Jonathan Meiburg, Distinguished Speaker June 21

Throughout his career, Jonathan Meiburg has charted a unique path between the arts and the sciences. In 1997 he received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to travel to isolated communities around the world, a year-long journey that sparked an enduring fascination with islands, birds, and the deep history of life on Earth.  Since then he’s written for print and online publications on subjects including a hidden exhibit hall at the American Museum of Natural History, the last interview with author Peter Matthiessen, and the bizarre marine life of the Antarctic seafloor. 

In 2021 Knopf published his first book, A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life of the World’s Smartest Bird of Prey, a journey through landscapes and wildlife of South America with the crow-like falcons called caracaras, their human companions, and the 19th-century naturalist William Henry Hudson. It was acclaimed as a thrilling hybrid of travel writing, natural history, and literary biography; “to call [it] a bird book,” wrote one reviewer, “is like calling Moby-Dick a whaling manual.” Meiburg is now at work on a sequel, The Secret Land, which will illuminate Antarctica's pervasive and surprising influence on our planet's past, present, and future.

Meiburg also has a parallel life as a recording and touring musician; his bands Shearwater and Loma have been praised by The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, BBC Radio 6, and Pitchfork—and he’s collaborated with artists from Sharon Van Etten to Laurie Anderson. Loma’s third album, How Will I Live Without a Body?, was released by Sub Pop records in June of 2024; the eighth Shearwater album is now in production. 

Register for Zoom Meeting: JUNE21