Radford English professor among nature writers reading at Selu

Radford University English Professor Rick Van Noy is teaming with two other writers for a public reading to celebrate Earth Day at 4 p.m., April 23, at the Selu Conservancy.

The event is free and open to the public. It will be held at Selu’s Red Barn, a retreat center along the Little River. Author Janisse Ray, whose latest book is “The Seed Underground,” and Holly Haworth, a Jackson fellow at Hollins University, will also be reading.

Van Noy is the author of “A Natural Sense of Wonder,” a book about connecting kids with nature. Released in 2008, the book is a collection of narrative essays recounting Van Noy’s outdoor journeys with his family. It also serves a guide for parents who want to move their kids away from TV’s warm, glowing warming glow and into creeks and tree houses.

Ray is the author of “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood,” a book about growing up on a junkyard in the ruined longleaf pine ecosystem. Her latest of six books is about heirloom seeds.

Haworth is a Middlebury Environmental Journalism Fellow who has published in The Oxford American and VQR, among many others. She writes about subjects such as lightning bugs, medicinal plants, artificial night lighting and coal ash.

In addition to the reading, Ray and Haworth will be teaching a writing workshop that morning to a limited number of participants. The focus is on creative nonfiction and memoir.

Registration is required for the workshop and more information may be obtained by phone at 912-557-1053 or online at https://writingfromthecenter.wordpress.com/.