We Are More Than One Story
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Lord Baltimore Hotel
Hanover Suite A – Mezzanine
PARKING
Download a map here.
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Two debut novelists Zeeva Bukai, Anatomy of Exile, Karen Outen, Dixon Descending, and nonfiction author, Kevin Shird, A Life For A Life: Poor Choices and Unresolved Trauma is Killing American, discuss their new works centered on the theme we are more than one story. Three very different tales that include a modern day Romeo and Juliet story between a Palestinian and Jew that ends in a tragedy; an unorthodox journey of an esteemed author who recounts his incarceration alongside his cellmate, and the gripping true story that explores violence, mental health, and trauma; and brothers who attempt to be the first Black American men to summit Mount Everest in a shattering portrait of the ways we’re reshaped by our decisions. Kevin Shird is a four-time published author, activist and public speaker. This sought-after writer has become the content-expert on using the past to build a better future based on his life experiences. His latest work, A Life For A Life called a story of redemption “weaves several threads together in a compelling case for greater access to mental health counseling in prison and destigmatizing therapy.” Baltimore Magazine. Zeeva Bukai works and lives in Brooklyn, NY. Her first novel “creates sympathy for a spectrum of individuals trapped by tribalism, land grabs, heartless government actions, and economics.” Karen Outen‘s first short fiction appeared in Essence magazine in 1984, and since then, she’s published stories, essays, and poems, and received numerous awards. Dixon, Descending is her first novel, a “book to read right now,” says Kirkus Reviews. Moderator Hannah Grieco is a writer, editor, and English professor in Washington, DC.and the author of First Kicking, Then Not, forthcoming from Stanchion in 2025.
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Kevin Shird is a four-time published author, activist, and screenwriter. He has become an expert on using the past to build a better future. Shird began his very unorthodox journey at the tender age of sixteen when he started dealing drugs on the streets of Baltimore. This led to him serving almost twelve years in prison. Since leaving prison, Shird monetized his life’s lesson by authoring books on social issues. He lectures at colleges and universities across America on issues like education, public health policy, and mass incarceration. During the Obama Administration, he collaborated with the White House and President Obama’s Clemency Initiative. In 2018, he became an associate at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine, where he co-teaches a class on public health. Today, he serves as a professor at Coppin State University.
https://hopkinsmedicalhumanities.org/people/kevin-shird
X: @KEVIN_SHIRD
Instagram: @kevin_shird
Zeeva Bukai was born in Israel and raised in New York City. Her work is forthcoming in Smashing the Tablets: A Retelling of the Hebrew Bible, published by SUNY Press, and has appeared in Frankly Feminist; Short Stories by Jewish Women, Pithead Chapel, CARVE, The Master’s Review, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Image Journal, December Magazine, and elsewhere. Her honors include the Curt Johnson Prose Award selected by Lily King, the Master’s Review Fall Fiction Award selected by Anita Felicelli. She had fellowships at the Center for Fiction, Byrdcliff Artist in Residence program, and Hedgebrook. She holds an MFA from Brooklyn College and is the Assistant Director of Academic Support at SUNY Empire State University. She lives in Brooklyn with her family. The Anatomy of Exile is her debut novel with “a tight plot woven with complicated moral questions faced by characters willing to confront their circumstances creates a novel that’s impossible to put down.” New York Journal of Books
zeevabukai.com
Instagram: @zeevabukai
Karen Outen’s fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, The North American Review, Essence, and elsewhere. She is a 2018 recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award and has been a fellow at both the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan and the Pew Fellowships in the Arts. She has taught writing at the University of Michigan and at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She received an MFA from the University of Michigan, where she received Hopwood Awards for her fiction. She lives in Bowie, Maryland. Dixon, Descending is her first novel, that gifts the reader revealing the “love and friendship among Black men. That alone makes Dixon, Descending a worthy read.” BookPage
Hannah Grieco is the author of First Kicking,Then Not, forthcoming from Stanchion in 2025. She writes a literary column for Washington City Paper, edits prose at a variety of small presses and literary journals, and teaches literature at Marymount University. She also works 1:1 with writers as an editor and book coach, helping with manuscript development, agent and publishing house searches, essay and short story placement, and more. Read her work in The Washington Post, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, Brevity, Craft Literary, Poet Lore, Shenandoah, The Offing, Wigleaf, Fairy Tale Review, and more.
www.hgrieco.com
Instagram: @writesloud
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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.