Jimmy Buffett has his “Coconut Telegraph,” but he’s got nothing on nature writer John Lane, who sends his musings into the world each week in a popular newspaper column named after the ubiquitous green vine that’s swallowing the South. Please join us Monday, Sept. 8 at 7:30 pm for a celebration and a reading as Hub City releases Best of the Kudzu Telegraph. The event, at the Showroom, is free and open to the public.

Lane is a champion of the underdog, and what he seeks to protect is the character and the beauty of the place he lives. A much published poet and essayist, Lane is a soldier for sustainability and a warrior for wildness. Using both wit and wisdom he takes on the environmental issues of our times, often by simply taking us on a walk through the woods or a drive up the highway. Just when he seems to write best about animals in his South Carolina Upcountry backyard--deer, tree frogs, and, yes, coyotes--he captivates us with a river adventure. He writes with as much intensity about old maps or a favorite pickup truck as he does about the socio-political issues that concern him-land use, urban planning, and conservation.

These four dozen short essays, published by Community Journals in upstate South Carolina, will make you look more closely at the world around you and also, Lane hopes, will make you look ahead: to take actions, large and small, to protect the place you live.

John Lane, an English and environmental studies professor at Wofford College, is the author of eleven books of poetry and prose, including Circling Home (UGA Press, 2007).

The paperback book sells for $11.95 and is available here .