Janisse Ray

Bluestem bibliophiles is an environmental book club that meets monthly to discuss a range of environmental, food, gardening and other current issues. They read non-fiction, fiction and other books that fit their fancy. They will meet over a sack lunch or potluck and will alternate between Bluebird Books and the Dillon Nature Center. They also may support community environmental events and organize field trips. Their first meeting will be May 20, at 12 pm at Bluebird Books. Following meetings are TBD.

First reading selection: "Becoming Animal" by David Abram

Second reading selection: The Ecology of a Cracker Childhood" by Janisse Ray

Third reading selection: "The forest unseen" by David George Haskell

Location: Street: 2 South Main Additional: City: Hutchinson, Province: Kansas Postal Code: 67501 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

"There is no despair in a seed. There's only life, waiting for the right conditions-sun and water, warmth and soil-to be set free. Everyday, millions upon millions of seeds lift their two green wings. "At no time in our history have Americans been more obsessed with food. Options- including those for local, sustainable, and organic food-seem limitless. And yet, our food supply is profoundly at risk. Farmers and gardeners a century ago had five times the possibilities of what to plant than farmers and gardeners do today; we are losing untold numbers of plant varieties to genetically modified industrial monocultures. In her latest work of literary nonfiction, award-winning author and activist Janisse Ray argues that if we are to secure the future of food, we first must understand where it all begins: the seed. The seed underground is a journey to the frontier of seed-saving. It is driven by stories, both the author's own and those from people who are waging a lush and quiet revolution in thousands of gardens across America to preserve our traditional cornucopia of food by simply growing old varieties and eating them. The seed underground pays tribute to time-honored and threatened varieties, deconstructs the politics and genetics of seeds, and reveals the astonishing characters who grow, study, and save them.

Janisse Ray will conduct a lecture, Growing a Wilder Planet, April 22, 7 p.m., at the Overby Center Auditorium—presented by the UM Environmental Studies Film and Lecture Series.

Writer, naturalist, and activist Janisse Ray is a seed-saver, seed-exchanger, and seed-banker, and has gardened for 25 years. The former Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi is the author of several books included Pinhook, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, and her latest, The seed underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food.

Location: Street: 160 Courthouse Sq City: Oxford, Province: Mississippi Postal Code: 38655-3914 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Natasha Trethewey; Judson Mitcham; Steve Berry; Janisse Ray; Mary Kay Andrews; Nathalie Dupree; Damon Lee Fowler; Tina Ansa; Jack McDevitt; Charles Seabrook; Hugh Acheson; Joe Randall

We invite you to the grandest Georgia Literary Festival ever! It’s a free day-long event at the gorgeous new oceanfront Jekyll Island Conference Center. The keynote speaker will be Natasha Trethewey, the new named U.S. Poet Laureate, and we’ll also welcome Georgia’s new Poet Laureate, Judson Mitcham. But that’s just the tip of the fun: Prize-winning authors Steve Berry, Janisse Ray, Mary Kay Andrews, Nathalie Dupree, Damon Lee Fowler, Tina Ansa, Jack McDevitt, Charles Seabrook and more than 30 others will be participating! In addition, award-winning chefs Hugh Acheson and Joe Randall will be preparing a special lunch and dinner for guests (these are events with a fee). Some events will begin on Friday, November 9, and special programs will be held celebrating the lives of one-time coastal authors Eugenia Price, Fanny Kemble and Eugene O’Neill. The historic Jekyll Island Club Hotel has special rates for visitors, and so do beachside motels and cottages, so don’t delay making your reservations. It will be a great fall weekend! (jasbro)… (more)

Book signing with writer, naturalist, and activist Janisse Ray discussing her latest book, The seed underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food.

"There is no despair in a seed. There's only life, waiting for the right conditions-sun and water, warmth and soil-to be set free. Everyday, millions upon millions of seeds lift their two green wings."At no time in our history have Americans been more obsessed with food. Options- including those for local, sustainable, and organic food-seem limitless. And yet, our food supply is profoundly at risk. Farmers and gardeners a century ago had five times the possibilities of what to plant than farmers and gardeners do today; we are losing untold numbers of plant varieties to genetically modified industrial monocultures.

