Join us for a reading with Mary Annaïse Heglar for her debut novel Troubled Waters, an intimate portrait of two generations, a granddaughter and a grandmother coming to terms with what it means to be family, Black women, and alive in a world on fire. In conversation with Heglar will be Kendra Pierre-Louis, an award-winning climate reporter.

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket with 50 max attendees. Please register in advance. 

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees are encouraged to stay masked at all time. 

Recirculation, a project of Word Up Community Bookshop, is located at 876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 157th St., A/C train to 163rd St., and the M4 and M5 to Broadway and 159/160th.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The world is burning–and Corrine will do anything to put out the flames. After her brother died aboard an oil boat on the Mississippi River in 2013, Corrine awakened to the realities of climate change and its perpetrators. Now, a year later, she finds herself trapped in a lonely cycle of mourning both her brother and the very planet she stands on. She’s convinced that in order to save her future, she has to make sure that her brother’s life meant something. But in the act of honoring her brother’s spirit, she resurrects family ghosts she knows little about–ghosts her grandmother Cora knows intimately.

The world is burning–but it always has been. Cora’s ghosts have followed her from her days as a child integrating schools in 1950s Nashville to her new life as a mother, grandmother, and teacher in Mississippi. As a child of the civil rights movement, she’s done her best to keep those specters away from her granddaughter. She faced those demons, she reasons to herself, so that Corinne would never know they existed.

When Corrine’s plan to stage a dramatic act of resistance peels back the scabs of her family wounds and puts her safety in jeopardy, both grand­mother and granddaughter must bring their unspoken secrets into the light to find a path to healing. Their world hangs in the balance as past and future meet in the present moment.

In heartfelt, lyrical prose, Mary Anna se Heglar weaves an unforgettable story of the climate crisis, Black resistance, and the enduring power of family.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Annaïse Heglar has written essays for publications such as New York Magazine, The Boston Globe, Vox, Wired, and Rolling Stone, among others. She is also the co-host and co-creator of Hot Take, a critically acclaimed climate newsletter and podcast. In 2020, Mary was the inaugural writer in residence at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and has since taught classes there and at Tulane University. She is based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Troubled Waters is Heglar’s debut novel. She is also the author of the children’s book, The World is Ours to Cherish. Follow her on Twitter @MaryHeglar and on Instagram at @mary.heglar.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Kendra Pierre-Louis is an award winning climate reporter with Bloomberg. She has worked as senior climate reporter with the Gimlet/Spotify podcast How to Save a Planet, as a climate reporter with The New York Times and as a staff writer for Popular Science.  She is also the author of the book, “Green Washed: Why We Can’t Buy Our Way to a Green Planet.” Kendra is a recipient of the 2023 New York Press Club Award for the audio story, “Sandy Was Just the Start. Is New York City Building Resiliently Enough for What’s Coming Next?” and a  2022 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award. 
 

WORD UP COMMUNITY SAFETY GUIDELINES

CANCELLATION POLICY: Word Up Community Bookshop reserves the right to cancel events for any reason, including but not limited to safety concerns.

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ACCESSIBILITY: Recirculation is a wheelchair-accessible space with one ramp from the street level down to the store. Most of the shelves are on wheels and can be moved to provide additional access. The bathrooms are not yet ADA compliant and do not yet have a changing table but are gender neutral. The events are mic’d for sound and videos are captioned when possible. Free ASL interpretation is available for most programs upon request. Please email events@wordupbooks.com to request interpretation as early as possible. If you have specific questions about the space or how an event can be made more accessible to you, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@wordupbooks.com.