Writer, naturalist and activist Janisse Ray, author of five books of literary nonfiction and a collection of nature poetry, makes her return to Peachtree City Saturday, July 25, for a creative nonfiction writing workshop and book talk/signing.
Ray was one of four authors selected for induction into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame this year for her book, “Drifting Into Darien: A Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River” (UGA Press). The ceremony will take place Nov. 9 at 10 a.m. at Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries in Athens.
“We are so excited that Janisse will be coming back to Peachtree City later this month,” said Peachtree City Library Administrator Jill Prouty. “She is a true Georgia ‘hero’ – one who values nature, community, agriculture, wildness, sustainability and the politics of wholeness; values Peachtree City residents hold near and dear.”
Ray will lead a creative nonfiction writing workshop July 25 from 10 a.m.–2 p.m. The cost is $25 and a working lunch will be provided courtesy of Jersey Mike’s Subs. Registration information can be found online at www.peachtreecitylibraryfriends.com. Following the workshop, Ray will give a book talk next door at City Hall beginning at 3 p.m. The book talk is free and open to the public. Copies of her book, “Drifting Into Darien: A Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River,” will be for sale at the event. Copies are also available for checkout at Peachtree City Library.
The Altamaha is Ray’s river, and from childhood she dreamed of paddling its entire length to where it empties into the sea. Drifting into Darien begins with an account of finally making that journey, turning to medita¬tions on the many ways we accept a world that contains both good and evil. With praise, biting satire, and hope, Ray contemplates transformation and attempts with every page to settle peacefully into the now.
Though commemorating a history that includes logging, Ray celebrates “a culture that sprang from the flatwoods, which required a judicious use of nature.” She looks in vain for an ivorybill woodpecker but is equally eager to see any of the imperiled species found in the river basin: spiny mussel, American oystercatcher, Radford’s mint, Alabama milkvine. The book explores both the need and the possibilities for conservation of the river and the surrounding forests and wetlands. As in her groundbreaking “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood,” Ray writes an account of her beloved river that is both social history and natural history, understanding the two as inseparable, particularly in the rural corner of Georgia that she knows best. Ray goes looking for wisdom and finds a river.
Ray holds an MFA from the University of Montana, and in 2007 was awarded an honorary doctorate from Unity College in Maine. She is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. Ray has won a Southern Booksellers Award for Poetry 2011, Southeastern Booksellers Award for Nonfiction 1999, an American Book Award 2000, the Southern Environmental Law Center 2000 Award for Outstanding Writing, and a Southern Book Critics Circle Award 2000. “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood” was a New York Times Notable Book and was chosen as the Book All Georgians Should Read.
She has been visiting professor at Coastal Carolina University, scholar-in-residence at Florida Gulf Coast University, and writer-in-residence at Keene State College and Green Mountain College. She was the John & Renee Grisham writer-in-residence 2003-04 at the University of Mississippi.
Ray attempts to live a simple, sustainable life on a farm in southern Georgia with her husband, Raven Waters. Ray is an organic gardener, seedsaver, tender of farm animals, and slow-food cook.
Ray’s appearance is sponsored by the Friends of the Peachtree City Library, along with a generous grant from The Clothes Less Traveled Thrift Shop.
