stories are our medicine
Janisse Ray is an American writer exploring our borderlands.
She has written or edited over a dozen books and been published in more than forty anthologies.
She has written or edited over a dozen books and been published in more than forty anthologies.
upcoming webinar
Be your own publicist:
how to market your book skyward
Join me for a 2.5-hour intensive on book marketing and publicity--
from my father’s silver-bullet theory to online magic
& everything in between.
from my father’s silver-bullet theory to online magic
& everything in between.
Such a content-rich, enjoyable, and excellent workshop! Janisse Ray packed more into three hours than some instructors pack into a week. |
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stories are offerings to the future
2022
Aug. 28 | Ashantilly Center, 3 pm, Darien, GA, register here
Aug. 31 | Story & Song Bookstore, 4 pm, Fernandina Beach, FL
Sept. 3 | Write Your Birth Story, 8-11 am Eastern Time or 8-11 am Pacific Time, Online Workshop, register here
Sept. 11 | "Arts at the Confluence" Conversation on the Arts, Environment, and Activism, First Congregational Church of Atlanta, with Margaret Renkl & Billy Renkl, organized by Pearl McHaney & Jane Thorpe, 2 pm, Atlanta, GA, register here
Sept. 13 | Bookish Trailblazers, Forsyth County Public Library. Before it meets for a book discussion, this group walks a mile. For more info, contact Jessica at dossj@forsythpl.org, Cumming, GA
Sept. 29 | How to Market Your Book Skyward, Webinar, register here
Oct. 10 - Dec. 19 | The Magical Craft of Creative Nonfiction, meets biweekly Monday evenings 7-9 pm ET, Virtual Course, register here
Oct. 19 | Cherokee Garden Library Ashley Wright McIntyre Lecture Series, Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, GA, register here
Nov. 15 | Literary Guild of St. Simons, organized by Cary Knapp, 10 am, St. Simons Island, GA, register here
2023
April | 50th Anniversary Celebration, Sandy Creek Nature Center, Athens, GA
Aug. 31 | Story & Song Bookstore, 4 pm, Fernandina Beach, FL
Sept. 3 | Write Your Birth Story, 8-11 am Eastern Time or 8-11 am Pacific Time, Online Workshop, register here
Sept. 11 | "Arts at the Confluence" Conversation on the Arts, Environment, and Activism, First Congregational Church of Atlanta, with Margaret Renkl & Billy Renkl, organized by Pearl McHaney & Jane Thorpe, 2 pm, Atlanta, GA, register here
Sept. 13 | Bookish Trailblazers, Forsyth County Public Library. Before it meets for a book discussion, this group walks a mile. For more info, contact Jessica at dossj@forsythpl.org, Cumming, GA
Sept. 29 | How to Market Your Book Skyward, Webinar, register here
Oct. 10 - Dec. 19 | The Magical Craft of Creative Nonfiction, meets biweekly Monday evenings 7-9 pm ET, Virtual Course, register here
Oct. 19 | Cherokee Garden Library Ashley Wright McIntyre Lecture Series, Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, GA, register here
Nov. 15 | Literary Guild of St. Simons, organized by Cary Knapp, 10 am, St. Simons Island, GA, register here
2023
April | 50th Anniversary Celebration, Sandy Creek Nature Center, Athens, GA
stories are our prayers
Upcoming workshop
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I’m offering 2 virtual workshops for writing your birth story.
Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, starting at 8 a.m. Eastern Time
Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, starting at 8 a.m. Pacific Time
Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, starting at 8 a.m. Eastern Time
Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, starting at 8 a.m. Pacific Time
You were enlightening; I felt as if you connected with us all, and helped us see, for a short time, what it means to be alive for writing, for telling our truths.
Bless you for this!
Pat
stories are our magic
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upcoming 12-week workshop
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This writing course is virtual. We will meet via Zoom over the course of 12 weeks, bi-weekly, Oct. 10 through Dec. 19, six Monday evenings from 7-9 pm Eastern Time. Meeting dates are Oct. 10, Oct. 24, Nov. 7, Nov. 21, Dec. 5, and Dec. 19. This schedule gives you a longer time to commit to your writing, an extended period of time with me, more days to read and write between classes, and a larger container to create transformation.
