2026 Author Events

As part of our programming for the state’s largest reading and discussion program, 2026 One Maryland One Book author, Lawrence Burney, will tour across Maryland to discuss his book, No Sense in Wishing: Essays on Black Music, Belonging, and Baltimore.

All events are open to the public. Please see below for information for each author event.

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Location: Maryland Center for History and Culture (610 Park Ave, Baltimore, MD 21201)
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Maryland Humanities will be at the 23^rd Annual CityLit Festival with featured author and 2026 OMOB author, Lawrence Burney! Join us in conversation with the 2026 OMOB author, Lawrence Burney and esteemed culture writer, Shamira Ibrahim for our first CityLit Festival Session: “Mining the Memory: No Sense in Wishing” from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.!

This year’s festival theme is Bearing Witness: Literature as a Revolutionary Act. Writers are necessary to document the truth, challenge dominant narratives, and create our own space to speak out.

This event is a FREE day-long celebration of literature, April 11, 2026, from 10 am to 6 pm. Join us for a full day of conversations, readings, book signings with your favorite authors, and workshops that focus on the craft of writing.

The CityLit Festival brings multiple sessions offering panels, readings, informational discussions, and craft intensives by a wide variety of writers, editors, and publishing professionals.  Related books will be on sale, and a Literary Marketplace provides exhibit space to the area’s diverse community of small presses, self-published authors, literary journals, and organizations serving writers and readers alike.

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Location: University of Maryland, Baltimore County (College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences)
Time: 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Join us for “One Maryland One Book: An Evening with Lawrence Burney, author of No Sense in Wishing,” where Lawrence will reflect on his essay collection, growing up in Baltimore, and his deep relationship to music with Assistant Professor of English, Chris L. Terry.

This event is co-sponsored by Maryland Humanities and the Dresher Center for the Humanities. Refreshments will be served.   

Save the date for UMBC BookFest ’26! Celebrate all things books–making them, reading them, preserving them, donating them, advocating for them–across campus during National Library Week on April 21 & 23. Events will include BookMarkIt on the Library Plaza, featuring letterpress printing, zinemaking and swaps, a book drive, giveaways, and more!

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Location: Zoom
Time: 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Join Lawrence Burney to inaugurate the 2026 One Maryland One Book programming season! Learn more about what inspired him to write the book, the role of cultural criticism, and some of the topics he hopes readers can keep in mind as they join in the OMOB experience this fall.

One Maryland One Book author Lawrence Burney will be in discussion with Maryland Humanities to discuss the 2026 selection, No Sense in Wishing, a collection of essays about Baltimore, music from the Black diaspora, and the traditions that raised him.

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Location: Carroll County Farm Museum (500 S Center St, Westminster MD, 21157)
Time: 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Lawrence Burney will be appearing at the first ever Carroll Book Festival! Book lovers from Carroll County and beyond are invited to this special event celebrating literacy, stories, and community. This event is free for all ages, and will include:

• 100+ national bestselling and indie authors, book signings, panel discussions, and author talks
• Children’s character breakfast
• Literary-themed vendors
• Local food trucks

Presented by Carroll County Public Library in partnership with Park Books on Main, Penguin Random House, Carroll County Economic Development, Last Word Bookstore, and Two Sides to the Story Podcast.

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Location: 32nd Street Stage (corner of 32nd Street & Greenmount Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland, 21218)
Time: 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Bringing together nationally recognized authors, acclaimed local writers, publishers, and literary organizations, the Baltimore Book Festival creates a vibrant space where readers of all ages can connect with the written word. Through author talks, panel discussions, book signings, youth programming, and community activations, the festival highlights the power of stories to inspire, educate, and bring people together.

Lawrence Burney will be in conversation with Doreen St. Felix about No Sense in Wishing.

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Location: BAAM Athletic Center (21 Jowite Street, Easton MD, 21601)
Time: 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

As a journalist and critic, Lawrence Burney has been writing about music and culture in and around his hometown of Baltimore for more than a decade. His debut book, the essay collection No Sense in Wishing (Simon & Schuster, 2025), takes us from the streets of Baltimore to the concert halls of Lagos, a Gil Scott-Heron show, and a Maryland crab feast, as he considers the music, art, people, and places that have transformed him. Along the way, Burney assesses how the Black people in his home state have historically improvised paths for their liberation. 

On Saturday, October 3, he will be discussing No Sense in Wishing—this year’s One Maryland One Book selection—with broadcast journalist and video producer Alana Yzola-Daly, whose recent projects include an assistant producer role for The Ebony Canal, a documentary exploring Black infant health that won 2025 Mid-Atlantic regional Emmy Awards for “societal concerns” and “outstanding PSA.”

The event will open with a musical performance by Friends in Faith Gospel Group at 5:15, and a book signing will follow the talk. Books will be available for sale on site courtesy of Book Hounds. This is event is free and open to the public.

This program is presented in partnership with BAAM, Maryland Humanities, Shore Lit, and Talbot County Free Library. For questions about accessibility, please contact Marcus Moon at mmoon@baaminc.org.

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Location: Globe Hall, High Technology and Science Center (20200 Observation Dr, Germantown, MD 20876)
Time: 12:30 – 2:00 p.m.

Lawrence Burney will be in discussion with Professor Stephen Bess, Associate Professor of English in the English and Reading Department, to deliver the Keynote for Montgomery College’s Humanities Days.

The two will be in conversation about No Sense in Wishing and how it relates to the Humanities Days’ theme, Humanities in Action: Collaboration, Solidarity, and Hope. Through a discussion of Burney’s writing and work, this event explores how the humanities serve as a catalyst across different spaces. By fostering collaboration among people with diverse perspectives, the humanities can bring about social change, promote solidarity in the face of injustice, and inspire hope for a more peaceful and just world for all.

A book signing will follow the talk. Books will be available for sale on site courtesy of the Montgomery College Bookstore.

For more information and to request accommodations, please email: humanitiesdays@montgomerycollege.edu

This is event is free and open to the public.

The event will also be livestreamed on Zoom, courtesy of Montgomery College. To receive the link, please register here.

This program is presented in partnership with the Global Humanities Institute and The Paul Peck Humanities Institute of Montgomery College, as well as Montgomery County Public Library.

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Location: Meyerhoff Theater @ BMA (10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218)
Time: 6:30 – 7:45 p.m.

The event is part of the Baltimore Museum of Arts’ Violet Hour Series, which connects communities with artists through interactive engagements.

In connection with the exhibition Flashback: Two Centuries of Baltimore Photography, Twriter and critic Lawrence Burney will provide a reading from No Sense In Wishing  as well as a special preview screening of Revisiting Ramona, his in-progress documentary. Told through the lens of photographer (and neighbor) Ellis Marsalis III’s book Tha Bloc: Words, Photographs and Baltimore City in Black White and Gray (2004) (published under the pen name t.p. Luce) the film is a cinematic portrait of a Baltimore community’s past, present, and future.

Following the screening, stay for an engaging conversation between Burney and Marsalis.

Registration is encouraged.

This program is presented in partnership with the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Johns Hopkins University Writing Program .