After trying out the Inner Harbor last year, the Baltimore Book Festival is moving into its new home permanently for 2015. Last year, we saw what the increased space offers with features like a life-size version of Words With Friends, and increased programming. It’s only getting bigger this year, which also happens to be the festival’s 20th edition.
The festival is Sept. 25-27.
As always, there will be plenty of authors trading ideas in the Literary Salon. That’ll be especially true when a group of authors get together for a panel discussion titled Baltimore: The Path Forward (Friday 5:30 p.m.). D. Watkins, Tim Wise, Stephen Janis, Sheri Parks and Lester Spence are the participants.
Paging through this year’s list, beloved Baltimore scribes like Laura Lippman (Sunday, 4 p.m.) and Wes Moore (Saturday 2 p.m.) also stand out. For very different reasons, Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl author Issa Rae (Sunday 1 p.m.) and Sen. John McCain (5:30 p.m.) are among the visitors who seem like they will provide intriguing talks.
There are also two brand new platforms for author talks. On the Inner Harbor Stage, you can catch FBI Art Crime expert-turned-author Robert Wittman (Friday, 5:30 p.m.), a panel about awesome records hosted by one of our favorite music writers, Amanda Petrusich (Saturday, 3 p.m.), and Baltimore Fishbowl columnist Marion Winik moderating a panel on memoir and fiction with Joanna Rakoff and Cheryl Della Pietra (Sunday, 2 p.m.).
The other new stage is focusing on Health and Wellness Stage. It’ll feature gluten-free expert Dr. Alessio Fasano (Saturday, 1 p.m.) and former magazine editor Amanda Mack talking about why fresh foods are great (Sunday 2 p.m.).
And since you don’t want to sit around all weekend, there’s a parade. On Saturday morning at 11 a.m. a group of pop culture enthusiasts including superheroes, storybook characters, BmoreFit Dancewalkers and others will be dressed up and walking from Pratt and Light St.
