Could Be Famous, a collection of eleven riveting short stories. Finally, our moderator and author, (Betsy Boyd), directs the Creative Writing and Publishing Arts MFA program at the University of Baltimore.

*For more information about our authors, visit the News Section at citylitproject.org*