JOHN JAMES AUDUBON INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER’S BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
DANNY HEITMAN:
Danny Heitman is an award-winning columnist for The Advocate newspaper in Louisiana and editor of Phi Kappa Phi's Forum magazine. His essays and book reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Smithsonian, and elsewhere. “A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House,” Danny Heitman’s 2008 book, explores a pivotal season in the life of the world’s most famous bird artist. The book’s been adapted as an Emmy nominated documentary. Danny frequently lectures about Audubon across the country.
BEN FORKNER:
A retired professor of English, Ben Forkner has published three books on Audubon: John James Audubon: Journaux et Récits; John James Audubon: Selected Journals and Other Writings; and John James Audubon Portfolio. He has also published Louisiana Stories, Cajun, and a dozen books on writers of Ireland and the American South.
RANDY HARELSON:
Randy Harelson is an artist, writer, horticulturist, and educator originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is the author of New Roads and Old Rivers: Louisiana’s Historic Pointe Coupee Parish (LSU Press, 2012) and the illustrator of Audubon on Louisiana (LSU Press, 2018). Working with the Friends of Margaret Stones, Randy helped LSU Press publish a new special folio edition of Native Flora of Louisiana: Watercolor Drawings by Margaret Stones.
JOHN MILES:
Associate Librarian, Curator of Books and Head of Instruction Services, Special Collections, Louisiana State University Libraries. (2018-present) He is responsible for the curation of the printed material in Special Collections, including the McIlhenny Natural History Collection, the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection, and the Rare Book Collection. He also oversees and coordinates instruction for Hill Memorial Library.
DANIEL PATTERSON: Ever since his childhood of perfect freedom to roam about the countryside of his western South Carolina home, Daniel Patterson has not ceased to be drawn to the natural world—and to books about it. He is a scholar of early American natural history and nature writing and emeritus professor of English, Central Michigan University. His books include Early American Nature Writers: A Biographical Encyclopedia(2008) and three volumes on the nineteenth-century American nature writer Susan Fenimore Cooper. He has published three works on Audubon: John James Audubon’s Journal of 1826: The Voyage to The Birds of America (2011), The Missouri River Journals of John James Audubon (2016), and, most recently with Eric Russell, "Tenacious of Life": The Quadruped Essays of John James Audubon and John Bachman (2021). He and his wife, Alison Miller, live in Alma, Michigan, from which base camp, they plan visits with their five grandkids.
DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER’S BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
DANNY HEITMAN:
Danny Heitman is an award-winning columnist for The Advocate newspaper in Louisiana and editor of Phi Kappa Phi's Forum magazine. His essays and book reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Smithsonian, and elsewhere. “A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House,” Danny Heitman’s 2008 book, explores a pivotal season in the life of the world’s most famous bird artist. The book’s been adapted as an Emmy nominated documentary. Danny frequently lectures about Audubon across the country.
BEN FORKNER:
A retired professor of English, Ben Forkner has published three books on Audubon: John James Audubon: Journaux et Récits; John James Audubon: Selected Journals and Other Writings; and John James Audubon Portfolio. He has also published Louisiana Stories, Cajun, and a dozen books on writers of Ireland and the American South.
RANDY HARELSON:
Randy Harelson is an artist, writer, horticulturist, and educator originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is the author of New Roads and Old Rivers: Louisiana’s Historic Pointe Coupee Parish (LSU Press, 2012) and the illustrator of Audubon on Louisiana (LSU Press, 2018). Working with the Friends of Margaret Stones, Randy helped LSU Press publish a new special folio edition of Native Flora of Louisiana: Watercolor Drawings by Margaret Stones.
JOHN MILES:
Associate Librarian, Curator of Books and Head of Instruction Services, Special Collections, Louisiana State University Libraries. (2018-present) He is responsible for the curation of the printed material in Special Collections, including the McIlhenny Natural History Collection, the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection, and the Rare Book Collection. He also oversees and coordinates instruction for Hill Memorial Library.
DANIEL PATTERSON: Ever since his childhood of perfect freedom to roam about the countryside of his western South Carolina home, Daniel Patterson has not ceased to be drawn to the natural world—and to books about it. He is a scholar of early American natural history and nature writing and emeritus professor of English, Central Michigan University. His books include Early American Nature Writers: A Biographical Encyclopedia(2008) and three volumes on the nineteenth-century American nature writer Susan Fenimore Cooper. He has published three works on Audubon: John James Audubon’s Journal of 1826: The Voyage to The Birds of America (2011), The Missouri River Journals of John James Audubon (2016), and, most recently with Eric Russell, "Tenacious of Life": The Quadruped Essays of John James Audubon and John Bachman (2021). He and his wife, Alison Miller, live in Alma, Michigan, from which base camp, they plan visits with their five grandkids.
