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If You Love Baltimore, It Will Love You Back
Ron Cassie
Author/Journalist/Baltimore Resident

This platform will be delivered in hybrid format, which means you can attend the platform via Zoom or in person at the Impact Hub Baltimore. Masks are optional.

If You Love Baltimore, It Will Love You Back: 171 Short But True Stories

In my presentation, I will be discussing my background, approach to journalism and essay writing, and the themes and vignettes that make my first book, a collection of short stories culled from a decade of writing for Baltimore magazine. I’ve included two blurbs about the book to give an idea about what my work is about.

"One of Ron Cassie's vignettes in If You Love Baltimore, It Will Love You Back is titled "The Polaroid Guy," and that's exactly who Cassie is. Only instead of film, Cassie uses the page. His empathetic approach, concern for justice, and keen journalist's eye have been honed over years on the Baltimore beat. As Cassie crisscrosses the city, what develops is an image of an urban landscape and its people in a constant state of rehab--in every sense of the word--that's emblematic of American cities today." -- Gregg Wilhelm, founder and director emeritus, Baltimore's CityLit Project, director of Creative Writing, George Mason University

"An expansive and yet microscopically detailed portrait of a city--painted with love. Cassie's intimate portrayal of Baltimore's residents, their triumphs and tragedies and work-a-day lives serves as a gorgeous rebuttal to President Donald Trump's tweeted dismissal of Baltimore City as a "disgusting," "very dangerous and filthy place." As Studs Terkel investigated the wage-earner in Working through scrupulous listening, Cassie similarly attends to the tenor of residents' experiences; the composite result is paean to a rust-belt city...in all its quirky glory." -- Karen Houppert, former Village Voice and Baltimore City Paper editor, author of Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People's Justice, associate director, Master of Arts in Writing Program, at Johns Hopkins University

Bio:
Ron Cassie is a senior editor at Baltimore magazine, where he has won national awards for profile writing and work covering the death of Freddie Gray, climate change, and the opioid epidemic. He is the author of If You Love Baltimore, It Will Love You Back: 171 Short, But True Stories (Apprentice House) and his byline has also appeared at the Atlantic’s CityLab, the Pulitzer Center, Newsweek, Washingtonian, The Baltimore Sun, and the Loch Raven Review, among other outlets. His work was chosen as a notable selection by The Best of American Sportswriting and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

He holds a Master of Arts in Writing from Johns Hopkins and is currently pursuing a doctorate degree at Georgetown. He has taught journalism at McDaniel College and feature writing at Towson University and is a frequent lecturer at local universities.

Previously, he swung a hammer, poured drinks, and pedaled a bike to earn a living.

Physical Location:
Impact Hub Baltimore
10 E. North Ave
Baltimore, MD 21202

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