Janisse Ray is an American writer, naturalist, and environmental activist.
Born: | February 2, 1962, Baxley GA, USA |
Occupation: | Professor, environmental activist |
Language: | English |
Nationality: | USA |
Citizenship: | USA |
Education: | BA, Florida State, 1984, MFA, Montana, 1997 |
Period: | Contemporary |
Genre: | memoirs |
Subject: | nature |
Notable works: | Ecology of a Cracker Childhood |
Notable awards: | American Book Award, Southern Book Critics Circle Award, Southern Environmental Law Center Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern environment |
Spouse: | Raven Waters |
Children: | Skye |
About Janisse Ray
Perhaps most famous for her American Book Award-winning memoir Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (2000), Ray is also known for her 2010 poetry collection A House of Branches and for her 2005 nonfiction work Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land.
Before Fame
After briefly attending North Georgia College, she completed her bachelor's degree at Florida State University and went on to earn her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Montana.
Achievement
An environmental activist as well as an author, she penned nature-themed pieces for Orion and Audubon magazines and also contributed to the NPR program Living on Earth.
Family Life
The child of impoverished Christian fundamentalists Franklin and Lee Ada Ray, she grew up in Baxley, Georgia. She later gave birth to a son named Silas Ausable.
Associations
She and Judith Cofer both penned acclaimed childhood memoirs.
Information related to Janisse Ray
- Chatham University faculty
- American nature writers
- Writers from Georgia (U.S. state)
- Women science writers
- American naturalists