Through novels, memoirs, essays, and poems that hit shelves this year, we’ve taken journeys both near and far and learned more about our world and city.

We uncovered secret, historical letters sent to and from Baltimore, and we took quiet walks through Pennsylvania forests while watching the natural ecosystem change each year. We traveled alongside the much-talked-about figure Wallis Simpson to lavish parties at Buckingham Palace, and we dove head-first into the depths of heroin addiction in a 1990s Baltimore spun out of control.

We learned more about systemic racism, mass incarceration, the modern-day art world, immigration, and how to make public spaces safer and more inclusive. We also quieted our minds to take in zen-like poetry and moments in nature worth savoring.

Here’s a look back at our favorite reads of the year, all of which have ties to Baltimore.

The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose
Chris Wilson with Bret Witter (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
After reading 400 pages of Chris Wilson’s memoir, one word stands out: endgame. He shares the sometimes heart-wrenching, occasionally heartwarming account of growing up in a violent Washington, D.C. neighborhood, catching a life sentence for murder at 18, and the creation of his “Master Plan.” As he grows from boy to man, we see him check off each item on that list—get a high school diploma, eat no junk food, get an AA degree—while continuing to add bigger dreams. Beating all odds, his sentence is reduced, and he eventually arrives in Baltimore as a free man with the objective to help other “returning citizens.” We see him go from sleeping on a friend’s couch, traveling by borrowed bike, and mowing lawns for a living, to starting his own business (Barclay Investment Corporation), sharing his story with people all over the country, and becoming an active, positive member of his community. It’s a story of perseverance, hope, and redemption. And he also sets forth a challenge for readers: what is our endgame? And how are we going to get there?

The Real Wallis Simpson: A New History of the American Divorcee Who Became the Duchess of Windsor
Anna Pasternak (Touchstone)
This colorful biography peels away the layers of one of the most talked-about—and perhaps misunderstood—figures in modern history: Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced Baltimore native who stole the heart of the Prince of Wales and, so it’s been said, ultimately caused his abdication of the throne after he became King of England. Anna Pasternak aims to set the record straight and, in some ways, rewrites history. What people call a fairytale love story between WE (Wallis and Edward’s shorthand for themselves) was, in many ways, a tragedy, and though Wallis was often blamed for King Edward’s abdication, it’s evident—through letters, as well as testimonies of close friends—that Wallis did everything in her power to stop him. Details about Wallis—her impeccable sense of style, her sensitivity and nervous temperament behind a cool and confident exterior—bring us closer to the reality of who she was. The book also tells us a good bit about Edward—that he had a secret love of crocheting, that both he and Wallis struggled with insecurities about their sexual identities. A touching moment comes in the epilogue, when we see Pasternak’s personal connection to the story and the lives of both the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder
John Waters (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
John Waters’ flair for writing and his laugh-out-loud humor had us flying through his “tarnished wisdom.” And what wisdom it is: Learn public speaking; “go Hollywood,” if given the chance; be willing to change everything, he tells us. Juicy anecdotes from his career—fighting in court for his Pecker film title; possibly being the only director who didn’t cast Brad Pitt after an audition, people whispering “demented forever” when passing him on the street, how he was asked to be celebrant for Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder’s wedding but convinced them not to wed—run alongside his thoughts on religion, politics, gay rights, art, sex, drugs, even death. And what his restaurant would be like, were he to open one. This collection of essays is a must for all John Waters fans but also for young, aspiring filmmakers and artists who could use a little help from this larger-than-life personality.

Snowballs for Severance
Richie Frieman (The Omnibus Publishing)
This picture book would be great fun for readers of any age, were it simply about a 9-year-old boy who changed a century-old law in his hometown to allow snowball fights. But this story is even more remarkable because it’s true. Through research and interviews with town hero Dane Best and his family, Richie Frieman wrote and illustrated this quirky tale, complete with direct quotes and cartoonish versions of the characters who make up Severance, Colorado. He includes a short questionnaire with Dane and photos at the end, though Dane is written so true to character, by that point, we feel like we already know this child activist.

