South Georgia State College (SGSC) is proud to kickoff the Eames Speaker Series March 24 at 7 p.m. with author Janisse Ray. The event will be held in the Peterson Hall Art Gallery on SGSC’s Douglas Campus. It is free and open to the public.
Ray is a southern Georgia native, writer, naturalist, and activist. She holds an MFA from the University of Montana and has been awarded two honorary doctorates – one from Unity College in Maine and the other from LaGrange College in Georgia. In 2015, Ray was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Her works have been translated and published in France and Turkey. She lives in rural southern Georgia.
Some of Ray’s many awards include a Southern Booksellers Award for Poetry (2011), Southeastern Booksellers Award for Nonfiction (1999), an American Book Award (2000), the Southern Environmental Law Center 2000 Award for Outstanding Writing, and a Southern Book Critics Circle Award (2000). Her book Ecology of a Cracker Childhood was a New York Times Notable Book and was chosen as the Book All Georgians Should Read. The Seed Underground won the Nautilus Gold Book Award Better Books for a Better World in the Green Living category (2013), American Horticultural Society Book Award (2013), American Society of Journalists & Authors Arlene Eisenberg Award for Writing that Makes a Difference (2013), Garden Writers Association Gold Award of Achievement for Best Book Writing (2013), and Green Prize for Sustainable Literature Award.
Ray has been writer-in-residence at many universities, most recently at the University of Montana as the William Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer. She has taught at Keene State College, Coastal Carolina University, Florida Gulf Coast University, and Green Mountain College. She was the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
The Eames Speaker Series is privately funded to support the vision of producing life-long learners well equipped to succeed in a diverse global society. As such, the series will focus on a variety of art, business, educational, literary, and musical professionals to provide unique learning opportunities for students and the community at large.
– Submitted by Walda Kight, SGSC Vice President for External Affairs