HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the September edition of the Wilde Readings Series, with Austin S. Camacho and Grace Cavalieri, hosted by Ann Bracken. For 2024, please join us at our NEW venue, independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, September 10th at 7 p.m., at 6955 Oakland Mills Rd, Suite E, Columbia MD, 21045. Please spread the word— bring your friends, family and students! Light refreshments will be served and books by the readers available for sale.

An open mic follows the featured authors and we encourage you to participate. Please prepare no more than five minutes of performance time, about two poems. Sign up when you arrive, or in advance via this online form.

Below, get to know Austin and Grace!

Who is the person in your life (past or present) that shows up most often in your writing?

Austin: I’ve never used real people in my writing although, I will admit that my fictional private detective Hannibal Jones is at least partly based on my son Adam.

Grace: Husband Ken Flynn.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Austin: In my home office at my big, glass-topped desk. But I can write anyplace as long there’s a chair that gives me good support and it’s quiet enough to hear the tunes in my earbuds.

Grace: In bed or at desk.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Austin: Earbuds in place and a small bowl of snacks to nibble on (usually cashews.)

Grace: silence

Who always gets a first read?

Austin: I always make the offer to my wife but most often it’s members of my critique group.

Grace: I do not share.

What is a book you’ve read more than twice (and would read again)?

Austin: I rarely re-read a book but The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler is one of the few exceptions.

Grace: Beloved.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Austin: A Noir at the Bar in Washington DC which included James Grady, S.A. Cosby and Cheryl Head. Three absolute masters of crime fiction!

Grace: Louise Gluck at the Library of Congress.

• Austin S. Camacho is the author of eight novels about Washington DC-based private eye Hannibal Jones, five in the Stark and O’Brien international thriller series, and the detective novel, Beyond Blue. His short stories have been featured in several anthologies. He is featured in the Edgar-nominated African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey, and helps produce the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity literary conference here in Columbia.

His personal homepage is https://ascamacho.com, and he can also be found on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The C3 con is scheduled to be the weekend of September 13–15 at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel in Columbia.

• Grace Cavalieri was Maryland’s tenth poet laureate (2018–2024). She founded and still produces “the Poet and the Poem” for public radio, now from the Library of Congress, celebrating 47 years on-air in 2024. She holds two Allen Ginsberg Awards; The Paterson Award; the AWP George Garrett, Columbia, Bordighera, AAUW Awards; National Commission on Working Women Award, and the CPB Silver Medal, plus others. She’s an Academy of American Poets Fellow. Her podcasts were sent to the moon.

Grace can be found online at https://gracecavalieri.com, which also hosts an extensive backlog of her writer-to-writer interview podcast, “The Poet and the Poem.”