7 maryland authors to add to your shelves

Do you love reading? So does guerilla.

I’m Mel Isaacs, guerilla’s marketing manager, and I used to be a librarian with the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Today, I’ll be sharing some amazing authors from Maryland you can add to your bookshelf, check out from your local library, or download from the ebook app Libby.

Let’s check them out.

maryland authors we love

edgar allan poe

Of course, no list of Baltimore authors would be complete without the famed Edgar Allan Poe. A writer best known for his poems and short stories, some of his iconic works include The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, Annabel Lee, and The Fall of the House of Usher.

Poe was a central figure of the Gothic Fiction movement, and his writing often focused on spooky and mysterious themes.

In Baltimore, you can find evidence of Poe’s influence everywhere, from goths visiting Poe’s grave to the Poe Room at the Enoch Pratt Free Library to Canton’s Annabel Lee Tavern. Popular Poe-related events include the International Poe Festival and the Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy.

martha jones

Martha Jones is a legal and cultural historian. She is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, Professor of History, and a Professor at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her work explores slavery, gender, visual culture, and law in the United States in the 19th century.

Her most recent book is Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All. This book explores history from the beginning of the suffragist movement starting in Seneca Falls in 1848 to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. This was primarily a white woman’s movement and did not help Black women gain the right to vote. The book documents the political lives of African American women and their work to abolish slavery and racism to gain civil rights for all people. She celebrates the accomplishments and history of figures including Fannie Lou Hamer, Maria Stewart, and more.

Previous works by Jones include Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America. This book explores how African American activists redefined the meaning of citizenship in America, from before the Civil War and colonization to the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment.

laura lippman

Laura Lippman started her writing career as a journalist, but became known for her detective novels set all around Maryland. Most recently, she published Prom Mom, a thriller set in Towson’s Stoneleigh and Anneslie neighborhoods.

Her most famous work is Lady in the Lake, about two deaths in 1969: 11-year-old Esther Lebowitz’s murder, and 33-year-old Shirley Parker’s mysterious death. The book deals with themes of misogyny and racism in America in the 1960s. Lady in the Lake was also made into a TV show starring Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram. You can watch it on Apple TV+.

anne tyler

Anne Tyler is the author of several books including The Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, and Three Days in June (releasing 2025). She was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2015 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989.

Anne Tyler currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland, where she can be spotted at local favorites like Eddie’s Grocery. Her novel The Beginner’s Goodbye also mentions Cold Spring Lane in the Roland Park neighborhood. A Patchwork Planet is set in Baltimore’s Penn Station.

lucille clifton

Lucille Clifton was a prolific poet whose work focused on themes related to African American women and families.

Her first volume of poetry, Good Times: Poetry, was published in 1969, and was noted by the New York Times as one of the best books that year. Her work during that time explored the political and social changes happening as well as the role of Black political leaders.

Her work from the 1970s-1980s was compiled into Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir: 1969-1980, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Clifton was the first African American to become Maryland’s Poet Laureate, and held the position from 1979-1982. She was also a faculty member at St. Mary’s College in Maryland.

madison smartt bell

A Goucher professor, writer, and literary agent, Madison Smartt Bell has written 13 novels, including Behind the Moon, Devil’s Dream, The Color of Night and All Souls’ Rising.

His novel Doctor Sleep was adapted into a film, Close Your Eyes. He also collaborated on a musical album with Wyn Cooper, Forty Words for Fear in 2003.

In addition to his position at Goucher, Bell has also taught workshops such as the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars.

adrienne rich

Adrienne Rich was one of the 20th century’s most widely-read poets. Her work explored feminism and the oppression of women and LGBT people.

In the 1960s and 70s, Rich’s writing became even more radical in terms of her anti-war positions and feminism. Her work from this time became central to the second-wave feminist movement.

Some of her key collections include The Will to Change, Snapshots of a Daughter-In-Law, and Your Native Land, Your Life.