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January 2010 Issue
Literary Death Match to Pit Local Bards in Verbal Barroom Brawl
New Member Join CityLit Board, Friends Complete Board Service
Deadline Approaching for "Black Infinity" Poetry Contest
More than 400 Submissions Received, But Young Writers Have Time
From the P&A Bureau with Michael Hughes
Upcoming Workshops for Writers
Featured January Event
Poem of the Month by David Eberhardt
Quick Links
About CityLit Project
Pictures of the Month
CityLit Project curated an hour of readings during the second annual First Day Poetry event, January 1, at Creative
Alliance. Performers included (l-r) LaTraia "LadyTray" Price, Jason Tinney, J. Pope, Nicole "luminoUS" Swett, CityLit
Executive Director Gregg Wilhelm, Ben Shaberman, and Raven Ekundayo (not pictured). Other literary organizations
that brought lit to the stage included Smartish Pace, Poetry in Baltimore, Narrow House, and Publishing Genius. Our
web site's photo gallery is getting into shape, so check out more pictures here.
Literary Death Match to Pit Local Bards in Verbal Barroom Brawl
When a guy contacts you to ask if you want to represent at something called a Literary
Death Match, it's hard to refuse. However, there's no shortage of ideas that sound cool
on paper but fizzle in reality. But after checking out Todd Zuniga's web site, it was not
only clear he knew what he was doing, he was having a blast being successful doing it.
Co-founded by Zuniga, founding editor of the Brooklyn-based Opium Magazine,
Literary Death Match "marries the literary and performative aspects of Def Poetry Jam,
rapier-witted quips of American Idol’s judging (without any meanness), and the
ridiculousness and hilarity of Double Dare."
Since its first episode in 2006, Zuniga and his partners have waged more than 60
matches, mainly in New York City and San Francisco, but also around the country and
in London, Paris, and Beijing. A look at past literary pugilists and judges gives an
indication of the sort of entertaining community Zuniga is forming.
Now the fun comes to Baltimore's The Windup Space on Saturday, January 30.
Zuniga has assembled a genius set of Mob Town judges featuring Dear Everybody author Michael Kimball, The
Stoop Storytelling co-mastermind Jessica Henkin, and Baltimore-born author/journalist and The Wire scribe Rafael
Alvarez. Competing for LDM immortality will be readers Michael Hughes (representing CityLit Project), Mike Young
(Publishing Genius), Jen Michalski (JMWW), and Dave Housley (Barrelhouse).
"We've called this the great literary ruse: an audacious and inviting title, a harebrained finale, but in-between the
judging creates a relationship with the viewer as a judge themselves," Zuniga writes on the LDM site. "Our ultimate
goal is to showcase literature as a brilliant, unstoppable medium."
When: Doors at 7, show at 8:05 (sharp), after-party at 9:30.
Where: The Windup Space, 12 W. North Avenue, Station North
Cost: $10
New Board Members Join CityLit, Friends Complete Board Service
By Elissa Weissman, Nominating Committee Chair
This winter, Hope Brown, Jodi Dickinson, Kelcie Haas, and Nancy Hall (pictured l-r) became the newest members of
CityLit Project's board of directors. The four professionals bring a range of experience and a whole lot of passion to
the organization.
Jodi Dickinson recently moved to Baltimore from Pennsylvania, where she was a Human Resources Director for the
Campbell Soup Company and Arkema, Inc. After arriving in Maryland to work in Human Resources at Laureate
Education, she began to look for a way to volunteer and serve her new community. She found CityLit through a
partnership program with Laureate called Business Volunteers Unlimited (BVU). An avid reader since childhood,
Dickinson said it was easy to be excited about CityLit, its programs, and its mission. "BVU showed me about a
dozen [nonprofits'] profiles and CityLit was the profile that stood out to me. I love the idea of being a part of an
organization that not only supports the concept of cultivating reading and writing but encourages it."
Another BVU match for CityLit was Hope Brown, Compliance and Risk Manager for T. Rowe Price. Having studied
English at the University of Maryland College Park, Hope believes that "the arts have the power to transform and
transport you to another place and time."
