Monthly Archives: March 2011

Christopher Corbett

Christopher Corbett is a former news editor with The Associated Press. Most recently, he’s the author of Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West.  He is the author of Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express (Random House/Broadway Books). He is also the author of the novel Vacationland (Viking/Penguin). Since 1995 he has written The Back Page for Baltimore’s Style magazine, twice winner of best column from the City and Regional Magazine Association and honored by the Society for Professional Journalist for best editorial writing. A Baltimore resident, Corbett is a full-time faculty member at the University of Maryland Baltimore County where he is professor of the practice. Corbett was awarded the University System of Maryland Board of Regents’ Faculty Award for Mentoring,2007-2008 . His journalism has appeared in major American newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times.

Morris Elliot, Alec Mackaye

Alec MacKaye  a fifth-generation D.C native, is a musician and has been in a number of bands over the past thirty-plus years.  From a family of journalists, writers and editors, and with the requisite collection of disparate and sometimes interesting professional pursuits, as well as extensive travels,  he is caving to some sort of genetically encoded impulse to Get It Down and Put It Out.  Currently a Lannan Fellow, he is enrolled at Georgetown University.  He lives in D.C with his photographer wife and their two young daughters.

Editor’s Note: There are two people in the photograph. Alec is the one on the right.  Morris Elliot, about whom Alec will be reading, is the guy to the left.

Grisby (sp?)

On Saturday, we had our first reading at Windup Space on North Avenue, and it was a blast, featuring four more Baltimore writers. Remember: calling yourself a Baltimore Writer doesn’t necessarily mean you live in Baltimore.

It can mean you live in Philadelphia and still long for the gigantic smokestack that rises slowly above the skyline like a middle finger pointed at the rest of the world as you approach the exit on I-95. Or it can mean you live in New York, but know it’s your Baltimore past that gives you street cred. Or it can mean you live in Baltimore, but wish you’d lived there for long enough to say you were from Baltimore. Or it can mean you live in DC, but head forty miles up north to get real.

Lia Purpura and John Barry

Anyway, we had four great Baltimore writers. Loyola-base Writer in Residence Lia Purpura  read two essays from her book of essays, On Looking, dealing with falling houses and a very short woman.

Susan McCallum-Smith

Susan McCallum-Smith, known to Urbanite readers, read sections from a memorable essay about a larger-than-life but not-always-easy-to-deal-with Scottish father.

Jason Tinney

Jason Tinney, well-known local musician, gave us an interesting peek into civil war re-enactments from the angles of participants of both races.

Violet Glaze and Anna Hughes

And Violet Glaze, (soon to be known as Violet LeVoit), explored the subject of insemination, maternal love, and labor as a Nanking Massacre with readings from her latest book, I Am Genghis Cum.

Deborah Rudacille and Ethel Ward

Thanks to the Simulcast by Tom Smith of RadarRedux.com, we have a film of this entire event. And thanks to Bill Hughes, we have these great photos of our guest readers and listeners.

Marik Moen and Gregg Wilhelm

Meanwhile, though, look out for March 26, when we’ll be returning, with four more writers from the region: Alec Mackaye, Rosalia Scalia, Christopher Corbett, and Lionel Foster. We’ll have more on them later.

Radarredux.com, Baltimore online arts journal, kindly recorded the event in Simulcast, which you can access here.