AUTHOR! AUTHOR! Charm City's got them by the shelf load at the annual Baltimore Book Festival (Sept. 17-19). From a literary salon with NPR's Baghdad correspondent Anne Garrels to the latest from the avant guardians of graphic literature and hometown mystery girl Laura Lippman, writers and readers meet at Mount Vernon Place . Pick up cookbooks, kid lit, poetry and more from established authors and neophytes alike. New this year: walking tours of libraries (including the historic Peabody Library, from where public radio's "the Book Guys" will broadcast their program and offer free appraisals) and minibus tours of the Baltimore Mural Program.
Festival free. Mural tour $15. Friday 5-9 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 11 a.m.-7 p.m. About 40 minutes from the Beltway in Baltimore. 877-BALTIMORE,www.promotionandarts.com.
-- Anne McDonough
