Janisse Ray

Janisse Ray (born February 2, 1962) is an American writer, naturalist, and environmental activist.

Early life and education Ray was born Baxley, Georgia to Franklin D. and Lee Ada Branch Ray. Ray’s ancestors were listed in the first census in Appling county in 1820 and the town of Baxley was named for an ancestor as well. From 1980 to 1982, she attended North Georgia College where she found her passion for ecology, which led her to her career. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Florida State University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Montana.

Career Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (1999) recounts Ray's experiences growing up in a junkyard, the daughter of a poor, white, fundamentalist Christian family.

In Wild Card Quilt (2003) she relates her experiences moving back home to Georgia with her son after attending graduate school in Montana. Pinhook (2005) tells the story of Pinhook Swamp, the land that connects the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia and Osceola National Forest in Florida. Drifting into Darien, published in 2011, describes her experiences on and knowledge about the Altamaha River, which runs from middle Georgia to the Atlantic Ocean at Darien. and has been a contributor to Audubon, Orion and other magazines, as well as a commentator for NPR's Living on Earth. An environmental activist, she has campaigned on behalf of the Altamaha River and the Moody Swamp.

Her 2012 book The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food won multiple awards, including the Arlene Eisenberg Award for Writing that Makes a Difference, American Horticultural Society Book Award, Nautilus Gold Book Award, Garden Writers Association Gold Award, and the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature Award.

She previously taught in the Chatham University Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing. Currently, she is a visiting professor and writer-in-residence at universities and colleges across the country. She lectures nationally on nature, agriculture, seeds, wildness, sustainability, writing, and politics of wholeness.

Books

Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, memoir (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1999). Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home, memoir (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2003). Between Two Rivers: Stories from the Red Hills to the Gulf, (Co-editor, with Susan Cerulean and Laura Newtown) nonfiction (Tallahassee: Heart of the Earth, 2004). Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land,, nonfiction (White River Junction: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2005). A House of Branches, poetry (Nicholasville: Wind Publications, 2010). Drifting into Darien: a Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River, nonfiction (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2011). The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food, nonfiction (White River Junction: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2012). Red Lanterns: Poems, poetry (Iris Press, 2021). Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World beyond Humans, nonfiction (Trinity University Press, 2021).