March 22, 2007

Illustrator, author to be first speaker in new Lyceum series

Julie Zickefoose, a noted musician, illustrator, and author, will be the first speaker in the new Marietta Lyceum speaker series at Marietta College, which debuts at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 29.

Zickefoose, a contributor to National Public Radio's All Things Considered, is giving a presentation related to her most recent book, Letters from Eden. The inaugural Marietta Lyceum is free and open to the public at the Alma McDonough Auditorium.

She studied biology and art at Harvard University and worked for six years as a field biologist for The Nature Conservancy before turning to a freelance art career. Zickefoose has presented illustrated lectures for nature organizations and festivals across the country, as well as exhibited her paintings at universities, museums, galleries, and in juried shows. Her illustration credits include The New Yorker, Smithsonian, Spider, Cricket, and Ladybug. She has written and illustrated articles for Country Journal, and Bird Watcher's Digest has published more than 30 of Zickefoose's articles and 17 of her cover paintings since 1986.

Zickefoose has painted color posters and illustrated educational materials for the Laboratory of Ornithology and Cornell University, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, and the Boy Scouts of America. The American Ornithologists' Union and the Academy of Natural Sciences employed her as a primary illustrator of their landmark 17volume work, The Birds of North America.

With her husband, Bill Thompson III, editor of Bird Watcher's Digest, Zickefoose lives on an 80-acre nature sanctuary in the Appalachian foothills of southeast Ohio. A42-foot-tall bird watching tower atop their home helps them enjoy and catalogue the wildlife they protect, including 181 bird species and 67 butterfly species to date.

The Marietta Lyceum provides a venue for authors, artists, and scholars in the Mid-Ohio Valley. Its mission is to help enrich the artistic, cultural and intellectual climate in the region. Marietta College's Office of the President and the Chair of the Faculty are cosponsors of the event.

For information: Dr. Mark Miller, (740) 376-4811 or millerr@marietta.edu.