What is Ilie Ruby reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Ilie Ruby, author of The Language of Trees.

Her entry begins:

I’ve turned to an old classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, because it is the 50th anniversary of the publication of this extraordinary and compelling novel that long ago filled me with a love of reading and such a powerful sense of story and character; because the characters of Scout, Jem and Atticus have remained so vivid in my mind after all this time and have left such lasting impressions in such memorable ways; because issues of race in society are so very central to my life now; and because I like to believe—or rather assert—that despite...[read on]

Among the early praise for The Language of Trees:

“The Language of Trees, like Whitman's Leaves of Grass though in a magic realist vernacular, refreshingly asserts that deeply American conviction: the gravest natural instinct is to heal and be healed. A shimmeringly heart-felt story.”
–Gregory Maguire, author of the Wicked series

"Rarely do debut novels cover the complicated emotional terrain of The Language of Trees. This is no simple right-of-passage story but rather an eloquently written journey that explores our strengths and vulnerabilities, our love of those who most need us, and whom we need most. Ilie Ruby is a shining new voice, powerful and true, worthy of our closest attention."
–James Brown, author of The Los Angeles Diaries

"The Language of Trees is a haunting novel about the enduring power of love. Crafted with suspenseful pacing and delicate imagery, Ilie Ruby's book combines the qualities of an irresistible ghost story with a healing tale of redemption. It's a vivid and compelling read."
–Elizabeth Rosner, author of Blue Nude and The Speed of Light

Ilie Ruby won the Phi Kappa Phi Award for Fiction, the Eden L. Moses Award, a Kerr Foundation Fiction Scholarship, the Wesleyan Writer’s Conference Scholarship in NonFiction, and the Barbara Kemp Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship. She has published poems and short stories in literary and online magazines, and is the former fiction editor of The Southern California Anthology. A graduate of the Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California, she has worked on PBS documentaries in Honduras, as well as taught elementary school in Los Angeles.

Visit Ilie Ruby's website and blog, and Facebook page.

Writers Read: Ilie Ruby.

--Marshal Zeringue