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Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land
Janisse Ray, award-winning author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood and Wild Card Quilt , writes an evocative paean to wildness and wilderness restoration with an extraordinary journey into southern Georgia's Pinhook Swamp. Pinhook Swamp acts as a vital watershed and wildlife corridor, a link between the great southern wildernesses of Okefenokee Swamp and Osceola National Forest. Together Okefenokee, Osceola, and Pinhook form one of the largest expanse of protected wild land east of the Mississippi River. This is one of America's last truly wild places, and Pinhook takes us into its heart. Ray comes to know Pinhook intimately as she joins the fight to protect it, spending the night in the swamp, tasting honey made from its flowers, tracking wildlife, and talking to others about their relationship with the swamp. Ray sees Pinhook through the eyes of the people who live there--naturalists, beekeepers, homesteaders, hunters, and locals at the country store. In lyrical, down-home prose, she draws together the swamp's need for restoration and the human desire for wholeness and wildness in our own lives and landscapes.
- GenresNatureNonfictionScience
168 pages, Perfect Paperback
First published March 25, 2005
6 people are currently reading
262 people want to read
About the author
Janisse Ray
43 books277 followersis an award-winning and beloved American writer. Her work encourages wild, place-centric, sustainable lives and often calls attention to heart-breaking degradations of the natural world.
She writes the popular Substack TRACKLESS WILD, tracklesswild.substack.com.
Her newsletter for writers is SPIRAL-BOUND, janisseray.substack.com.
She is a sought-after and highly praised teacher of writing. She leads both in-person and online writing workshops, including a summer memoir course online, WRITE YOUR OWN STORY.
You can find more information about workshops and courses at her website.
https://janisseray.com/product-catego...
Check out her book CRAFT & CURRENT: A MANUAL FOR MAGICAL WRITING.
Janisse has won an American Book Award, Pushcart Prize, Southern Bookseller Award, Southern Environmental Law Center Writing Award, Nautilus Award, and Eisenberg Award, among many others.
Her collection of essays, WILD SPECTACLE, won the Donald L. Jordan Prize for Literary Excellence.
Her books have been translated into Turkish, French, and Italian.
Janisse's first book, ECOLOGY OF A CRACKER CHILDHOOD, recounts her experiences growing up in a junkyard, the daughter of a poor, white, fundamentalist Christian family. The book interweaves family history and memoir with natural history—specifically, descriptions of the ecology of the vanishing longleaf pine forests that once blanketed the Southern coastal plains.
ECOLOGY was followed by many other books, mostly creative nonfiction--often nature writing-- as well as poetry and fiction.
She earned an MFA from the University of Montana, has received two honorary doctorates, and was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. She has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Georgia Writer's Association.
She lives on an organic farm inland from Savannah, Georgia, where she enjoys wildflowers, dark chocolate, and the blues.
She writes the popular Substack TRACKLESS WILD, tracklesswild.substack.com.
Her newsletter for writers is SPIRAL-BOUND, janisseray.substack.com.
She is a sought-after and highly praised teacher of writing. She leads both in-person and online writing workshops, including a summer memoir course online, WRITE YOUR OWN STORY.
You can find more information about workshops and courses at her website.
https://janisseray.com/product-catego...
Check out her book CRAFT & CURRENT: A MANUAL FOR MAGICAL WRITING.
Janisse has won an American Book Award, Pushcart Prize, Southern Bookseller Award, Southern Environmental Law Center Writing Award, Nautilus Award, and Eisenberg Award, among many others.
Her collection of essays, WILD SPECTACLE, won the Donald L. Jordan Prize for Literary Excellence.
Her books have been translated into Turkish, French, and Italian.
Janisse's first book, ECOLOGY OF A CRACKER CHILDHOOD, recounts her experiences growing up in a junkyard, the daughter of a poor, white, fundamentalist Christian family. The book interweaves family history and memoir with natural history—specifically, descriptions of the ecology of the vanishing longleaf pine forests that once blanketed the Southern coastal plains.