Fake Like Me
Barbara Bourland (Grand Central Publishing)
Baltimore-based Barbara Bourland raises a magnifying glass to the contemporary art world in this brilliant satire. A cast of familiar-yet-eccentric characters plays out multiple storylines—a bizarre mystery (why did the young and famous New York artist Carey Logan drown herself in a lake?), a love story (really, a few), an artist’s coming of age—but at its core, it’s a penetrating, insightful discourse into what it means to be a practicing artist navigating the cut-throat art world. It’s a must-read for art scholars and students, who will appreciate all the practical and existential questions the narrator faces—from taking on an impossible deadline after two years’ worth of paintings are lost in a studio fire, to pondering the gray area between being an artist and being a commodity. And your jaw will drop more than a few times throughout Bourland’s story, which is painted with rich imagery, exquisite details, and sensual delight.

We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black America
D. Watkins (Atria Books)
D. Watkins is a master at his craft and has seemingly endless stories to share about Baltimore and the wisdom he’s gleaned from living here. The New York Times best-selling author of The Beast Side: Living and Dying While Black in America and The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir is back with another fresh take on life in East Baltimore and how his own life has changed since he’s seen success as a writer. Here, the University of Baltimore professor aims to round out the stories being told about black culture in America. His down-to-earth, casual writing style allows us to easily enter his world, and his sense of humor tends to balance some of the heavy subject matter. Some passages—including one in which he repeats the phrase “black lives don’t matter” alongside horrifying examples to prove his point—are painfully chilling. This book transcends memoir when Watkins offers solutions, including a checklist that breaks down systemic racism and allows us to think more deeply about how we can effect positive change in our communities.

Intrusive Beauty
Joseph J. Capista (Ohio University Press)
Contemporary poetry rarely has a melodic cadence, as rhythmic poetry is somehow considered unsophisticated. But Joseph J. Capista doesn’t shy away from the joys of rollicking through language’s innate richness of sound, as he weaves narratives about Baltimore, life as a husband and father, and the elegance of the natural world. The Towson University professor has the ability to see beauty in all places, and through his observations, he allows us to see it, too.

The Long Blink
Brian Kuebler (Behler Publications)
In WMAR News’ investigative journalist Brian Kuebler’s first book, he delves much deeper into the true story of a Baltimore family torn apart by tragedy after a trucker falls asleep at the wheel and kills Ed Slattery’s wife and leaves his son disabled. We watch as a stunned Ed grapples with his new life in the wake of such a horrific event and how he moved through his grief to help heal not just those closest to him but others affected by trucking accidents. He rises from victim to activist, going to Capitol Hill to fight for safer trucking laws. But underneath his fight change, this is a story about how one man survived devastating trauma and used his pain to help others. The Long Blink is the epitome of a page-turner. Once you pick it up, don’t expect to put it down until you’ve reached its very shocking and explosive end.

Chasing a Flawed Sun
Daniel McGhee (Phoenix Rising Publishing)
Perhaps you’re thinking we don’t need another memoir about the opioid crisis. But each experience through addiction is unique, yet universal themes connect all these stories. From page one, Daniel McGhee races down to the depths of hell on Earth and drags the reader along with him, every inch of the way. As painful as this memoir is to read—one horrifying, self-destructive story after the next—one can only imagine how painful it must’ve been to write, much less live. McGhee grew up a white, middle-class kid in Baltimore County, and in this gut-wrenchingly honest narrative, he takes us down the rabbit hole into his heroin addiction—but not before years of drinking every day and getting high on cocaine, Special K, and ecstasy (and selling them all, too), while constantly instigating fights, jumping people, pulling guns on people (seemingly nothing was off limits) and finding himself in and out of rehab—and prison. When retelling his story, he sometimes interrupts his own train of thought to comment on how ashamed he is, how lost and clueless he once was. Many addicts don’t find themselves living the happy ending, but this book serves as some hope. It’s a story every addict must know deeply, and this book would certainly resonate with them. But perhaps its greater gift lies in showing people who have not experienced addiction firsthand what it’s like—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—and why addicts keep “chasing a flawed sun.”

