Tipping Point: Climate. Crisis. Critical.
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Lord Baltimore Hotel
Hanover Suite A – Mezzanine
PARKING
Download a map here.
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The evidence of climate crisis dictates that we find additional ways to activate engagement, and what better way than through stories? Two novelists, one debuting “a parallel narrative of the 1950s civil rights movement,” the other “transporting” readers and celebrated by one of the nation’s leading influencers, share their engrossing work in this session led by one of Baltimore’s leading advocates. Mary Annaïse Heglar is the author of The World is Ours to Cherish and Troubled Waters, which international bestselling author Amitav Ghosh calls “An absorbing story of a young woman’s journey towards an act of redemptive protest.” She is known for her essays that dissect and interrogate the climate crisis, drawing heavily on her personal experience as a Black woman with deep roots in the South. “Weaving together generational trauma, untold stories of the civil rights movement, and an exploration of the impacts of environmental trauma and climate change, Heglar packs a wallop in this lyrical, powerful story of Black women, family love, endurance, and the power of place,” says Library Journal. Eric Puchner is the author of four books, including his latest novel Dream State, selected as Oprah’s next book club pick, which Ron Charles calls, “a long deep ride that transverses half a century, it never labors under the weight of its broad scope”. Eric teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. “Dream State is a masterpiece. A glittering, evocative achievement. I thought about the ending for days,” says Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Orphan Master’s Son. Moderator Naadiya Hutchinson is co-founder of the Baltimore Just Transition Network and serves on the Maryland Lead Poisoning Prevention Commission. Naadiya is an environmental and climate justice advocate and community organizer, deeply committed to creating a healthy future for people and the planet. She recently wrote an op-ed on lead poisoning in Baltimore and the need to increase renter protections as we face worsening housing conditions due to climate change. In line with All We Can Save, CityLit applauds a deep, sustained, courageous approach to “people are at the heart of planetary healing.”
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Mary Annaïse Heglar is the author of Troubled Waters and The World is Ours to Cherish. She is also known for her essays that dissect and interrogate the climate crisis, drawing heavily on her personal experience as a Black woman with deep roots in the South. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, The Nation, The Boston Globe, Vox, Rolling Stone, and other outlets. Her work has also been featured in collections like All We Can Save, The World As We Knew It, The Black Agenda, Letters to the Earth, and Not Too Late. With investigative journalist Amy Westervelt, she co-created the Hot Take podcast and newsletter, which retired in 2022. In 2024, they launched Spill, which fosters messy conversations about the climate crisis. She has taught at Columbia University in New York and Tulane University in New Orleans. In 2020, she received a SEAL Environmental Journalism award. Mary has been obsessed with the art of storytelling as long as she can remember. She began writing about the climate crisis in 2018 as a way to process her own climate grief. From there, she expanded into other modes of storytelling, including podcasting, teaching, and public speaking. She is based in Birmingham, Alabama.
www.maryannaiseheglar.com
Instagram: @mary.heglar
Eric Puchner is the author of the new novel Dream State, which Alice McDermott, National Book Award winner, declares “a delight…An exquisitely rendered novel about the vagaries of fate, and friendship, and love.” His other books include the novel Model Home, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, and two collections of short stories, Last Day on Earth and Music Through the Floor, a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award. His work has appeared in GQ, Granta, McSweeney’s, Tin House, and The Best American Short Stories 2012 and 2017. He has received a California Book Award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. An associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, he lives in Baltimore with his wife, novelist Katharine Noel, and their two children.
www.ericpuchner.com
Naadiya Hutchinson is the co-founder of the Baltimore Just Transition Network and serves on the Maryland Lead Poisoning Prevention Commission. Naadiya previously served as an equity advisor for the Baltimore City Disaster Preparedness Plan and as a resident advisor on the Baltimore City Climate Action Plan. Naadiya is an environmental and climate justice advocate and community organizer, deeply committed to creating a healthy future for people and the planet.
linktr.ee/naadiyahut
Instagram: @naadiyahut
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CityLit Project in partnership with Lord Baltimore Hotel and Red Emma’s present CityLit Festival: Our Stories Give Light To Our Future. This celebration of the arts showcases a bevy of leading poets and writers on April 5, 2025. We’re talking fiction, nonfiction, poetry galore, and ways to up the ante on your craft.
Download the CityLit Festival: Our Stories Give Light To Our Future flyer.