So much to see, so little time. Below, we've compiled a few highlights representing the best of the fest:

What's Gnu: Check out the debut of the Paws & Pages Stage, which has animal programming plus adoptable pets. Featured authors include Mikita Brottman reading from “The Great Grisby” (4 p.m. Saturday); Bronwen Dickey, “Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon” (noon Saturday); and journalist Jill Yesko, “Murder in the Dog Park” and “Dog Spelled Backwards” at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Attention, foodies: The Food for Thought Stage presents a Sustainable Seafood Panel with James Beard Award-winning chef Spike Gjerde, Gertrude's at the BMA owner John Shields and owner of the True Chesapeake Oyster Co. Patrick Hudson. The panel concludes with an oyster shucking demonstration and tasting. 3:30 p.m. Saturday. And at noon Sunday, Allison and Matt Robicelli — who are bringing their famed bakery to Baltimore — will discuss their new cookbook, “Robicelli's: A Love Story, with Cupcakes: With 50 Decidedly Grown-Up Recipes.” It features confections flavored with such decidedly grown-up ingredients as figs, whiskey and fried chicken.

All the World's a Stage: Check out a demonstration of stage combat at 11 a.m. daily at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company booth near the Baltimore Visitor Center. At 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the Literary Salon will host a free edition of the popular Stoop Storytelling Series featuring seven local writers, incluiding thriller author Dan Fesperman and New York Times magazine writer Wil S. Hylton. And at 11 a.m. Saturday, Geppi's Entertainment Museum puts on a pop culture parade along the Inner Harbor Promenade.

Local heroes: Many of our local scribes have larger-than-life-sized personalities. Say hello to former Walters Art Museum director Gary Vikan reading from “Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director” (1 p.m. Saturday, Inner Harbor Stage); Thomas Dolby and his memoir, “The Speed of Sound: Breaking the Barriers Between Music and Technology” (12:30 p.m. Saturday in the Literary Salon); and historian and radio host Bob Hieronimus discussing “The Secret Life of Lady Liberty” (3:30 p.m. Sunday on the City Lit Stage). Brottman will read from another book, “The Maximum Security Book Club: Reading Literature in a Men's Prison” at noon Saturday at the Inner Harbor Stage.

Marketplace Madness: The exhibitors' and tablers' tents offers everything from large established booksellers to up-and-coming regional authors hawking their work. Though there's no set schedule, you might catch 9-year-old author Lauryn Burks signing copies of her third children's book, “Pretty Hand Goes to Paris” in Rash Field along Key Highway, or Kitria Stewart selling her illustrated story book, “Freddie Gray, My Childhood Friend,” at Bicentennial Plaza.