Maryland Writers Special Issue
by Barbara Westwood Diehl
This is a first for The Baltimore Review—a special issue showcasing the work of Maryland writers. We selected ten works from the submissions we received: a mix of poems, fiction, creative nonfiction, an essay by Maryland’s Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri, and a multimedia journalism project with an introduction by Karen Houppert, Associate Director of the M.A. in Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University.
We have always published local writers along with writers from everywhere, but a number of our editors particularly wanted to feature Maryland writers in a special issue. So it happened. We put out a call, and I’m so grateful about the response we received. I hope that this is something we can continue to do in the future. Even after 23 years, we still look for ways to grow and participant in this state’s, and this city’s, vibrant literary community.
I hope that you enjoy this special issue ahead of our fall issue—delayed a bit so that readers can take some time to read the work of these local writers—and I hope that you, dear readers and writers, will support this and other literary journals, appreciate the writers who open our eyes to our wide world, and find ways to connect with us in the community. We need each other.