Father’s Day Creek: Flying fishing, fatherhood and the last best place on Earth
Dan Rodricks (Apprentice House Press)
Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks’ writing seems at ease in this collection of anecdotes and reflections on years spent fly fishing at a magical stream in Pennsylvania that he’s named Father’s Day Creek, in honor of visits with his father-in-law each year for the holiday and stopping by the natural respite while there. It’s a place he calls his “spirit-home,” and he insists that everyone should have one. As its subtitle suggests, Rodricks provides spectacular notes on the art of fly fishing, the devastation and regeneration of natural waterways because of various ecological factors, as well as the complexity of fatherhood, including father figures whom he calls “male mothers” and cultural changes that have altered the role of fathering. He also inevitably weaves together the connection between fatherhood and fishing. Worth noting: the forward was written by fly fishing legend Lefty Kreh just a few weeks before he died. In all, the book is a tribute to the simple yet sacred moments in life, and his honest, laid-back style of introspective storytelling feels reminiscent of a day spent in the woods, casting a line into the water, and forging a connection—be it with fathers, sons, nature, or yourself.

Fake Like Me

Barbara Bourland (Grand Central Publishing)

Baltimore-based Barbara Bourland raises a magnifying glass to the contemporary art world in this compelling satire. A cast of familiar-yet-eccentric characters plays out multiple storylines—a bizarre mystery (why did the young and famous New York artist Carey Logan drown herself in a lake?), a love story (really, a few), an artist’s coming of age—but at its core, it’s a penetrating, insightful discourse into what it means to be a practicing artist navigating the cut-throat art world. It’s a must-read for art scholars and students, who will appreciate all the practical and existential questions the narrator faces—from taking on an impossible deadline after two years’ worth of paintings are lost in a studio fire, to pondering the gray area between being an artist and being a commodity. And your jaw will drop more than a few times throughout Bourland’s story, which is painted with rich imagery, exquisite details, and sensual delight.

Lady in the Lake

Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

In her latest, Laura Lippman turns back the clock to 1960s Baltimore, drawing inspiration from the city’s real-life “Lady in the Lake,” the body of a woman that was found in Druid Park Lake in 1969 and identified as Shirley Parker, an African-American barmaid. In Lippman’s fictional retelling of the eerie story, Cleo Sherwood, a bartender at the Flamingo club on Pennsylvania Avenue, goes missing on New Year’s Eve. No one seems to care except Maddie Schwartz, who recently separated from her husband and became a reporter for the Star, determined to solve this mystery by whatever means necessary. Scattered throughout the story are first-person perspectives of various characters who meet Maddie along the way. It’s perfect beach reading material—light and breezy and full of juicy gossip, set in historical Baltimore (think pre-
gentrification Inner Harbor and a buzzing Howard Street shopping district), with fun twists throughout.

Why did you choose to omit the protagonist’s name?
I never knew what her name was. It was never made apparent to me, by whatever process this is. The book is also a very, very light remake of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier—sort of the classic trapped woman, psychological suspense novel. So my narrator doesn’t have a name, much like the narrator of Rebecca does not have a name. Her namelessness is meant to give you a sense of universality.

I was struck by how long it took me to realize you hadn’t included it.
Yeah. I had a fun time making that work.

There are so many layers to this book—multiple storylines, including a mystery, these great characters, social commentary and critique of the art world and feminism—what was the impetus of all of it?
I started writing this book as I was working the edits for my first book [I’ll Eat When I’m Dead], and I had the very uncomfortable experience of being turned into a commodity. I found it to be extremely unnerving. When you begin to talk about branding and marketing, I didn’t have an easy time with it. The book business has really changed drastically over the past 20 years: we have more books, we have more readers, but we also have such a different marketplace in terms of how readers learn about books. I think it was easier when you were Daphne Du Maurier, quite frankly, and you were touted as someone whose opinion was worth hearing because 2 percent of Americans had a college degree. It was simpler, if you were educated and you could write, to be branded as someone who we should be listening to, and I think that’s very difficult now. So it was a very tense experience and it made for the grounding of a novel that’s very tense. We’ve all made jokes about the development of the personal brand, but it really is a dehumanizing experience. How vulnerable you are to that depends on how confident you are as a person. I’m not very confident [laughs]. So that was the emotional state I was personally in when I started writing this book.

