Photo: Introducing host Tom Hall and author George Saunders at CityLit Festival (Pratt Library).
Gregg Wilhelm is Director of Mason Creative Writing where he oversees the BFA and MFA in Creative Writing programs and other initiatives. In fall 2020, he co-founded Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice, a center chartered by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at George Mason University.
Gregg’s expertise covers book publishing, arts administration, and higher education. He started his career at Johns Hopkins University Press, launched three imprints including one with a major independent bookseller, founded nonprofit literary arts organization CityLit Project in Baltimore (2004) and launched its CityLit Press imprint (2010), and held adjunct and leadership positions at several institutions. He served as Director of Marketing and Enrollment Development for the Open Studies unit at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has taught at the University of Baltimore, Community College of Baltimore County, Johns Hopkins University, and Loyola University Maryland, where he helped launch the “teaching press” Apprentice House.
As an editor and independent publisher, Gregg has shepherded nearly 300 titles to publication (across all genres and production specs). He graduated from the MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Tampa in 2014, and later that year won a RUBYs Artists Project Grant (named in honor of Creative Capital founder and former president, Ruby Lerner). His writing has appeared in the anthologies Clash by Night and Geo-Poe; in journals such as Gargoyle, The Broadkill Review, and Tampa Review; and in media including City Paper, The Sun, and Baltimore Magazine.
Gregg has sat on grant review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts (FY2014 and FY2019, The Big Read in FY2020), the Maryland State Arts Council, and the RUBYs Artist Grants (2019). He served on the committee that selected the inaugural Poet Laureate of Fairfax County (2019).
Gregg served on the board of directors for Poe Baltimore, charged with preserving, interpreting, and promoting the author's legacy in Baltimore and beyond. He also previously served on the boards of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and the Mid-Atlantic Publishers Association. He has been named "One to Watch" by Urbanite magazine, "40 Under 40" by the Baltimore Business Journal, and an Arts MVP by Baltimore.
The slideshow below includes some of Gregg’s pre-COVID traveling adventures, which he hopes to resume soon with his family.
