Rafael Alvarez continues to chronicle life in his native Baltimore with his tenth book, Crabtown, USA, which hits bookstores in time for the holiday season. A follow-up to his nonfiction anthologies Hometown Boy and Storyteller, Crabtown chronicles the author's continued fascination with the everyday eccentrics who make Charm City compelling, heartbreaking, beautiful, and weird.

A former reporter for the Baltimore Sun and staff writer for the HBO drama "The Wire," Alvarez writes fiction from his grandparents' home in East Baltimore and has just completed a screenplay about the Nazi occupation of Greece. His other notable works include Tales from the Holy Land and The Wire: Truth Be Told.

At the Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Rd., Baltimore, MD. Click here for more info.