Participants

Rudy Abramson, co-editor of Encyclopedia of Appalachia, is also author of Spanning the Century: The Life of W. Averell Harriman, and Hallowed Ground: Preserving America's Heritage. For 25 years, he was a Washington correspondent for The Los Angeles Times.

Chief Stephen R. Adkins (Chickahominy) serves on the Jamestown 2007 Federal Commission and is the first Virginia Indian to hold an appointment as Deputy Director of Human Resources in the current state administration.

Wayne Adkins, an alumnus of UVa, is Assistant Chief of the Chickahominy Tribe. He has been active in tribal affairs throughout his life, and for many years, he has organized and led the Chickahominy Tribal Dancers, a traditional dance group.

Deborah Ager's writing has appeared in Best New Poets 2006, The Bloomsbury Review, The Georgia Review, and New Letters. Awarded fellowships at the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, she is the publisher and editor of 32 Poems magazine.

Jonathan Alderfer, coauthor of National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 5th Edition, is a field ornithologist and widely published author. He is chief consultant for the NGS Birding Program.

Thomas Temple Allan, author of Mattasqwatt Island, began in writing by working in a family-owned manufacturing firm where he developed products, wrote catalogs and technical papers. This is his first novel.

William Albert Allard is one of the longest running staff photographers at the National Geographic Magazine. A retrospective of his work, Portraits of America, included his writing and photographs. He lives in Charlottesville.

Lisa Alther (Kinfolks: Falling Off the Family Tree -- The Search for My Melungeon Ancestors) has written Kinflicks: Original Sins and three other novels, which were published in nineteen countries (in 16 languages) and sold over six million copies.

Donna Andrews is the author of No Nest for the Wicket, the seventh book in the series featuring blacksmith Meg Langslow. Andrews has also written a series with artificial intelligence personality Turing Hopper as the sleuth.

Joseph Patrick Anthony and Chris Arbo are the author/illustrator team of two nature awareness picture books, The Dandelion Seed (Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal 1998) and In A Nutshell (Virginia Young Readers List 2002-03).

Cris Arbo and Joseph Patrick Anthony are the illustrator/author team of nature awareness picture books, All Around Me I See, The Dandelion Seed (Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal 1998) and In A Nutshell (Virginia Young Readers List 1002-03). They live in Virginia.

David Armitage, author of The Declaration of Independence: A Global History, also wrote The Ideological Origins of the British Empire and is the 2006 recipient of the Caird Medal from London's National Maritime Museum. He teaches history at Harvard University.

Darnell Arnoult is the author of Sufficient Grace and What Travels With Us, which was the 2006 SIBA Poetry Book of the Year and winner of the Weatherford Award.

Frank B. Atkinson (Virginia in the Vanguard: Political Leadership in the 400-Year-Old Cradle of American Democracy, 1981-2006) is a law partner in McGuireWoods LLP. He served in President Reagan's Department of Justice, Governor George Allen's Cabinet, and is chairman of the Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission.