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Laura Lippman on Baltimore, Crab Cakes & Her New Book

Baltimore author, resident, and gal-about-town, Laura Lippman loves the Crab Cakes at Faidley's in Lexington Market just like we all do. She writes crime novels like none of us will ever be able to. She's much prettier than most authors that we'll ever know. She holds Baltimore dear, in her heart, like we all seem to. And, she wins awards like the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Quill, and more. Her newest book, Another Thing To Fall is receiving rave reviews.

I keep up on her doings and such by way of Author Tracker: a service of Harper Collins, her publisher.

Check out this video from Lippman.

And, visit her personal website: LauraLippman.Com

Get LIT in Baltimore! - Part 2

I posted a note on Sunday about getting LIT in Baltimore by way of an email from Carole Evitts. Here's the follow-up...

Spring 2008 brings a lot of good things to the mid-Atlantic. One of the best promises to be this year's 5th Annual CityLit Festival. Rub elbows with, and learn from, some of the best in the literature scene on April 19th at the Enoch Pratt Free Library (downtown on Cathedral Street). 10AM - 5PM. Think: Laura Lippman, Manil Suri, Dan Fesperman, Carole Boston Weatherford, Michael Olesker, and dozens of others. This event is free to attendees and free to exhibitors. Put on your thinking caps, you Lit-Types!

President and CEO of the CityLIt Project, Gregg A. Wilhelm, wants us to know that: CityLit Project nurtures the culture of literature in Baltimore and throughout Maryland. Programs include free public events, registration-based writers' workshops and conferences, a rock-n-read concert that targets the 18-34 crowd (which represents the steepest rate of decline in reading), and efforts to get youth to dig reading and writing as creative, expressive arts.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! (OK, too much late night TV. Way too much.) Gregg Wilhelm is too modest. Here are just a couple of quotes from those in the know:

“CityLit Festival is one of my favorite events of the year. The energy and creativity that CityLit Project brings to it--and to each of its programs--is worthy of the library’s support, and the entire community’s support.”
Dr. Carla Hayden
Executive Director
Enoch Pratt Free Library

“We value the content CityLit Project has provided the Baltimore Book Festival over the years. In a city rich with a variety of creative arts, Baltimore is fortunate to have CityLit as a champion of the literary arts.”
Bill Gilmore
Executive Director
Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts

“After searching for a way to become involved with the local literary community, I found exactly what I was looking for— it’s the nonprofit CityLit Project. At the happy hour, it was apparent that CityLit and JMWW are achieving their mission to nurture the culture of literature.”
Corinne Levinstein
Writer

Baltimore! Get Lit! REALLY, Get LIT!

A couple of days ago I wrote about the sad state of the iffy, dicey, and generally lame media releases that arrive on my desk after January and continue to arrive until the sun warms us up a bit and Baltimore's collective community spirit brightens. I was a tad-bit blue as I wrote that last post because we haven't had a decent snow storm this winter -- and, nothing makes me happier (and nothing warms ME up) more than a Baltimore snow-day.

Just then, I received a wonderful email notice from Carole Evitts. I read it, and I smiled, and I felt much warmer and a whole lot more positive. I felt the sunshine. (But, still no decent snow for 2008 was in the forecast. Rats...)

Here's the sidebar: I consider the Evitts' family one of the smartest and most productive and giving literary families in current-day Baltimore. Here's a very condensed Evitts' snapshot: Carole's husband, author, professor, and truly nice guy, William J Evitts PhD, has been a fixture at Johns Hopkins University for a long, long time. Evitts' son, Michael, is the amazingly knowledgeable voice of Baltimore's Downtown Partnership. Their daughter, the award winning writer Elizabeth Evitts, was editor of Baltimore's slick, glossy -- and intelligently written magazine -- Urbanite. The magazine for Baltimore's Curious. I hear that Elizabeth is now setting up her own shop as most high-level, creative Baltimorians tend to do.

Oh yes, and then there's Carole A Evitts. When I was introduced to her a couple of years ago by way of a project for the Historic Charles Street Association, I knew that we'd met a decade or so before. We worked it out and sure enough... Carole and I were working on Zoomerang together way back in the late 1980s. We decided that, yes, Baltimore will always be a small town where friends live, leave, return, and reunite.

Stay tuned for the announcement from Carole that turns smart Baltimore smarter and more positive each year... and GET LIT!

Oh and by the way, if you want to learn about the Civil Rights Movement (and the Baltimore riots) in our city from folks who lived here and lived those events, click here for a PDF: Baltimore Riots. It is a must read.

Would You Party With This Man?

Tomorrow is the birthday of that Baltimore son and rascal, Edgar Allen Poe. The 199th to be exact. I've never really thought about his birthday until I read the MetroMix suggestions on how to observe Poe's special day.