The detail with which you write about art making—and selling—is phenomenal. Are you an artist yourself, or did you just do a ton of research?
I’m a very amateur artist. I draw and paint, but it’s a non-commercial practice. My husband is an art historian. I tag along with him to studio visits a lot, and the studio is such a special place—I think it’s the reason most people are drawn to the art world to begin with. . . . We live in a built society. An artwork is built, and the economy of the art world is built. It’s a set of choices and collective decisions, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the art world because all of the artworks’ value is derived by their social impact, its greater resonance throughout the culture that you can measure. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle of notoriety or awareness that people have about artists and their work, which isn’t to say there isn’t also so much beauty available to us from art. Of course there is. But it is a mixture of both of those things. And the book is a mixture of both things.

You did an artist residency at The Wassaic Project. Did you specifically choose a fine arts residency so it could inform the book?
Yeah. I sent them the first two chapters, and also they’re in upstate New York [where the novel is set]. I told them I had a big edit coming in and would love to work on it there. I think what I was hoping for—and I think that I got it—was to absorb the timeframe. I make work, but again, I don’t make work to support myself in any way; I can go into the studio at any time. I wanted to get a sense of how long artists are grinding in their studios. At Wassaic, our studios are all adjacent to each other, so just hearing how people are moving around the space, how late they’re staying in the studio, how much back-breaking physical work there can be to make something that’s really big, or even to make something small that you have to throw away if you ruin it. I don’t think there was another way to get that sense of it. In the acknowledgments, I tried to list every artist whose studio I was in who I took something from, whether it was the handle of a brush or a habit with the gesso or whatever. There’s a lot of technical information.

Did you make a lot of changes while you were there? Were you surprised by anything you noticed when you were living with all those artists?
I’m not a particularly linear writer. Very infrequently do I feel like on the first draft I’ve landed it, whether it’s a paragraph or a page or whatever. So I was there making so many cuts to give it the temporal structure that puts the reader in a position where they don’t want to put it down. That push and pull and stress is all about a series of beats that you hope you’ll hit, but you don’t know that you’ll hit them until you have the raw material to edit down. Being in that place with these long stretches of nothing and work that are mixed with that summer camp feeling, where these are the only people that you see and the only people that you now know—that is a very unique circumstance. Absorbing everyone’s work rhythms helped me with the pacing of this book immeasurably. They also bring in museum curators and gallerists who go from studio to studio, so I put out seltzers, had my notepad, and when people visited, I said, “I want to ask you about your job.” Like, “Here are some ideas I want to get at in this book.” So I sort of flipped it.

Your other novel was also a satire and a mystery. Why are you drawn to that genre?
Here’s hoping that someday I will be talented enough to write a book where nothing happens and you are still compelled to turn the page, but I think that is a very rare skill. I believe in plot. I think that most books are actually mysteries: there’s always a problem. And I think that if you write about contemporary society, there is no way not to make it a satire because the society we live in is so incredibly absurd and changing so rapidly. I live on the East Coast, I’m college educated, I’m a Millennial. The jobs that my peers have taken as we’ve gotten older—it’s wild, what my friends do to make a living. We make our money across a very wide spectrum of professions. And there’s no way that that’s not funny. It’s like a joke: an engineer, a doctor, a lawyer, and a circus performer walk into a bar. What do they have in common? They’re best friends!

Or they’re all one person.
Or yeah, they’re one person! And again, maybe the reason being made into a commodity is an uncomfortable experience for me is because I don’t know how my work fits in. I think it’s not a singular thing. It’s a multiplicity of things. And young women writers are put in a tough position, I think.