I wanted to say thank you again for your wonderful online writing workshop. One of the essays I worked on in your class is going to be published! I just received word this morning of its acceptance. Thank you for your guidance and teaching. It made quite an impact on me and my writing!
Best, Kim H.
stories change us permanently
PAPERBACK RELEASE AUG 2022
WILD
SPECTACLE
Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans
Ray repeatedly sets out to immerse herself in wildness, to be wild, and to learn what wildness can teach us. From overwintering with monarch butterflies in Mexico to counting birds in Belize, the stories in Wild Spectacle capture her luckiest moments—ones of heart-pounding amazement, discovery of romance, and movement toward living more wisely. In Ray's worst moments she crosses boundaries to encounter danger and embrace sadness. Wild Spectacle explores our first home, the wild earth, and invites us to question its known and unknown beauties and curiosities.
Please support your favorite indie bookshop.
WILD
SPECTACLE
Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans
Ray repeatedly sets out to immerse herself in wildness, to be wild, and to learn what wildness can teach us. From overwintering with monarch butterflies in Mexico to counting birds in Belize, the stories in Wild Spectacle capture her luckiest moments—ones of heart-pounding amazement, discovery of romance, and movement toward living more wisely. In Ray's worst moments she crosses boundaries to encounter danger and embrace sadness. Wild Spectacle explores our first home, the wild earth, and invites us to question its known and unknown beauties and curiosities.
Please support your favorite indie bookshop.
stories matter profoundly
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stories change the world
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stories save us
PRAISE FOR RED LANTERNS
Janisse Ray gently prods us, through the beauty of her imagery and language, to open our eyes to the wonders of the natural world and to our purpose and place in it. This book is nothing short of a great blessing.
--David Bottoms, Otherworld, Underworld, Prayer Porch
With great and rare heart, Red Lanterns sings with soil, grit, and an integrity of vision and practice—I love the poems in this book.
--Thorpe Moeckel, Making a Map of the River
Ray has the rare talent of melding herself with the sounds and motions, the insistent, conflicting mayhem of the life and weather around and within her. Red Lanterns is an evocative and lyrical feast of language indeed.
--Pattiann Rogers, Quickening Fields
Ray says My heart is a culvert in this debut collection of poems—through which internal waters run crystalline, jubilant like a sudden red bloom of cardinal in the dooryard quince, or turbid & fierce in the overflow of storm.
--Sean Sexton, May Darkness Restore
In the glow of Red Lanterns, sicklefin redhorse and river trout shine like raw jewels left, miraculously, to adorn the earth. These poems commune in our shared grievances even as they gather papery red seedpods into wide open hands and offer them up like a heart.
--Amy Wright, Everything in the Universe
Janisse Ray gently prods us, through the beauty of her imagery and language, to open our eyes to the wonders of the natural world and to our purpose and place in it. This book is nothing short of a great blessing.
--David Bottoms, Otherworld, Underworld, Prayer Porch
With great and rare heart, Red Lanterns sings with soil, grit, and an integrity of vision and practice—I love the poems in this book.
--Thorpe Moeckel, Making a Map of the River
Ray has the rare talent of melding herself with the sounds and motions, the insistent, conflicting mayhem of the life and weather around and within her. Red Lanterns is an evocative and lyrical feast of language indeed.
--Pattiann Rogers, Quickening Fields
Ray says My heart is a culvert in this debut collection of poems—through which internal waters run crystalline, jubilant like a sudden red bloom of cardinal in the dooryard quince, or turbid & fierce in the overflow of storm.
--Sean Sexton, May Darkness Restore
In the glow of Red Lanterns, sicklefin redhorse and river trout shine like raw jewels left, miraculously, to adorn the earth. These poems commune in our shared grievances even as they gather papery red seedpods into wide open hands and offer them up like a heart.
--Amy Wright, Everything in the Universe
never forget: stories make a difference