A Devotion to the Mysterium of Place as an Antidote to Existential Homesickness, with Janisse Ray

·1 hr 5 min·5 clips

Janisse Ray's writing gives voice to rural South Georgia, where she documents the lives and ground that shape people.

The episode begins with host Jennifer Jewell introducing Janisse Ray as a writer known for giving voice to her home ground in South Georgia. Ray describes being born into a place defined by its plants and animals, leading to her lifelong devotion to sustainable living. She recounts growing up in a junkyard, where she formed early connections with a chinaberry tree and a carnivorous pitcher plant, sparking her curiosity about nature. Ray shares a pivotal moment in South America where she realized she could merge nature and writing, prompting her to pursue an MFA and focus on nature writing. She discusses her memoir 'Ecology of a Cracker Childhood,' which won an American Book Award, and how it addresses the longleaf pine ecosystem and environmental issues. Ray explains her shift from activism to writing as a tool for change, criticizing capitalism for dictating harmful narratives. She details her life on a 46-acre farm in Georgia, where she aims to produce most of her food and restore wildness while tending to animals and plants. The conversation touches on solastalgia, the grief from environmental loss, and how gardening and place-based writing can counteract it. Ray teaches a correspondence course on place-based writing, emphasizing the importance of listening to and belonging to one's environment. She contrasts destructive gardening practices with supportive ones, advocating for wild gardens that nurture biodiversity. The episode concludes with Ray expressing hope that storytelling can inspire people to engage with nature and address ecological problems.

As heard by us

A place writer asks how stories can help people live beyond systems that destroy life.

A home ground becomes the way into a larger question about how people might live. The guest, an American writer, naturalist, and environmental activist rooted in rural South Georgia, connects close attention to place with the harder work of advocacy: naming what damages places,…

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Press play when you want environmental activism to lead somewhere as intimate as a home ground.

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