Dr. Daniel Payne (March 2022)
The Art of Literary Biography: Orion on the Dunes
Dr. Daniel G. Payne, Department of English
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
4pm in the Alden Room (Milne Library) and livestreamed online
About the Lecture
Dr. Daniel G. Payne, Distinguished Teaching Professor (Department of English) lectures on the Art of Literary Biography, drawing from Orion on the Dunes (2016), his acclaimed biography of the 20th Century American nature writer Henry Beston (1888-1968). In addition to providing an overview of Beston’s life and work, Dr. Payne discusses the methods and challenges of writing a literary biography, including stories about his own experiences as a "literary detective."
About Dr. Payne
Dr. Daniel G. Payne is a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the English Department at SUNY Oneonta, where he teaches American literature and creative writing. He received his J.D. from Albany Law School (1984) and his Ph.D. in English from the University at Buffalo (1993). He is the author or editor of several books on environmental literature, including Voices in the Wilderness: American Nature Writing and Environmental Politics (1996), The Palgrave Environmental Reader (2005), Writing the Land: John Burroughs and his Legacy (2007), Why Read Thoreau’s Walden? (2013), and Orion on the Dunes: A Biography of Henry Beston (2016).