Cultural Witness: Migrant Heart for the Seekers & Dreamers with Reyna Grande, Migrante Corazón
Moderator: Lauren Francis-Sharma
France Hall
Maryland Center for History and Culture
610 Park Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21201
Saturday, April 11, 2026
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
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What it means to bear witness to your own experience. While fiction allows you to take the reins and map out the what-ifs, memoir forces you to become the protagonist in your own story. Novelist, memoirist Reyna Grande, in perhaps her most raw and honest work to date, stitches together the pieces of her life, “the memories, wounds, and quiet moments of triumph, that have shaped” her in her forthcoming collection, Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can’t Forget. Corazón Migrante. CityLit welcomes an open conversation as this cultural witness, in conversation with novelist Lauren Francis-Sharma, discusses her memoir-in-essays that illuminates the hidden cost of the American Dream, as she untangles a lifetime of memories and the complex journey of healing without shame but with compassion. Her landmark memoirs, The Distance Between Us and A Dream Called Home, force a look inward, exploring with heartwrenching authenticity the scars that marked her and turned her pain into power. This collection further examines the complexity of migration, of a life crossing borders, and reckoning with how her own impoverished childhood shows up against the abundance her offspring experience. Called “an essential read for the seekers, the dreamers, and anyone who believes in the enduring, transformative power of finding one’s voice.” Reyna Grande is the author of several books, including The Distance Between Us, a 2014 One Maryland/One Book selection. Migrant Heart is forthcoming in May in English and Spanish. Lauren Francis-Sharma, a Pushcart-nominated writer, is the author of Casualties of Truth, her third novel, longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize, a finalist for the 2025 Caricon Prize, and a 2025 “Books to Read” by NPR, was inspired by her time at South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Amnesty Hearings.
*The Writer’s Room with Reyna Grande (the immigrant experience)
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Counting Room
THE WRITER’S ROOM debuted at the virtual 2021 CityLit Festival, designed to engage participants face-to-face with authors in an informal conversation about the different aspects of writing, including questions about craft, research, writing process, challenges, and publication. Featured wind down from being ‘on’ and simply engage with the writers assembled about all sorts of things. In the past, EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL, TERRANCE HAYES, NIKKY FINNEY, JENNY OFFI LL, HANIF ABDURRAQIB, FATIMAH ASGHAR, BERNICE McFADDEN, and ROXANE GAY participated and simply loved it. Roxane Gay was so taken by the diverse and inclusive writers assembled that, to our delight and surprise, she stayed for an hour. A hit with festival attendees! This year’s featured TWRs are meant to engage you and for you to ask questions: Reyna Grande – Cultural Witness: Migrant Heart for the Seekers & Dreamers (on the immigrant experience) & Piper Huguley – Fashionistas: Icons of History (on historical fiction).
*The Writer’s Room is an informal convening where the featured author takes the lead with an introduction that speaks as an invitation to attendees to open up and engage with their questions.
Born in Guerrero, Mexico, Reyna Grande spent years waiting to be reunited with her parents before making the dangerous journey to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant at just nine years old. Those early years of separation and migration became the heartbeat of everything she writes. Her memoirs, The Distance Between Us, which was a One Maryland/One Book Selection in 2014, and A Dream Called Home — recently named a “Best Book of the 21st Century” by Kirkus Reviews—shine a light on what it’s really like to grow up as an immigrant. Reyna’s work covers a lot of ground, from her novels Across a Hundred Mountains and Dancing with Butterflies to the historical epic A Ballad of Love and Glory. An American Book Award winner and Oprah’s Book Club pick, Reyna continues to share powerful stories of survival. Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can’t Forget comes out this May.
reynagrande.com
Instagram: @writerreynagrande
Lauren Francis-Sharma, a Pushcart-nominated writer, is the author of Book of the Little Axe, a 2020 finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award in Fiction. Her critically acclaimed first novel, ‘Til the Well Runs Dry, was awarded the Honor Fiction Prize by the Black Caucus of the ALA. Her third novel, Casualties of Truth, longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize, a finalist for the 2025 Caricon Prize, and named a 2025 “Books to Read” by NPR, was inspired by her time at South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Amnesty Hearings. “The atrocities of South Africa’s apartheid refuse to stay buried for Prudence … Francis-Sharma weaves together a tale of dual reckonings for both an individual woman and an entire country,” writes the New York Times Book Review, Paperback Row. Lauren has written the new introduction to the latest edition of the classic South African novel, Cry, the Beloved Country, and is co-editor of the upcoming Welcome to the Mountain: A Portable Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, a 100-year-old institution where she serves as Assistant Director. Pre-orders are available: https://fourwaybooks.com/site/welcome-to-the-mountain/
laurenfrancissharma.com
Instagram: @laurenfsharma
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CityLit Project in partnership with Maryland Center for History and Culture present Bearing Witness: Literature as a Revolutionary Act. This celebration of the arts showcases a bevy of leading poets and writers on April 11, 2026. We’re talking fiction, nonfiction, poetry galore, and ways to up the ante on your craft.
Download the CityLit Festival: Bearing Witness flyer with the schedule.
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