Author Janisse Ray will be the featured speaker at the next edition of the Tom M. Cordell Distinguished Lecture Series on Sept. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the Cordell Conference Room of the Carlton Center on the Abraham Baldwin College campus.
Ray's first book, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, has won several awards, including the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, the Southeastern Booksellers Award for Nonfiction, an American Book Award, and the Southern Environmental Law Center Book Award.
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood describes Ray's childhood in Baxley, Ga., as the daughter of a junkyard dealer, and her return to the region as an adult to work for the preservation of the last remaining stands of the long leaf pine ecosystem, which once covered the South from Virginia to Texas.
In The New York Times Book Review, writer Tony Horwitz praised the book, stating, "[Ray's] tale of growing up poor and white in backwoods Georgia is suffused with the same history-haunted sense of loss that imprints so much of the South and its literature. What sets Ecology of a Cracker Childhood apart is the ambitious and arresting mission implied in its title. . . .Heartfelt and refreshing."
A naturalist and environmental activist, Ray has published essays and poems in magazines and newspapers, including Georgia Wildlife, Orion, Wild Earth, Tallahassee Democrat, Florida Wildlife, Florida Naturalist, and others. She has also provided nature commentaries for Georgia Public Radio. Ray holds a graduate degree in creative nature writing from the University of Montana. She currently lives in Crawfordville, Fla.
The series is named in honor of Cordell, who was the director of ABAC's continuing education program for 39 years. He retired in 1979 and passed away in 1991. Free tickets to the lecture can be picked up in the Public Relations Office on the second floor of Tift Hall. Because of limited seating, everyone attending the lecture must have a ticket. For additional information, call (229) 386-3264.
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