The CityLit Festival has booked its share of impressive headliners during its decade-long run at the Pratt’s Central library. The list includes Pulitzer winners Edward P. Jones, Junot Diaz, and Steve Coll; National Book Award winners Mark Doty and Jaimy Gordon; and Pen/Malamud Award Winner George Saunders. This year, you can add James McBride to that list. McBride, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for fiction, will speak with WYPR’s Tom Hall at 3 pm in Wheeler Auditorium.
Hats off to CityLit founder Greg Wilhelm for producing this “don’t miss” event, which also features Wesley Stace (aka singer/songwriter John Wesley Harding) at 1:30 pm, UMBC’s Lia Purpura at Noon, NPR’s Alan Cheuse at 12:30 pm, and what figures to be a lively New Mercury reading with Elaine Eff, D. Watkins, and Joe “Mr. Wrong” MacLeod at 2 pm. And be sure to check out the dozens of exhibitors in the Central Hall’s Literary Marketplace, where you can pick up copies of local favorites like Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore, the city’s best zine. The festival is free and runs from 10 am to 5 pm.