In her latest work of literary nonfiction, award-winning author and activist Janisse Ray argues that if we are to secure the future of food, we first must understand where it all begins: the seed."The seed underground" is a journey to the frontier of seed-saving. It is driven by stories, both the author's own and those from people who are waging a lush and quiet revolution in thousands of gardens across America to preserve our traditional cornucopia of food by simply growing old varieties and eating them. "The seed underground" pays tribute to time-honored and threatened varieties, deconstructs the politics and genetics of seeds, and reveals the astonishing characters who grow, study, and save them.

Writer, naturalist, and activist Janisse Ray is a seed-saver, seed-exchanger, and seed-banker, and has gardened for twenty-five years. She is the author of several books, including Pinhook and Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, a New York Times Notable Book. Ray is on the faculty of Chatham University’s low-residency MFA program, and is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. She has won a Southern Booksellers Award for Poetry, a Southeastern Booksellers Award for Nonfiction, an American Book Award, the Southern Environmental Law Center Award for Outstanding Writing, and a Southern Book Critics Circle Award. She attempts to live a simple, sustainable life on a farm in southern Georgia with her husband, Raven Waters.

Location: Street: 517 Union Ave Additional: City: Knoxville , Province: Tennessee Postal Code: 37902 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Janisse Ray returns to Malaprop’s to present and sign The seed underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food, in which she takes readers on a journey to the frontier of seed-saving. The journey is driven by stories, both the author's own and those from people who are waging a lush and quiet revolution in thousands of gardens across America to preserve our traditional cornucopia of food by simply growing old varieties and eating them. The seed underground pays tribute to time-honored and threatened varieties, deconstructs the politics and genetics of seeds, and reveals the astonishing characters who grow, study, and save them.

Location: Street: 55 Haywood St City: Asheville, Province: North Carolina Postal Code: 28801 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Janisse Ray reads from Drifting into Darien.

"It's the story of what happens on a week-long trip down the river one spring, a trip I've dreamed of taking since I was a girl. However, just before we make the voyage, a strange and disturbing piece of mail arrives. The river journey becomes a way to accept a world that contains both good and evil. The journey, like the river itself, is transformation." (hollybeth2)… (more)

Janisse Ray reads from A House of Branches.; John Lane reads from Abandoned Quarry.; Thomas Rain Crowe reads from Crack Light.

Our ”Southern Poets Reading” evening presents three remarkably gifted writers well-known throughout our region and beyond: Janisse Ray, John Lane and Thomas Rain Crowe. All three are acclaimed for their lovely, insightful writings about nature and the environment. Janisse is a native Georgian whose books include ”Ecology or a Cracker Childhood” and ”Drifting Into Darien,” and her new poetry collection, ”A House of Branches,” is informed by her life-long interest in wilderness preservation. John Lane is a South Carolinian who writes powerfully about the woods and wilds in many books and whose new volume of poetry, ”Abandoned Quarry,” marks him as ”the finest Southern landscape poet we have today.” Thomas Crowe is a native North Carolinian and author of a dozen books of prose and poetry, and his just-published book of popems ”Crack Light” illustrated by photographs speaks movingly to the ties between humans and the earth in his western North Carolina hill country. (jasbro)… (more)

Janisse Ray discusses Ecology of a Cracker Childhood.; Janisse Ray discusses Wild Card Quilt.; Janisse Ray reads from Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land.

Janisse Ray, the prize-winning and very popular Georgia author, will present a talk based on her acclaimed books Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Wild Card Quilt and Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land. Her work is included on the Georgia Center for the Book's list of "25 Books all Georgians Should Read," and her talk is part of the "We the People" program funded through the Georgia Humanities Council. Her appearance is co-sponsored by the Fitzgerald-Ben Hill County Library. (All Georgia Reads/"We the People" program) (jasbro)… (more)