Monthly Archives: September 2011

On September 24, at 5:30, New Mercury will feature four more Baltimore-based (or one-time Baltimore-based) nonfiction writers. Gadi Dechter (ex-Baltimore Sun writer), David Ettlin (another Sun alumnus), Kimberly Shorter (Writer), and Bruce Goldfarb (Journalist/current editor of Arbutus Baltimore Patch). It should be a great evening, not only because of this group of writers, but because it’s always a great evening. And if you’re at the Baltimore Book Festival, it’s a short walk down Charles Street. It starts at 5:30, goes on to 7:30, and usually heads over to the Club Charles. The Windup Space (Charles and North Avenue) doesn’t charge admission, but there’s a bar, so use it! Meet other writers. Support Baltimore’s thriving nonfiction community. Put your name on our list. Volunteer to read in the future.  And scroll down for more info on these people.

Kimberly Shorter

Bruce Goldfarb

Gadi Dechter (on left)

David Ettin

David Ettlin is a Baltimore native, and graduate of City College (Class of 1963), the former Baltimore Junior College (where he had his first newspaper experience with the College Crier), and then-Towson State College. In need of a summer job in 1967, David convinced a top editor to hire him as a communications clerk — and hung around for 40 years as a reporter and editor at The Baltimore Sun. He retired as night metro editor in the Buyout Class of 2007. Now, when he has something original to say and is not being lazy, David posts it on his blog called The Real Muck (http://ettlin.blogspot.com) . He and his wife of 31 years, photographer and renaissance woman Bonnie Schupp, are collaborating on a twisted tour guide to Baltimore. They live in Pasadena.

Bruce Goldfarb has produced eight books nobody you know has ever read,
and also invented an electronic bagel. His writing has appeared in
Baltimore magazine, Maryland magazine, USA Today, Washington Post and
many other publications. He publishes the web site Welcome To
Baltimore, Hon! and is editor of Arbutus Patch.

I am the associate director of government reform at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank. Before that, I was an investigative reporter at Bloomberg News, and a government and higher education reporter at the Baltimore Sun. I began my journalism career at the great Baltimore City Paper.

Here is a resume.

Here is a link to my work at CAP, where I help run the Doing What Works project in the economic policy department, overseeing all reports and other written products.

I have taught public policy communications at Georgetown and George Washington universities, academic writing at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and fiction and poetry writing at Johns Hopkins. Here are a series of checklists I use to teach writing.

In a previous life, I worked at this eBay company when it was a startup and wrote the screenplay for this movie.

My wife is the beautiful Anne Dechter of Harford County, Md. Don’t be jealous.

Kimberly Shorter recently earned an M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Her work has appeared in The Metro Tribune, IndustryGrind.com and Urbanite magazine. She is working on a novel.