Dan Flores

The Leopold Writing Program's mission is to inspire an ethic of caring for our planet by cultivating diverse voices through the spoken and written word.​ This event features a distinguished environmental thinker who inspires audiences to explore today's critical environmental issues. The Annual Leopold Lecturers enhance the influence of the growing network of writers and respected environmental leaders who have been touched by the Leopold Writing Program.​​

Tickets cost $10.  Books will be available to purchase at the reading.

"Golden-Eyed Lightning Rod: A Wolf Story" draws inspiration from Dan Flores's award-winning book, Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in North America, and will discuss wolf evolution beginning with the role the animals played in Native America and Europe and concluding with the 20th-century battle between the U.S. Biological Survey, charged with wolf erasure, and the new science brandished by ecologists. Starting with the Old World hatred of wolves centered on 8,000 years of herding and a religious conviction that wolves were a malediction resulting from Adam's "fall" from the Garden, the lecture will explore the mythology of the wolf and the stories we have told ourselves about the wolf-human relationship.

The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session and book signing. Books will be available to purchase at the venue.

Dan Flores is a Santa Fe-area writer originally from Louisiana who spent much of his career as a University of Montana professor. The author of 11 books, he has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and Time Magazine. Along with appearances on Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown and Joe Rogan's podcasts, Flores was also featured in Ken Burns's 2023 "American Buffalo" documentary.