We are pleased to announce that Cerulean Blues by Katie Fallon has been selected as a finalist in the book category of the Phillip D. Reed Memorial Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment. This prestigious award is sponsored by the Southern Environmental Law Center. Winners will be formally announced at the Virginia Festival of the Book on March 24.

Fallon will be speaking and signing books at Chatham University in Pittsburgh on January 30 and at Wildwood Park in Harrisburg, PA, on February 7. For details on these events, and on others as they are added to the schedule, please visit the calendar page. We hope to see you there.

Katie Fallon will be speaking at two Audubon Society chapters in the DC area in December:

• December 11, 3:00 pm—Audubon Society of Northern Virginia, Potomac Overlook Regional Park, 2845 North Marcey Rd., Arlington, VA (Note: This event is sold out!)
• December 15, 7:00 pm—Audubon Naturalist Society, Chevy Chase, MD (RSVP requested)

If you’re in the area, please come join us.

For a limited time, you can save when you buy our first two Ruka Press books together. For only $24 (plus shipping), you get printed copies of Among the Ancients: Adventures in the Eastern Old-Growth Forests by Joan Maloof and Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird by Katie Fallon. Buying them separately would cost $35.90, so you save more than $10. Order now!

Update: This offer is no longer available. Join our mailing list (and watch Twitter and Facebook) for new offers

An interview with Joan Maloof about Among the Ancients and the Old-Growth Forest Network appeared in today’s Washington Post Arts section. “I just like to point out that not every single forest should be a source of timber and money; that there are some places we should save just for the biodiversity and the beauty,” she said.

You can read the full story here: “Descriptions of ‘old-growth forest’ are somewhat elusive.”

Joan Maloof, author of Among the Ancients, has three public events scheduled in the DC area in October. Please join us for one of these events to meet the author and learn about the beauty of our Eastern ancient forests and about Dr. Maloof’s work with the Old-Growth Forest Network.

On October 20 at 7:30 pm, Dr. Maloof will be speaking to the Virginia Native Plant Society at Green Spring Gardens Park, 4603 Green Spring Rd., Alexandria, VA 22312. (Don’t rely on Google Maps for directions to this address, use the website link.)

On October 27, she will speak at the US Botanic Garden at noon. The US Botanic Garden is next to the Capitol at 100 Maryland Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20001. This program is free, but pre-registration is required. Books will not be sold at this event. Order one in advance and get it signed at the event.

And on October 28 at 10:00 am, Dr. Maloof will speak at Brookside Gardens, 1800 Glenallan Ave., Wheaton, MD 20902. Books will be available for sale.