Writer, naturalist and activist Janisse Ray is author of six books. She holds an MFA from the University of Montana, and has been awarded two honorary doctorates, one from Unity College in Maine and the other from LaGrange College in Georgia. In 2015 she was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Her work has been translated and published in France and Turkey. She lives in rural southern Georgia.
Her first book of creative nonfiction rocketed Janisse onto the literary scene. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, a memoir about growing up on a junkyard in the ruined longleaf pine ecosystem of the Southeast, was published by Milkweed Editions in 1999. Besides being a plea to protect and restore the glorious pine flatwoods of the South, the book looks hard at family, mental illness, poverty, and fundamentalist religion. Essayist Wendell Berry called the book “well done and deeply moving.” Anne Raver of The New York Times said of Janisse Ray, “The forests of the South find their Rachel Carson.”
Janisse’s second book, Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home, about rural community, was published by Milkweed Editions in early 2003. The third, Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land, the story of a 750,000-acre wildland corridor between south Georgia and north Florida, was published by Chelsea Green in 2005. Drifting into Darien, a personal and natural history of the Altamaha River, was released in fall 2011 by the University of Georgia Press.
Her latest is a nonfiction book on open-pollinated seeds, The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food (Chelsea Green), published in 2012 to wide acclaim.
The book of poetry, A House of Branches, came out in 2010 from Wind Publication. Janisse is also editor of a number of books, including In One Place and Moody Forest, and co-editor of UnspOILed and Between Two Rivers. She is anthologized widely.
Janisse has won many awards, including 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. The Seed Undergound won the Nautilus Gold Book Award Better Books for a Better World in the Green Living category 2013, American Horticultural Society Book Award 2013, American Society of Journalists & Authors Arlene Eisenberg Award for Writing that Makes a Difference 2013, Garden Writers Association Gold Award of Achievement for Best Book Writing 2013, and Green Prize for Sustainable Literature Award.
Janisse has been writer-in-residence at many universities, most recently at the University of Montana as the William Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer. She has taught at Keene State College, Coastal Carolina University, Florida Gulf Coast University, and Green Mountain College. She was the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
Janisse attempts to live a simple, sustainable life on a farm in southern Georgia, where she is an organic gardener, seed saver, tender of farm animals, and slow-food cook. She lives with her husband, Raven Waters, and adolescent daughter.
She lectures widely on nature, community, agriculture, wildness, sustainability and the politics of wholeness. She is at work on a book about her long-time friendship with the late Georgia naturalist Milton Hopkins, as well as a collection of essays about rural farm life in the 21st Century.
Janisse’s second book, Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home, about rural community, was published by Milkweed Editions in early 2003. The third, Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land, the story of a 750,000-acre wildland corridor between south Georgia and north Florida, was published by Chelsea Green in 2005. Drifting into Darien, a personal and natural history of the Altamaha River, was released in fall 2011 by the University of Georgia Press.
Her latest is a nonfiction book on open-pollinated seeds, The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food (Chelsea Green), published in 2012 to wide acclaim.
The book of poetry, A House of Branches, came out in 2010 from Wind Publication. Janisse is also editor of a number of books, including In One Place and Moody Forest, and co-editor of UnspOILed and Between Two Rivers. She is anthologized widely.
Janisse has won many awards, including 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. The Seed Undergound won the Nautilus Gold Book Award Better Books for a Better World in the Green Living category 2013, American Horticultural Society Book Award 2013, American Society of Journalists & Authors Arlene Eisenberg Award for Writing that Makes a Difference 2013, Garden Writers Association Gold Award of Achievement for Best Book Writing 2013, and Green Prize for Sustainable Literature Award.
Janisse has been writer-in-residence at many universities, most recently at the University of Montana as the William Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer. She has taught at Keene State College, Coastal Carolina University, Florida Gulf Coast University, and Green Mountain College. She was the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
Janisse attempts to live a simple, sustainable life on a farm in southern Georgia, where she is an organic gardener, seed saver, tender of farm animals, and slow-food cook. She lives with her husband, Raven Waters, and adolescent daughter.
She lectures widely on nature, community, agriculture, wildness, sustainability and the politics of wholeness. She is at work on a book about her long-time friendship with the late Georgia naturalist Milton Hopkins, as well as a collection of essays about rural farm life in the 21st Century.