"I am thrilled to share my love and appreciation of literature with a group who work together to promote this
appreciation to others, especially children,” she said.
Kelcie Haas, a Michigan native, is also dedicated to literature and community service. She graduated with honors
from the George Washington University Law School in 2008, but she then decided that she belongs in a classroom
rather than a courtroom. She moved to Baltimore to undertake a Baltimore City Teaching Residency, and now
teaches at the Pitts-Ashburton Elementary Middle School.
Nancy Hall has long been a part of the nonprofit community in Maryland. A key staff member at the Maryland
Association of Nonprofit Organizations for seventeen years, Nancy now consults with nonprofits as president of
501(c) Solutions. Before becoming one of Maryland’s foremost experts on nonprofits, she was one of the first
women to receive an MBA from Harvard business school, and she even had a brief career as a stand-up comic.
"Books have given me much joy in my life," Nancy said. "They have let me live in the past, live in the future, and
share adventures. I want to use my MBA brain on the board to make it possible for others to love literature as I do.”
CityLit is proud and excited to welcome these four talented, driven women to the organization.
We also extend our heart-felt "thank yous" to departing long-time board members Dan Fesperman, former Baltimore
Sun reporter and acclaimed novelist, and Sharon Reuter of Reuter & Associates. Immediate past chair Dan is busy
working with former Sun colleague David Simon on an HBO pilot based on National Book Award winner Tim
Weiner's history of the CIA Legacy of Ashes. Board secretary Sharon is combining her love of Baltimore and food
in an exciting new venture that will no doubt have the whole town buzzing and biting. Good luck to both Sharon and
Dan! We cannot thank you enough for your service to CityLit Project.
Deadline Approaching for "Black Infinity" Poetry Contest
When Gregg Wilhelm worked as Director of Woodholme House Publishers, the
publishing company affiliated with Bibelot Books, he published the memoir of an
African-American woman who grew up on Maryland's segregated Eastern Shore
during the Depression. A stylish woman, Adele Holden traded in her old Cadillac for a
brand new Black Infiniti I-20. If they (her and her publisher) were going to travel the
state promoting her book, she said, the were going to do it in style. When Adele
passed away in 2005, she left the car (which barely had 5,000 miles on it) to Gregg,
who sold it to (as it happens) a writer in Baltimore. Proceeds went to establish "Black
Infinity: The Adele V. Holden Prize for New African-American Poets."
City Paper allowed Gregg to tell the story at length here (click the link at bottom to
download PDF of story).
Adele taught for many years at Dunbar High School and the Community College of
Baltimore. Through her art, career, and life, she promoted equal rights while shaping
the minds of young people. The prize in her honor recognizes African-American poets
under 40 not previously published in book-length form.
All submissions must be postmarked before February 1, 2010. Winner receives publication by CityLit Press, $250,
and 25 copies. Reginald Harris--friend of Baltimore's literary community and award-winning poet--will judge.
Please read the complete guidelines by going here and clicking the link at the bottom of the page.
More Than 400 Submissions Received, But Young Writers Have Time
Baltimore's Child and CityLit Project are still accepting entries for the second annual
Maryland Young Writers' Contest. More than 400 entries have already rolled in from
around the state in both prose and poetry categories across high school, middle
school, and elementary school age groups.
Winners receive publication in Baltimore's Child, certificates, and public recognition at a
special MYWC event at Barnes & Noble Power Plant on May 1, 2010. First place
winners also earn an opprtunity to avail themselves of a scholarship to the Maryland Writing Project's Summer
Students Writing Workshops. Since many teachers indicated that they wanted time after the winter holidays to
polish student submissions, the deadline for entries is now February 1, 2010, so there are a few days left.
Click here for more information and to download a PDF with complete rules and instructions.
Click here for a recap of last year's inaugural contest.
From the P&A Bureau with Michael Hughes
Michael Hughes was born in Baltimore City, but grew up in beautiful downtown
Ferndale, where airplanes flying to BWI (then known endearingly as Friendship Airport)
rattled his bedroom walls. It was an idyllic, suburban neighborhood where kids roamed
freely like feral cats. There was an abandoned, early 19th-century graveyard in the
woods nearby that helped shaped his interests in the macabre, along with his steady
diet of "Ghost Host Theater" on Channel 45 and horror comics like "Eerie" and
"Creepy."
