Rita Venable is a speaker, writer, photographer and consultant whose much-loved subjects are pollinators and gardening with native plants. She is author of Butterflies of Tennessee (Maywood Publishing).
Currently, Rita is a host for “Volunteer Gardener”—a production of Nashville Public Television (NPT).
She is a consultant with the University of Memphis for a Tennessee Dept. of Transportation project. She was also a pollinator consultant at the Giving Garden—a food farm in Franklin.
Rita has published numerous articles and photographs in literary publications, newspapers, and magazines including American Butterflies, American Gardener, Backpacker, Discover the Outdoors, and National Wildlife Online. Concurrently, she won Excellence In Craft awards in writing and photography from the Tennessee Outdoor Writers Association and Southeastern Outdoor Press Association in multiple years. Also, she was an artist-in-residence in creative writing with the Tennessee Arts Commission for five years.
While serving as assistant biologist with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Rita conducted biological surveys in state parks and natural areas with the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory program. She developed butterfly checklists for individual parks, led field trips, conducted training sessions for seasonal naturalists and spoke at state park events.
Rita was editor of Butterfly Gardener, a publication of the North American Butterfly Association based in Morristown, New Jersey.
Rita has spoken at nature sanctuaries, regional garden expos, landscaping seminars, state parks, scientific symposiums and nature and garden clubs. She has been a guest on “Tennessee Wild Side” and “Volunteer Gardener” [WDCN, Nashville Public Television, Nashville] and “Talk of the Town [WTVF, Nashville].
Rita currently lives in Franklin, Tennessee with her husband, Phil, their Labrador retriever, Argo and the many plants and pollinators that make her yard their home.