ECOLOGY was followed by many other books, mostly creative nonfiction--often nature writing-- as well as poetry and fiction.
She earned an MFA from the University of Montana, has received two honorary doctorates, and was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. She has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Georgia Writer's Association.
She lives on an organic farm inland from Savannah, Georgia, where she enjoys wildflowers, dark chocolate, and the blues.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 16, 2021
I read Pinhook early in the calendar year 2021, so moved that I neglected to describe or review it.
The natural territory described here is on the Georgia-Florida border, further East of the Suwannee River drainage I spent time living beside, but north of the Olustee Creek site on the other side of Columbia County which I would stop by to ogle the monuments to a Civil War land battle in which my Confederate ancestor took part. It's all connected, alongside pieces of Okefenokee and other public lands.
This morning, I'm thinking of a current matter on lands adjoining the swamp to the East, and the matter of mining. Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, plans a mine within Trail Ridge, not in Pinhook, but adjoining high ground bounding the Swamp, to release air and light pollutants into the International Dark Sky Park, and discharge wastewater into the St. Mary's River basin. River writer Joe Cook reports for the Saporta Report on some aspects of this, here: https://saportareport.com/titanium-a-...
All to say, we are all connected, and connecting public lands is both wise and beautiful, resulting, in this one instance, in a fine volume focusing on an out-of-the-way sector key to natural communities that adjoin human communities.
My year, 1994-5, in White Springs, Florida, saw an experimental release and tracking of the Florida Panther in the wilds of North Florida. That was just previous to this conservation effort, and though that one failed, this one did not. We must connect and conserve.
Highest recommendation.
The natural territory described here is on the Georgia-Florida border, further East of the Suwannee River drainage I spent time living beside, but north of the Olustee Creek site on the other side of Columbia County which I would stop by to ogle the monuments to a Civil War land battle in which my Confederate ancestor took part. It's all connected, alongside pieces of Okefenokee and other public lands.
This morning, I'm thinking of a current matter on lands adjoining the swamp to the East, and the matter of mining. Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, plans a mine within Trail Ridge, not in Pinhook, but adjoining high ground bounding the Swamp, to release air and light pollutants into the International Dark Sky Park, and discharge wastewater into the St. Mary's River basin. River writer Joe Cook reports for the Saporta Report on some aspects of this, here: https://saportareport.com/titanium-a-...
All to say, we are all connected, and connecting public lands is both wise and beautiful, resulting, in this one instance, in a fine volume focusing on an out-of-the-way sector key to natural communities that adjoin human communities.
My year, 1994-5, in White Springs, Florida, saw an experimental release and tracking of the Florida Panther in the wilds of North Florida. That was just previous to this conservation effort, and though that one failed, this one did not. We must connect and conserve.
Highest recommendation.
September 12, 2021
This slender book is structured similarly to Ecology of a Cracker Childhood in that it juxtaposes sections of scientific, naturalist, and/or historical writing with sections of narrative; however, in this book, the sections of narrative are about forays into Pinhook Swamp rather than episodes from Ray's past.
Pinhook is a pocosin, a corridor that connects Okefenokee Swamp and Osceola National Forest. It is largely impenetrable by humans, too deep to walk into and too shallow to boat into. A lot of it has been preserved but not all.
The controlling metaphor for this book is of a plate that has been shattered or of a puzzle that needs to be pieced back together. When the land has been fragmented, the ecology suffers. But unlike many people who are concerned with the natural world, Ray is not interested in squirrels to the exclusion of people. She is also saddened by human fragmentation. The question this book wants us to examine: what can we do to be whole again?
Pinhook is a pocosin, a corridor that connects Okefenokee Swamp and Osceola National Forest. It is largely impenetrable by humans, too deep to walk into and too shallow to boat into. A lot of it has been preserved but not all.
