Mary Annaïse Heglar

Mary Annaïse Heglar is a writer who works at the intersections of climate change, climate grief, and climate justice.

Her essays have appeared in The Cut, The Boston Globe, Vox, Rolling Stone, Wired, and other outlets, as well as several essay collections like Not Too Late and All We Can Save. She is the author of the picture book This World is Yours to Cherish from Random House Kids (2024) and the editor of the recently announced Til Earth and Heaven Ring—an all-Black climate anthology with Pantheon Books. Her debut novel, Troubled Waters, an intimate portrait of two generations coming to terms with what it means to be family, Black women, and alive in a world on fire, released in May 2024.

She is the co-host and co-creator of the Hot Take podcast and newsletter with investigative journalist Amy Westervelt, which retired in 2022. In 2024, they launched Spill, a podcast further discussing the climate crisis. In 2020, she was Columbia University Earth Institute’s first Writer-in-Residence. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Columbia University in New York City and Tulane University in New Orleans. In 2020, she won a SEAL Environmental Journalism award.

Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, and Mississippi, Mary is based in New Orleans.