A man with a beard and short hair sitting in a field of tall, dried grass during overcast weather.

About Drew

J. Drew Lanham is a cultural ornithologist, naturalist, educator, and writer using robust science, artful essays, and evocative oratory to color the conservation conversation. Guided by principles of interconnectedness and interdependence, Dr. Lanham’s work centers on the growing issues within environmental justice as observed through the multifaceted perspective of a Black Southern man. As a storyteller, poet, and passionate advocate for accessibility and stewardship, his writing is in praise of wandering and wildness and in protest against all not justice or joy.

Lanham is a Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University. He has received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant (2022) as well as the Dan W. Lufkin Conservation Award from the National Audubon Society (2019), the Rosa Parks and Grace Lee Boggs Outstanding Service Award from the North American Association for Environmental Education (2016), and the E. O. Wilson Award for Outstanding Science in Biodiversity Conservation from the Center for Biological Diversity (2020) and the Thoreau Award in 2024. He served as the Poet Laureate of Edgefield, South Carolina (2022). Lanham and his family lives on a farm in the Upstate of South Carolina.

Education

B.A. and M.S. in Zoology, Clemson University
Ph.D. in Forest Resources, Clemson University

Literary Contributions

    • Joy is the Justice We Give Ourselves, Hub City Press, 2024

    • Sparrow Envy, Hub City Press, 2021

    • The Home Place, Milkweed Editions, 2016

    • “Nine New Revelations for the Black American Bird-Watcher”, Vanity Fair

    • “How Urbanites Misunderstand Wildlife”, New York Times

    • “9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher”, Orion Magazine

    • “9 Rules for the Woke Birdwatcher”, Orion Magazine

    • “Day 19: A Season of Hope and Feathers”, New York Times

    • “Wildness on a Whim: Reflections on Whimbrel in the South Carolina Lowcountry”, All About Birds

    • Home Range in Carolina Writers at Home, Hub City Press, 2015

    • No Forever for Old Farms in State of the Heart-South Carolina Writers and the Places They Love, U. S.Carolina Press, 2013

    • Dog Hands in Literary Dogs and Their SC Writers, Hub City Press, 2012

    • More than Birds-A Crisis in Birder Identification in The Colors of Nature World, Milkweed, 2011

    • Hunting Deer in Broken Country in Outdoor Adventures in the Upcountry, Hub City Press, 2010

    • Bartram on Blacktop in Bartram’s Living Legacy-The Travels and the Nature of the South, Mercer University Press, 2010

    • Towards Home in American Crisis, Southern Solutions: From Where We Stand, Promise and Peril, NewSouth Books, 2008

    • “Because of Black Hands”, Flycatcher Online Poetry Journal, 2015

    • “Ode to Negroes Who Don’t Ornithologize”, Flycatcher Online Poetry Journal, 2013

Honors

    • Thoreau Award, 2024

    • Tommy Wyche Land Conservation Champion Award, 2021

    • E. O. Wilson Award for Outstanding Science in Biodiversity Conservation, the Center for Biological Diversity, 2020

    • Dan W. Lufkin Conservation Award from the National Audubon Society, 2019

    • Rosa Parks and Grace Lee Boggs Outstanding Service Award from the North American Association for Environmental Education, 2016

    • Knoll Farm’s Whole Thinking Community
      Wildbranch Workshop

    • Winner of the Southern Book Prize

    • Winner of the Reed Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center

    • Winner of Foreword Reviews Best Book of the Year

    • Winner of the Nautilus Silver Award

    • Finalist for the John Burroughs Medal

    • MacArthur Fellow, MacArthur Foundation, 2022

    • Brandwein Fellow, 2016

    • Audubon/Toyota Together Green Fellows

    • Clemson University Institute for Parks Fellow

Kinship

    • Past Board Member, South Carolina Wildlife Federation

    • Past Board Member, South Carolina Audubon

    • Past Board Member, American Birding Association

    • Past Board Member, Board Member

    • Past Board Member, Aldo Leopold Foundation

    • Past Board Member, BirdNote

    • Advisory Board Member, the North American Association of Environmental Education

“I am a man in love with nature. I am an eco-addict, consuming everything that the outdoors offers its all-you-can-sense, seasonal buffet. I am a wildling, born of forests and fields and more comfortable on unpaved back roads and winding woodland paths than in any place where concrete, asphalt, and crowds prevail.”

For Booking and Other Inquiries

Contact Anya Backlund (she/her)

Office: 845-677-8559
Cell: 619-944-9247
Email: anya@blueflowerarts.com‍
Website: www.blueflowerarts.com

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