The controlling metaphor for this book is of a plate that has been shattered or of a puzzle that needs to be pieced back together. When the land has been fragmented, the ecology suffers. But unlike many people who are concerned with the natural world, Ray is not interested in squirrels to the exclusion of people. She is also saddened by human fragmentation. The question this book wants us to examine: what can we do to be whole again?
July 24, 2008
This book was magical for me. A fabulous mixture of natural history, narrative, and poetry. I never knew what I was going to get with each short and sweet chapter. She had me there, really there and loving the swamps of our south eastern America...a place I have never been and never dreamed that I would want to go. Natural grandeur is all around us. No matter where we live...it is there if you look and love enough to see it. And in turn, be compelled to save it. Janisse Ray is dedicated to saving her homeland...just imagine if we all became so dedicated to that cause and did the work to "come home" and make our roots healthy again?
June 10, 2013
A beautiful and excellent exploration of the longleaf and swampy communities in an area along the GA/FL border called Pinhook, and the heartbreaking struggles to save and preserve these habitats. This book set me off on a long journey of reading about longleaf pine...
September 2, 2012
Very well written. The author's passion for this place and for wildness in general is evident. Her voice in this book makes a strong, but eloquent case for the need to preserve Pinhook and the adjacent areas. Anyone who lives in this part of the country should read this book so hopefully an appreciation of our wildness can be fostered.
July 21, 2020
This book reminds me of one of those persuasive speeches you had to give in college speech class. I typically really enjoy the writer until her worldview (4 legs good, 2 legs bad) gets in the way of the writing... which it does here. For example, comparing ecosystem fragmentation to an Iraqi man surrounded by 10 coffins containing the bodies of his family lost to a war attack is a bizarre analogy. Even so, there are many snippets of inspiration to be found. And I can appreciate the importance of Pinhook's salvation even if I wouldn't want to visit.
March 18, 2023
For anyone interested in nature conservation, this book is a plea to save some of the last truly wild land in Georgia, the Pinhook Swamp. I don't know how the project to create a large wildlife corridor that would connect with the Appalachian Trail is going. Last I heard, industry is still trying to gain access to parts of the Okefenokee Swamp.
Unless the economy changes, I don't see think we can get rural Georgians to stop eating our seed corn. Sighs.
Unless the economy changes, I don't see think we can get rural Georgians to stop eating our seed corn. Sighs.
August 1, 2025
While guiding a canoe trip on the Okefenokee, a participant brought this book with her and highly recommended it. I couldn’t imagine how my participant felt reading Janisse’s words in the same environment she is writing about. Such a blessing to have such an incredible book written about such a wonderful place.
July 28, 2021
Beautiful and sharp as the rest of her books I've read have been, but definitely felt more grim. A fitting tone here in 2021 when the fight to protect the okefenokee still carries on.
February 27, 2023
One of Janisse's most underrated books. One I hope inspires others to write of the habitat and ecologies of their own slices of the South. We need more of this writing.
February 21, 2024
A eulogy to a living, dying part of our Southern landscape.
April 19, 2021
We visited Pinhook as a result of reading this book. The place is way more interesting than my eyes would have noticed before. I'd like to go again.
June 22, 2015
I enjoyed reading this book about putting an ecosystem back together and what it means to be fragmented in community and landscape. The book felt a little disjointed and it's not my favorite of the other books I'veread of hers (Ecology of a Cracker Childhood and Wildcard Quilt), but this was still good reading. My favorite parts were in the italics! So glad I discovered her and she has given me many places to my "must visit" list in the southeast.
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February 18, 2008Anyone interested in ecology want a free book? I can't get into this.
October 24, 2008
The ecology and history of the longleaf pine forests in the southern United States and this woman's elegantly written story of how it is slowly being saved.
October 25, 2008
I love what Ray is doing generally as a writer and activist, but thought this was the weakest work of hers I've read so far. It felt more like a long essay patchworked into a book.
January 28, 2010
a missing piece of the puzzle.
May 7, 2014
I have found a renewed interest in nature writing. Sense of place is very southern. This book is a quick read about South Georgia and the denizens who live in the area.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews