In the chronicles of Baltimore can be found a wise woman who has studied all the best masters in history and archaeology and the arts, and whose cleverness at telling stories is unparalleled throughout the realm.
Her name is Laura Amy Schlitz and not, as some have suspected, Scheherazade. For Scheherazade merely told the king of Persia about Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad the Sailor over 1,001 Arabian nights. But Laura Amy Schlitz has told stories to pupils at the Park School in Brooklandville for more than 2,002 Maryland days. She has told them about a sweet-smelling elderly woman named Hyacinth who is poisonous to children; about Sophia the Greek peasant girl and about Hugo the lord's son.
LAURA AMY SCHLITZ / / The author will read excerpts from A Drowned Maiden's Hair at 1 p.m. Oct. 1. Baltimore Book Festival Children's Stage, 600 block of N. Charles St. / / For more book festival events, see Page 5E.
Laura Amy Schlitz
Age:
51
Occupation:
Novelist, playwright, librarian and storyteller
Born:
Baltimore
Education:
Goucher College, bachelor of arts degree in aesthetics, 1977
Publications:
Two children's books were published in 2006. Two more will be published in 2007. A romance novel for adults, A Gypsy at Almack's, was published in 1994 under the pseudonym Chloe Cheshire.
Plays:
Eight or nine (by Schlitz' count). Her scripts have been produced at Stage One in Louisville, Ky., and by at least two Baltimore troupes:Pumpkin Theatre and the Children's Theatre Association.
11th annual Baltimore Book Festival
When
5-9 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and Oct. 1
Where
Mount Vernon Place, 600 N. Charles St., Baltimore
Highlights
More than 150 authors, including Laura Amy Schlitz, Hill Harper from the CBS television series, CSI:NY; actress and activist Ruby Dee; Sebastian Junger, best-selling author of A Perfect Storm, and Taylor Branch, Pulitzer-Prize-winning biographer of Martin Luther King Jr.
New This Year
Ladies' Night Out, a panel discussion about life, love and fashion moderated by Cosmopolitan editor Kate White. It will be held 6:30 p.m. Friday in the Literary Salon in the 600 block of N. Charles St.
Information
1-877-BALTIMORE or at www.baltimorebookfestival.com
