Crack open a good book and hear from an array of authors when the Baltimore Book Festival returns Sept. 28 and 29 for the first time since 2019.The 25th festival will take place in Waverly this year. The neighborhood includes several independent bookstores, including festival partner Red Emma’s, Normals Books & Records, Urban Reads, and The Book Thing of Baltimore. This year’s event will cover six stages and more than 10 programming partners, with more than 100 authors and literary personalities.“As home to greats ranging from Edgar Allen Poe to Lucille Clifton, Baltimore recognizes literature as one of its most important art forms,” said BOPA CEO Rachel D. Graham in a statement. “As we mark 25 years of highlighting this culturally rich and brilliantly diverse genre, we are excited about how that diversity and the City’s love of the written word is reflected in this year’s festival.”The festival will kick off Friday, Sept. 27, with a 7 p.m. opening reception at Peabody Heights Brewery. Attendees will be able to enjoy readings by Baltimore poets, musical performances, and more.Then, on the first full day of the festival Saturday, Sept. 28, a variety of authors and creatives will be featured on the 32nd Street Stage. At 11. a.m., Charm City Books will present a talk with Hilton Carter, who will discuss his “The Propagation Handbook.” Then at 4 p.m., in partnership with The Baltimore Beat, audiences can hear Lisa Snowden, Deyane Moses, Bilphena Yahwon, and Bry Reed talk about “Preserving History & How the Black Press Safeguards the Past.” That stage will round out the afternoon with a conversation between bestselling writer adrienne maree brown and Ashindi Maxton, co-director of the Donors of Color Network. Saturday will also include events on the 31st Street Stage. Among them, CityLit Project will feature a “Leaving” author Roxana Robinson talking with Marion Winik, Bohemian Rhapsody columnist for Baltimore Fishbowl and host of WYPR’s The Weekly Reader. Also on that stage Saturday, Well-Read Black Girl’s founder Glory Edim will announce her upcoming work “Gather Me” with The Baltimore Banner columnist Leslie Gray Streeter; and, in partnership with The Clifton House, poet and scholar Kazim Ali will share his new work “Black Buffalo Woman” about Maryland’s former Poet Laureate Lucille Clifton.The 31st Street Stage will showcase organizations of women writers: Wintergreen Writers Collective, founded by Baltimore’s Dr. Joanne Gabbin of Furious Flower Poetry Center; CityLit’s own Scribente Maternum; and Baltimore’s Zora’s Den and Yellow Arrow Publishing. Saturday’s festival events will end with music by IAHIAL, formerly Like Water, and a poetry reading with Kazim Ali, Lady Brion, and poets in The Hunger I Felt hosted by Unique Robinson.Charm City Books and the Maryland Romance Writers Association will present readings on the Peabody Heights Stage on Saturday. Normals Books Records will present selections from Bruister Magazine.On Sunday, festival-goers can catch The Ivy Bookshop’s spotlight on Writers in Baltimore Schools with “The Playground: Voices from the Swingsets of Baltimore” on the 31st Street Stage. The stage will end the afternoon with “Remembering the 300 Man March” with photojournalist J.M. Giordano interviewing activist Darnyle Wharton about experiences with activists in the Baltimore Peace Movement on its 10th anniversary.The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association will present readings on the Peabody Heights Stage on Sunday. Normals Books & Records will present a “Cosmic Smorgasbord of Readings.”Red Emma’s will host readings inside their bookstore on Saturday and Sunday, including  a reading by disability rights activist and scholar Sunaura Taylor.Baltimore Read Aloud will partner with Snug Books and Urban Reads Bookstore to host two days of youth programming, including author Carole Boston Weatherford, “Max Meow” author John Gallagher, and 2024 Baltimore Youth Poet Laureate Eriona Birts.Read more about this year’s festival at baltimorebookfestival.com.