How so?
Well, there’s the smiley, happy-go-lucky girl reporter with her lipstick and her cool clothes, and then there’s the disaffected young woman who doesn’t care about anything. And I’m neither of those things. I mean, we’re all struggling to brand ourselves in this world, and it’s hard to know how much energy to put into that. . . . We’re so conscious of our bodies and appearance. Good on you if you’ve managed to escape it; I personally have not in the slightest.

Visual Art

The Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize Finalists Exhibition
Don’t miss your chance to catch some of the art world’s brightest rising stars at this exhibition celebrating the seven finalists for the prestigious Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize. The winner of the $25,000 fellowship will be named in July, but works by Negar Ahkami, Akea Brionne Brown, Cheeny Celebrado-Royer, Schroeder Cherry, Phylicia Ghee, Jackie Milad, and Stephanie Williams will stay on display through August 11. June 15-Aug. 11. The Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St.

RAW Baltimore Presents: Impact
This gathering of independent artists will bring beauty, fashion, music, digital art, and more to Baltimore Soundstage. Whether you’re looking to pick up something to hang on the wall or be inspired by creative new takes on genderqueer fashion and vegan beauty, there’s something to be found for everyone at this showcase of local talent. 7 p.m. June 28. Baltimore Soundstage, 124 Market Pl.

Music

Outer Spaces Record Release
Grab some friends and head to Current Space’s backyard for this outdoor show celebrating the release of dreamy indie-pop act Outer Spaces’ new record, Gazing Globe, featuring guests Smoke Bellow, Cigarette, and Wheatie Mattiasich with Steve Santilla. The sticky summer evening will fit perfectly with Cara Beth Stalino’s exploration of what it means to lose someone but find yourself all over again. 7-11 p.m. June 29. Current Space, 421 N. Howard St.

Theater

Mortified: PRIDE Edition
Some of us dread those childhood journal entries and notebooks full of poems coming back to haunt us. Mortified embraces them. This Pride-themed version of the Creative Alliance storytelling series will feature adolescent artifacts exploring sexual and gender identity, coming out, and other experiences from the LGBTQ+ community. 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. June 15. Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave.

A Midsummer Night’s Bash
Say a fitting farewell to Single Carrot Theatre’s Remington home with full night of Shakespearean shenanigans. Start the evening with the troupe’s raucous performance of Drunk Shakespeare [and other dead white guys], then stick around for bites, drinks, dancing, and more at the Howard Street theater. 7 p.m. June 22. Single Carrot Theatre, 2600 N. Howard St.

Literature

D. Watkins in Conversation with Lisa Snowden-McCray
Five years ago, D. Watkins found a national audience with his viral essay “Too Poor for Pop Culture.” Now a professor, Editor at Large for Salon, and founder of the BMORE Writers Project, Watkins has become an essential voice. In honor of the fifth anniversary of his first print publication, Watkins joins Baltimore Beat editor Lisa Snowden-McCray for a conversation about how things have and haven’t changed since that first essay and what his latest book, We Speak for Ourselves, can add to the story. 7 p.m. June 26. Red Emma’s, 1225 Cathedral St.

Barbara Bourland—Fake Like Me
Humor, mystery, and sharp observation abound in Barbara Bourland’s follow-up to 2017’s I’ll Eat When I’m Dead, Fake Like Me, in which she moves the focus from a Manhattan magazine to the dueling egos of the contemporary art world. Settle into Greedy Reads’ cozy Fells Point home for a conversation with Bourland and BMore Art’s Cara Ober to celebrate the new release. 7:30 June 21. Greedy Reads, 1744 Aliceanna St.

Film

First Look: Dark City: Beneath the Beat
This celebration of community and Baltimore Club comes from one of the genre’s greatest voices, TT The Artist. Head to the SNF Parkway and follow the red carpet in for a first look at Dark City: Beneath The Beat, TT’s documentary following some of the city’s best local musicians, DJs, poets, dancers, and producers as they build and perpetuate a close-knit creative community that rises above Baltimore’s less-than-sterling reputation. 6:30 p.m. Red Carpet Pre-show, 7:15 p.m. Film Presentation, 8:30 p.m. Director Interview and Q&A, June 26. SNF Parkway Theatre, 3 W. North Ave.