Having been twice rescheduled due to the pandemic, Blake’s 2020 Philip Otis Environmental Author Elizabeth Rush will at last visit Blake Jan. 18-21, when students on all campuses and the wider community will have an opportunity to hear her speak in person. 

An engaging presenter, Rush addresses timely issues such as climate change, sea level rise, environmental justice, vulnerable people and vulnerable land. In her highly acclaimed “Rising: Dispatches from a New American Shore,” she writes about the language and realities of climate change. And, having spent time in vulnerable communities on U.S. coastlines and in Asia, she speaks to the need for new environmental narratives.

Rush teaches non-fiction writing at Brown University and has taught at The Loft in Minneapolis. Her other work includes “Still Lifes from a Vanishing City: Photos and Essays from Yangon, Myanmar” and several books for children, “I is for Indonesia,” “H is for Hanoi” and “M is for Myanmar,” made in collaboration with artists local to those communities. As the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artist and Writer, Rush spent 50+ days during 2019 in Antarctica with a team of scientists from the U.S. and Great Britain.  

Established in 1997, the Philip Otis Environmental Authors Program promotes environmental literacy at the school through a biannual visit from a distinguished author whose work involves environmental themes and grant allocations for professional development, new curriculum planning, resources or classroom experiences that further environmental literacy.

Related Events

Monday, Jan. 10, 7pm CT
Virtual
The Equity Lab Presents: Community Discussion of Rush's ‘Rising’ 
Join a discussion of Elizabeth Rush's “Rising: Dispatches from a New American Shore” about vulnerable people and vulnerable land at the front lines of climate change with Marie Michael, Blake faculty emeritus; Whitney Terrill, environmental justice program manager at MN Interfaith Power and Light; and Lisa Sackreiter, Philip Otis Environmental Authors Program coordinator. Request a copy of the book and register for this event.

Tuesday, Jan. 18, 7pm CT
Northrop campus, Minneapolis
The Blake School and Milkweed Editions Present: Elizabeth Rush’s 'Rising'
Journalist Tom Weber will join Rush onstage for a conversation about empathy, vulnerability, the impacts of climate change, and Rush’s poetic approach to reportage. Visual artist and cultural organizer Shanai Matteson will open the program with a poem about water. A book signing will follow. Register here.

Thursday, Jan. 20, 7:30am CT
Blake campus, Hopkins and virtual
Breakfast at Blake
Rush will be the featured speaker at January’s Breakfast at Blake. Register to attend her presentation, "On Rising Together: Creative and Collective Responses to the Climate Crisis,” in person or virtually.