Georgia Magazine - December 2011 - (Page 20)

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS Naturalist and environmental activist Janisse Ray, of Reidsville, above right, explores the importance of place and nature of good and evil in her new book, “Drifting into Darien: A Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River.” NANCY MARSHALL ing around metro Atlanta with her kids. Almost always, the books are ﬁction. “I’ve had a love affair with novels since I was a child,” she says. “A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty” is sort of a breath of spring for the winter, a “story about somebody getting a second chance at ﬁrst love,” Jackson says. But, “it’s one of my books, so of course there’s a seedy underbelly.” While Jackson immerses herself in ﬁction, Terry Kay mixes it up. “My reading is dictated by my writing,” says the proliﬁc Athens author. “If I’m working on ﬁction, I don’t read ﬁction. Too risky. Too easy to pick up another writer’s rhythm.” Kay released two books in 2011 through Mercer University Press, “Bogmeadow’s Wish” and “The Greats of The AJC Decatur Book Festival, held Labor Day weekend, Cuttercane.” “I hope is the country’s largest independent book festival. Here, readers ﬁnd pleasure a young reader gets a preview of his “Pete the Cat” book in both books, though from Atlanta illustrator James Dean, who collaborates with they are vastly different author Eric Litwin on the series. in style—one being a HERMAN ESTEVEZ this winter, you can be fairly conﬁdent that some of your favorite Georgia authors are doing the same. “I am a huge recreational reader, I read nearly constantly,” says Joshilyn Jackson, an Atlanta suburbanite whose ﬁfth book, “A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty” (Grand Central Publishing), comes out in January 2012. “I usually have three books going—one I’m reading in print, one I’m listening to in the car, and one that’s child-safe” for time spent driv- When she’s not writing another engaging novel, like the new “A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty,” chances are very good that Atlantan Joshilyn Jackson, left, is reading someone else’s novel. novel, the other a book of short stories,” Kay says. “I’m proud of the diversity represented in the two books because I think they have appeal for different audiences.” If ﬁction isn’t your thing, you might ﬁnd solace in Janisse Ray’s new book, “Drifting into Darien: A Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River” (Wormsloe Foundation Nature Book). Ray, who lives on a farm in Reidsville, grew up around the powerful and mysterious river, and it helped shape her sense of place. “It’s a river I’ve known all my life, and over time I just had so many stories, I just felt compelled to write them down,” she says. In the process, she explores “the human relationship to place” as well as the interplay between good and evil. She hopes her readers walk away with a greater appreciation of their own natural surroundings. “I want to awaken in people an understanding that place is vital to the human psyche,” Ray says. To help you pass some quality time with a good book, we’ve comGEORGIA MAGAZINE COURTESY AJC DECATUR BOOK FESTIVAL 20 More online at www.georgiamagazine.org http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - December 2011

Georgia Magazine - December 2011
Contents
Viewpoint
Mailbox
Georgia News
Picture This?
Calendar of Events
Currents
Magical Nights, Holiday Lights
Between the Covers
Around Georgia
My Georgia
Georgia Cooks
Snapshot

Georgia Magazine - December 2011