Southern Oregon Arts & Lecture Series is delighted and grateful to host Ms. Morell on the very day her newest book is published.

Animal Wise will be discussed by the author at 7:30PM on Tuesday, February 26 at the Southern Oregon University Music Recital Hall on the SOU Campus in Ashland.

For tickets and information, please see www.jclf.org or call 541.774.6572. Tickets are $20 and all proceeds will benefit the Jackson County Library Foundation.

Science writer Virginia Morell has traveled the globe for more than 25 years worked in evolutionary and conservation biology since 1990. She is a passionate lover of the natural world.

In 1996, she wrote Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings. In 2001, she published Blue Nile: Ethiopia's River of Magic and Mystery, followed by co-authoring of Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures alongside Richard Leakey. She is a prolific contributor to National Geographic, Discover, and Science and continues to work as an advisor for National Geographic’s Expeditions Council.

In February 2013, her next highly anticipated book Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures is released.

Did you know that ants teach, earthworms make decisions, rats love to be tickled, and chimps grieve? Or that some dogs have thousand-word vocabularies and that birds practice songs in their sleep, crows improvise tools, and blue jays plan ahead?

In Animal Wise, Morell moves us away from the laboratory and the realm of scientific jargon to show us that even the smallest creatures are capable of thought, reason, and emotion—finally debunking the myth that humans are the only beings capable of possessing these sensations.

The Library Foundation got to ask some questions, for the entire interview, please read on:

1. You have traveled all over the world. Why, for what reasons, did you settle in Ashland?

We moved to Ashland from the Bay area in 1988. We're both writers, and at the time, I was busy with my first book, ANCESTRAL PASSIONS: The Leakey Family and The Quest for Humankind's Beginnings. We wanted to be in a small town with easy access to an airport, university, and outdoor activities--and Ashland offered all of that. Plus, we bought our first home--something that was beyond our reach in Marin.

2. As a writer, how do you use your local library?

The library is a wonderful resource for doing research and for just browsing. I love to wander the stacks and randomly pull books off the shelves and page through them; it's a good way to get ideas and to dream about stories I'd like to write.