Join Community Read authors J. Drew Lanham (The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature) and Mya Thompson (Ruby’s Birds), alongside John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge Park Ranger Wingyi Kung, as they discuss their lifelong love of birds and nature during this free 75-minute webinar.
In The Home Place, birder, naturalist, and hunter-conservationist Lanham examines his personal history and journey to become a wildlife ecologist, uncovering lessons about legacy and injecting a deeper sense of human caring into his life and work along the way. In Ruby’s Birds—perfect for our younger readers—educator, biologist, and co-director of Engagement in Science and Nature at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Thompson shares a delightful story of how a young girl discovers birds in her city neighborhood, enlivening her world and exciting her to learn more about nature.
During this online event, Lanham, Thompson and Kung engage in a thoughtful, inspiring conversation about their work, their passion for birding, and their love of nature. Participants are encouraged to ask questions during the question-and-answer portion of the webinar.
A native of Edgefield, South Carolina, J. Drew Lanham is the author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, which received the Reed Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Southern Book Prize, and was a finalist for the John Burroughs Medal. He is a birder, naturalist, and hunter-conservationist who has published essays and poetry in publications including Orion, Audubon, Flycatcher, and Wilderness, and in several anthologies, including The Colors of Nature, State of the Heart, Bartram’s Living Legacy, and Carolina Writers at Home. An Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University, he and his family live in the Upstate of South Carolina, a soaring hawk’s downhill glide from the southern Appalachian escarpment that the Cherokee once called the Blue Wall.
Mya Thompson, Ph.D., is an author, educator, and biologist. She spends her days at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as the Co-director of Engagement in Science and Nature helping people learn more about birds. Before getting hooked on feathered animals, she studied elephant behavior in the rainforests of central Africa. She is the author of the book Ruby’s Birds and producer of a variety of educational games including Flap to the Future and BeastBox. Mya lives with her husband and kids in upstate New York.
Instructors
J. Drew Lanham, Mya Thompson, Wingyi Kung
Where
Online, live-streamed