He attended high school at the now-nonexistent Andover High in Linthicum (a public
school of little interest to high-school-obsessed Baltimoreans, Michael noted), then
attended Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia, Towson State, University of
Baltimore, and Johns Hopkins. Despite all that schooling, he managed to avoid getting
a degree of any sort.
"I've always loved to read widely and learn new things,” Michael said, "so I don't regret my lack of formal academic
credentials. I did learn how to party like a rockstar. Oh, yes, those years were a lot of fun."
To support his family and a chronic writing habit, Michael works as a Communications Associate for the Johns
Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. It's a nice fit for him because he loves science and animals.
What might set Michael apart from typical writers is that not only will he read you his work, he’ll read your mind, too.
"When I was a kid, I checked a book out of the library called The Handbook of Mental Magic," Michael recalled. "I
convinced my schoolmates I was psychic and even succeeded in hypnotizing a couple of them!”
Michael has always been fascinated by parapsychology and the supernatural, so it was natural that he would want
to become a pre-teen Uri Geller, an entertainer known for spoon bending on television programs such as the old
Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Several decades later, while going through a self-proclaimed "what am I doing
with my life?" crisis, Michael re-purchased the book on Amazon, amassed a huge collection of magic and mentalism
books, and started hanging out with magicians.
“I worked up a routine and took a stab at being a professional mentalist,” he recalled. “I did a bunch of gigs in the
region, and still do occasionally, but then the urge to write a novel pushed my performances to the sidelines. I still
bend silverware, read minds, and stop my pulse and breathing for minutes at a time, but only when I'm paid to do
so.”
Michael’s first novel, Cabal, is a supernatural thriller currently being shopped around by his literary agent. He wrote
it before his first daughter was born, almost four years ago, and is now learning that getting an agent is only the first
major step in what can be a very long process.
"Luckily, I found a great agent at Sanford. J. Greenburger Associates," he said. "We're aiming to sell film rights as
well. I hope to have concrete news very soon...fingers crossed.”
Michael’s advice to other writers is to learn to be patient--nothing happens quickly in publishing, and everything will
take much longer than one thinks.
"Just keep writing and be persistent," he advised. "I made the mistake of equating getting an agent with getting
published, and I wish I had kept my mouth shut earlier on in the game."
He also suggested networking widely with other writers, particularly those in your genre, and going to conferences.
Mingling and befriending other writers, agents, and editors has been the most important thing for one's writing
career, he said. Networking helped Michael find the right agent, get some short stories published, and learn to stay
focused in an industry that seems "intent on sucking you dry of all enthusiasm and hope."
He also warned writers to "be a likable person."
"The easiest way to sabotage your career is to piss people off or to become known as an jerk." He said. "That
should be common sense, but you'd be surprised. Part of that is learning to take legitimate criticism--you will always
be asked to make changes to your work, no matter how good you are."
Lastly, Michael echoed sage advice to enjoy the process of writing. If a writer can do that, he said, it does not
matter how long it takes to get published or how successful one becomes because just putting words on paper is its
own reward.
"It's hard work, it's lonely work, but when you get in the flow and the words are pouring out of that weird place in
your subconscious where the magic happens, there's nothing quite like it," Michael said.
Check Michael out at the first Baltimore Literary Death Match at the Windup Space in Station North on Saturday,
January 30. Michael loves to read in front of audiences, and he might just read your mind.
Click here for more about Michael Hughes.
Want to be considered for the P&A Bureau? Categories include Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Young Adult, and
Children's. Send your name, contact e-mail, web site address, JPEG headshot, and a brief (75-100 word) biography
to info@citylitproject.org.
Upcoming Workshops for Writers
What: Write Here, Write Now Presents "The Art of the Short Story"
Dates: 6 Thursdays from January 28 to March 4, 2010
Location: Creative Alliance, Baltimore (7-9pm)
Registration: $165, $150 CA members
Enrollment: 12
Jen Michalski (author of Close Encounters, editor of jmww, and cohost of 510
Readings) is your guide in the quest to craft the perfect short story! In this 6-week
class you’ll write, workshop, and revise a short story (20 pages or fewer) and ready it
for submission. This workshop provides the perfect motivation for writers to dig out from the winter blahs and get
their writing in shape.
