GWM welcomes Hall of Fame member to speak

Georgia Writers Museum has announced Janisse Ray, a Georgia Writers Hall of Fame member, as its next “Meet the Author” presenter on June 4 at The Plaza Arts Center. 

Following her presentation, Ray will sign copies of her book, "The Woods of Fannin County," which details an incredible true Georgia tale.

“The Woods of Fannin County is a harrowing, heartfelt tale of innocence, hope, and resilience that considers the true meaning of home,” raved Atlanta Journal-Constitution book editor Suzanne Van Atten.

In the fall of 1945, eight children – brothers and sisters ranging in age from three months to 10 years – vanished from a rented bungalow in Morganton and were taken by mule and wagon to a remote shack in the Blue Ridge foothills of Fannin County, near the North Carolina border. For the next four years, they would live there mostly alone, with no mother and no father, roaming the mountains and valleys of what had been Cherokee Territory, scouring for food and scrambling to care for themselves and each other.

“I first heard about the story from my father,” Ray said in a recent AJC interview. “He introduced me to one of the surviving siblings. I would eventually interview three other siblings and the wife of another. While the story is completely true, its central character – who died before I heard about the story – is a mixture of the siblings I interviewed.”

Ray is a naturalist and ecology activist, and the author of a half-dozen books, including the widely acclaimed Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Wild Spectacle, Wild Card Quilt, and now, The Woods of Fannin County. A new book by Ray, Craft and Current, A Manual for Magical Writing, will be released this summer.

Ray has received an American Book Award, a Southern Book Critics Circle Award, a Southern Booksellers Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Green Prize for Sustainable Literature, a Nautilus Book Award, and an Arlene Eisenberg Award, among several others. She holds an MFA from the University of Montana and has been awarded two honorary doctorates.

She was inducted in 2015 into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, and in 2019 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Writers Association.

GWM’s Meet the Author with Janisse Ray will begin at 7 p.m., Tuesday, June 4, with doors at The Plaza open a half hour earlier. The event will also feature amazing sweets from the wild and décor themed around the book. Admission is $20, with tickets available online at georgiawritersmuseum. org. 

Register soon and preorder a copy of The Woods of Fannin County for Ray to sign.