Baltimore Book Festival to return in late September after four-year hiatus

The Baltimore Book Festival is slated for Sept. 27 through 29 in Northeast Baltimore, returning after four consecutive years of cancellation and a leadership shakeup at the nonprofit that runs the event.

The festival will take place in the Waverly neighborhood’s main street area, the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts said in a Monday news release. The 25th anniversary of the book festival will include literary salons, panel discussions, writing workshops, author talks, book signings and more literary-themed activities, the office said.

The return of the event is planned to have an expanded footprint in the neighborhood and is being jointly organized by BOPA, the mayor’s office, Waverly Main Street and two businesses located there, Red Emma’s and Peabody Heights Brewing.

The literary festival has been canceled each year since the U.S. onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. BOPA, the city-affiliated nonprofit that has historically organized the book festival and others such as Light City and Artscape, combined the book and light events in 2019.

BOPA’s previous executive director, Donna Drew Sawyer, resigned last year after taking on additional pressure from local leaders irked by the office’s decision to cancel last year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, a choice that was quickly followed by Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott calling for the director’s ouster.

Sawyer had previously drawn the ire of local leaders by attempting to shift the quasi-city-agency’s focus from event-planning toward arts promotion efforts. She was later paid an $83,000 settlement for her departure, and the mayor’s office ultimately held its own parade.

Last month, BOPA’s board appointed Rachel D. Graham, a leader at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, as its new CEO.