Janisse Ray

I forget at times how lucky I am to rub elbows so often with some of the greatest literary minds of our time. At Ole Miss, I went to parties with Barry Hannah and bellied up to the bar with Larry Brown and avoided Tom Franklin and his wife like the plague, yea verily for they are douchebags. And here at my new position, I've had the pleasure of hobnobbing with Natasha Tretheway, Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Mark Powell to name a few.

Last night Janisse Ray spoke at the college, and as I was in charge of the speaking engagement, I was able to spend a fair amount of time with her and her husband Raven.

If Janisse Ray is not on your radar, she should be. She writes literary non-fiction, and her most famous book is called ECOLOGY OF A CRACKER CHILDHOOD. It's about growing up poor in a Southern junkyard and Ray's evolving sense of the importance of the natural world around her. Janisse is an environmental activist who promotes sustainability. She and Raven live on a 46-acre farm with lots of animals. They buy local. They've taken themselves off the grid as much as possible. They've reduced their carbon footprint. They are, in a word, awesome.

She is also one of the kindest and most generous people I've ever met. She's a writer, so she's a listener, and her skill at drawing people out is great. She's warm and friendly and so committed to what she believes.

( jist of her talk )

Amazing stuff, y'all.

forget cracked.com; here's fandom in a nutshell

Emma just said she is going to write a book where Luke and Leia get married, and I said, "But they're brother and sister." And Emma said, "Oh, mom. Whatever. It's okay. There's probably weird alien rules, and that doesn't matter."