Brian Cullman with Don Palmer on ‘How to Prepare For The Past’ (Baltimore)
September 24, 7:00 PM ET • Baltimore, MD: Atomic Books | 3620 Falls Rd., Baltimore, MD 21211
Join ZE Books at Atomic Books for an evening with How to Prepare For The Past: Travels In Music and Time, Brian Cullman’s memoir of a life in music. Cullman will be joined in conversation by the writer Don Palmer.
How to Prepare For The Past: Travels In Music and Time is writer and musician Brian Cullman’s rapturous evocation of life in the bike lane—before the world was digital, when music was everything and magic was everywhere—encompassing friendships with Lester Bangs, Nick Drake, Big Joe Turner, Tim Hardin, and Paul Bowles.
The book moves between New York, London, Tangier, and points further out, gathering the encounters, near-misses, and long nights of a life spent listening. It begins with the radio as a first love: “It was all one sound. It was all one song: the drums and the words, the words without words, the rhythm and the static and the joy and amplified tears.”
About the Author
Brian Cullman is a writer and musician based in New York and in France. He has written extensively for The Paris Review, Antaeus, Rolling Stone, and The Village Voice, and has won the ASCAP/Deems Taylor award for excellence in music journalism three times. He has three solo albums on Sunnyside and is currently a member of the Lisbon-based group Rua Das Pretas.
About the Venue
Atomic Books sits on Falls Road in Hampden, trading in indie comics, zines, small-press books, and cult film titles, and forwarding John Waters’s fan mail. Eightbar, the bar at the back, doubles as the event room for readings, signings, and the store’s monthly book and comics clubs. atomicbooks.com
Writer and musician Brian Cullman’s rapturous evocation of life in the bike lane, before the world was digital, when music was everything and magic was everywhere, encompassing friendships with Lester Bangs, Nick Drake, Big Joe Turner, Tim Hardin, and Paul Bowles.
Release: Apr 28, 2026
Paperback ISBN: 9798988670100 • 256 pages
UK release: Jun 11, 2026 • UK Price: £14.99