Serendipity

Birds and words have always shared a close relationship. The raven, the dove, and the swallow appear in Gilgamesh, and birds have been chronicled in the modern era by ornithologists from John James Audubon to David Attenborough. Our feathered friends have been a source of wonder and inspiration for poets and writers from John Keats to Lydia Millet. When we look to the sky, some see stars, some see the heavens, and some see the flightpath of birds. These three panelists—a poet, a fiction-writer, and a nature photographer—confront the mystery of birds in diverse ways that mirror the extraordinary diversity of birds themselves.