LFA News

Lake Forest Academy is excited to welcome a number of artists, actors, and authors to campus during the 2024-25 academic year for the Bird Artist Series. The lineup of events features in-class opportunities for students, theater outings for faculty and staff, guest speakers participating in special programming, and one community event.

This year's main community event in the Bird Artist Series is on Thursday, Sept. 26 featuring author Karen Russell. Russell is the author of five books of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers “Swamplandia!” and “Vampires in the Lemon Grove.” She is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Finalist, and a Guggenheim Fellow, and the recipient of, among other honors, the 2023 Bottari Lattes Grinzane prize for her novella “Sleep Donation,” the Shirley Jackson award, and the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” award. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s, Zoetrope, Tin House, Conjunctions, and the New York Review of Books, and frequently anthologized in the Pushcart Prize and the Best American Short Stories series. She was the librettist and co-lyricist for “The Night Falls,” one of The New York Times’ Best Dance Performances of 2023. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, she lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, son, and daughter. Her novel, “The Antidote,” is forthcoming from Knopf in 2025. Russell's event will be open to the public and start at 7 p.m. in The Cressey Center for the Arts.

The Bird Artist Series is named after former Lake Forest Academy English teacher Ray Bird. Bird taught English 9, 10, and AP English Literature for 12 years starting in 1995. He taught his students to love literature, to test the boundaries of their imaginative abilities, and to open their minds to ideas both novel and arcane. With a quick wit, abundant gestures, and a limitless supply of energy, Bird captivated his students and instilled a lifelong passion for reading, writing, and creative expression.  

Additional events are scheduled throughout the year and more events could be added to the Bird Artist Series. Among the events are visits to LFA classes by authors Alice Bolin and Elizabeth Acevedo, New Yorker literature critic Katy Waldman, and actor and Brown University professor Angela Brazil. Television anchor and author Jim Sciutto and author Camille Dungy will also join the community for special programming. There will also be faculty discussions throughout the academic year and local trips for theater events.