REGISTER HERE.
What: "Write in the Middle of Winter"
Dates: Weekend retreat from March 4 to March 7, 2010
Location: Herrington Manor State Park, McHenry, MD (Western Maryland)
Registration: $250 per person thereafter. Registration includes receptions on March
4 and 5, dinner on March 6, and a one-on-one critique session with the leader of your
choice. (Note: if you wish to have a critique session, you must deliver a printed copy of
10-15 pages of your material to the appropriate leader no later than February 15,
2010.) Space is limited.
Enrollment: 12-20
Retreat leaders Gerry LaFemina (poetry, Frostburg State University) and Merrill Feitell
(fiction, University of Maryland) will guide writers through three days of critiquing text,
presenting exercises, and talking shop, with plenty of opportunity to focus on your own
writing. A special dinner Saturday evening, March 6, features Ed Ochester, general
editor of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and editor of the Pitt Poetry Series at the
University of Pittsburgh Press.
REGISTER HERE.
Featured January Event
What: David Franks Memorial
Where: Creative Alliance (3134 Eastern Avenue, 21224)
When: Sunday, January 31, 2010 (2:30 doors, 3:00 memorial, 4:00 reception, 5:00 reading)
Who: Friends of poet/artist David Franks gather to celebrate a very unique and authentic
life. Moments like these exemplify the very definition of what it means to be a community,
artistic or otherwise. Friends of Footlong can also check out information here.
Info: 410-276-1651 or Creative Alliance web site.
Poem of the Month by David Eberhardt
David Eberhardt
"Hollywood Cemetery"
(Overlooking the James River, Richmond, Virginia, city of Poe, endlessly burning)
Past China St., Pine, on Oregon Hill,
(It's not California, but it might as well be),
Ospreys fly up out of cypress like redwoods,
Pure white wisteria against violet porches,
Louisiana, Gulf cities, and porches forever...
The confederacy's gone down, defeat again,
Beyond Belle Island the city's still burning.
My actress mother * buried in disgrace;
Theatre burns, they replace it: a church,
Church burns, back comes the theatre;
All of them burn and all the people in them.
Still the river flows by Belle Island
In its marcel waves and ash brown braids
At the foot of the cemetery where "famous" have markers;
The river licks burning, towers never stop rising
Then falling back in the flames of the theatre.
Funerals wind into tighter, tighter spaces.
"I had not thought death unravelled so many faces." **
Until the stones start repeating themselves.
"A star sets, rises on the other shore,"
Like to see you again, babe, but it's nevermore,
"At rest until resurrection and reunion,"
"'Til the dawn breaks and the shadows flee,"
May the woman I loved so remember me.
*Edgar Allan Poe's
** Dante quoted by Eliot
Originally posted to The Sun's Read Street blog and shared with CityLit by the poet.
David Eberhardt has worked in the field of criminal justice since 1974 and at Baltimore
City Jail's Inmate Programs Department. He was incarcerated for twenty-one months
at Lewisburg Federal Prison for pouring blood on draft files in 1967 with Father Phil
Berrigan and two others to protest the Vietnam war (and pardoned by President
Reagan in 1983). He collects books, plays the piano, and has penned two books of
poetry, The Tree Calendar and Blue Running Lights. David has written numerous
essays on art, music, poetry, and book collecting. He co-wrote "The Poetry Scene in
Baltimore from 1964-2007" for Loch Raven Review.
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About CityLit Project
Founded in 2004, CityLit Project nurtures the culture of literature in the Baltimore metropolitan
area for the benefit of Maryland readers and writers. CityLit creates enthusiasm for the literary
arts, builds and connects a community of readers and writers, and opens opportunities for young
people and diverse audiences to embrace the literary arts.
CityLit Muse is published monthly by CityLit Project and archived here.
CityLit Project is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) entity. Charitable contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowable by
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