Metromix says, "We at MetroMix think this calls for a celebration. You could pay homage by killing your loved one and stashing her dismembered limbs in walls and under floorboards, but the police (dare we say the Poe-Poe?) wouldn't be too fond of that. Instead, pay your respects at the Poe house and his grave at Westminster Hall, then do as he did and go on a Baltimorean bender. We've staked out the spots—all you need is a glass and a penchant for thinking in rhymed couplets."

NOTE: I'm not advocating here, I'm just reporting.

MetroMix also provides a couple of pick-up lines. They begin this way:

"Let's drink a whole Cask of Amontillado and put my Pendulum in your..."

You get the idea. One final thought... Don't Try Any of This at Home.

I'm Totally Humbled. I Didn't Know this Author: Jabari Asim

Once, every so often... when I'm feeling way too smart for my own good and full-of-myself, I read an email that makes me feel small and not very bright. That was certainly the case last week when I received an email about the 2007 Book Festival in Baltimore's Mount Vernon.

One of the featured authors is Jabari Asim. And I wondered, "Who's that?" Well, it turns out that Mr. Asim has a backgound & a profile that I should have known.

Per the Baltimore Book Festival notification:

"Jabari Asim is the new editor-in-chief of The Crisis, the NAACP's flagship publication founded by W.E.B. DuBois in 1910. For the past 11 years he has been an editor at The Washington Post Book World. He is the author of several books, including Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice and Life, Daddy Goes to Work, and The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and children."

I've never met this man, this author. However, I intend to. Reading his bio and reading through his website make this fellow a must visit. The reviews of his latest book are stellar.

Make plans to attend the 2007 Book Festival. I'll see you there.

150 Years of the Peabody Institute - Audio Now Online

An email arrived today announcing the Peabody's 2007-08 Concert Series. The run of presentations is impressive and the box office opens tomorrow, August 29th, at 10AM.

There are 15 concerts in the series and subscribers may choose 5 for $50 - just $10 per concert. Does it get better than that? Not to my way of thinking.

While I was visiting the Peabody's website to look at concert details, I noticed that the audio of "150 Years of the Peabody Institute" is online.

According the JHU & the Peabody:

"Featuring readings of historic documents and interviews with Peabody students, alumni, and faculty, as well as local community leaders, the documentary is a sound-rich celebration of one of America's most prestigious conservatories of music. Jeffrey Sharkey, Director of the Peabody Institute, also speaks of present day Peabody and leads listeners to future successes of the Institute."

Even if you can't make the 2007-08 season, spend an hour listening to this audio documentary. It's wonderfully done and was first heard a couple of months ago on Baltimore's National Public Radio Station, WYPR.

Wine, Cheese, and Jennifer Bodine

In February I wrote a snippet about my favorite American photographer, A. Aubry Bodine and a retrospective of his work being hosted by the Baltimore Museum of Industry. (For the photography challenged, Bodine is to Maryland as Ansel Adams is to the United States.) Yesterday an email arrived from the late Baltimore Sun photographer's daughter, Jennifer B. Bodine, with an invitation to a must-attend event:

Bodine's Chesapeake Bay Country at the Maryland Historical Society with the MdHS Maritime Committee. It's part of their Authors & Artifacts series. Jennifer Bodine will be presenting.

Bodine photographed every aspect of Maryland life. And, his daughter will be sharing a personal account of her father's genius. She will show over 175 of her father's Chesapeake Bay related images along with anecdotes and insights into the man, his personality, and his work.

Wine and cheese reception at 5:30PM. Jennifer B. Bodine at 6PM. $8. in advance, $10. at the door.

Maryland Historical Society - 201 W Monument Street - Baltimore, MD 21201

 

Laura Lippman - On the Air

Last week I mentioned Laura Lippman, her latest book, What the Dead Know, and her upcoming appearance at the Enoch Pratt Central Library. A fine interview with her is now archived on NPR's Weekend Edition website.

An even more compelling archived video interview is Lippman's conversation with Harry Smith on the Early Show. Lippman's passion for story telling never shows more than when she's on camera.

Listen, watch and enjoy. Here's a miniscule excerpt from what the Washington Post had to say:

It's an all but flawless performance by a writer at the peak of her powers. It was Lippman's destiny to drive past that shopping plaza and write this novel. If you only know her from her Tess Monaghan series, or if you don't know her work at all, read "What the Dead Know."
- Patrick Anderson for the Post

What the Dead Know

Baltimore author, Laura Lippman, is on tour with her latest book.

What the Dead Know -- Thirty years ago two sisters disappeared from a shopping mall. Their bodies were never found and those familiar with the case have always been tortured by these questions: How do you kidnap two girls? Who—or what—could have lured the two sisters away from a busy mall on a Saturday afternoon without leaving behind a single clue or witness? And, so begins Lippman's latest tale.

She'll be at the Enoch Pratt Free Library on Thursday, March 15th at 7PM. The central library's Wheeler Auditorium on Cathedral Street is a wonderful venue for the creator of Tess Monaghan. If you can't get out to see Lippman in person, she'll be on NPR's Weekend Edition - Sunday.