Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans, featuring Janisse Ray – Atlanta

Oct. 19, 2022   Cherokee Garden Library Fall Talk at the Atlanta History Center

Looking for adventure and continuing a process of self-discovery, Janisse Ray has repeatedly set 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 moving toward living more wisely. Anchored firmly in two places Ray has called home—Montana and southern Georgia—the sixteen essays here span a landscape from Alaska to Central America, connecting common elements in the ecosystems of people and place. She craves a wilder world and documents encounters that are rare in a time of disappearing habitat, declining biodiversity, and a world too slowly coming to terms with climate change. Wild Spectacle explores our first home, the wild earth, and invites us to question its known and unknown beauties and curiosities.