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JAN LEE ADKINS was born on the Ohio River in West Virginia.
He was raised in Wheeling when it was still an industrial
center and smog blocked out the sky until midday. His father
was a sheet metal contractor who invented clever devices and
could fix anything. His mother was a loopy, beautiful woman
with wit and a lyric Welsh soprano. He has one sibling, a
daft sister to whom he is very close. Jan attended public
school in St. Clairsville, Ohio, a small town in the coalfields
where boys of substance were absent on the first day of rabbit
season.
He studied architecture at Ohio State University and apprenticed
as a designer for several years. He shifted his major to literature
and creative writing and graduated, after more than eight
years of university, with a plain BA.
Most of his professional life has been given to telling how
things work in words and pictures: technology, mechanics,
physics, medicine, nature and history. This is his calling:
he is an Explainer. He has explained a bewildering variety
of subjects, though he insists that they are all connected,
part of one great puzzle. The keel of his work has been writing,
designing and illustrating more than 36 books. Though there
are many books and articles for adults, his favorite and most
challenging audience is young people.
Jan has lived in Ohio, the Washington, DC, megalopolis, and
in Marin County, California, but real home is the area around
Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts, between New Bedford and Wareham.
This is where his children were born, and where he learned
to sail. His favorite book, A Storm Without Rain is
an homage to Swamp Yankee country.
For nine years he was the associate art director at National
Geographic Magazine, explaining the space shuttle, lasers,
submarines, Soviet rockets, satellites, nuclear physics, marine
archaeology, forest fires, volcanoes and the voyages of Christopher
Columbus. Directing a team of researchers and doing original
field research himself, he unraveled some of the most interesting
topics ever addressed by Geographic during its golden
age. Jan's job, according to his editor-in-chief Bill Garrett,
"was like getting a doctorate every third month."
He has written scripts and treatments for the Discovery Channel,
NOVA, and the BBC, and narrative voiceover for interactive
corporate training programs. He taught editorial illustration
at the Rhode Island School of Design for several years, and
taught illustration and graphic design at Maryland Institute,
College of Art, in Baltimore. He’s associated with several
exhibit design firms and frequently consults on exhibits for
zoos, art museums, science and natural history museums.
Jan has been associated with several exceptional magazines
– Smithsonian, Air & Space, WoodenBoat, Island
Journal and others. He began working with the
children’s literary magazine Cricket from its first
issue. He was part of the start-up crew and continued as contributing
editor for the Smithsonian and Cricket co-publication
of a children’s non-fiction magazine, Muse, which has
spun off a younger version, Click. He’s writes a continuing
series of humor essays for Chesapeake Bay Magazine.
His daughter teaches geography at the University of Florida,
his son is a chef in Washington, DC, and his stepson is a
stream reclamation planner in Seattle. Jan lives alone on
a horseranch in Novato, California, about 25 minutes north
of the Golden Gate bridge. He plays tennis, hikes, cooks for
friends, and sails whenever a good boat is available.
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The Art and Industry of Sandcastles
Walker & company
The Craft of Making Wine
Walker & company
How a House Happens
Walker & company
The Craft of Sail
Walker & company
Inside: Seeing Beneath the Surface
Walker & company
The Bakers
Scribners
Luther Tarbox
Scribners
Chains, Webs & Pyramids
Walker & company
Letterbox: A History of Letters
Walker & company
Symbols: A Silent Language
Walker & company
Wooden Ship
Houghton Mifflin
Small garden, Big Surprise
Ginn
Citizen's Handbook for Energy Action
with Wilson Clark, Conservation Foundation
The Art and Ingenuity of the Woodstove
Everest House
The Wood Book
Little-Brown
Moving Heavy Things
Houghton-Mifflin
Moving On
Scribners
Heavy Equipment
Scribners
A Storm Without Rain
Little-Brown, young adult novel
Workboats
Scribners
Cookie
Harper & Row, adult mystery
Solstice, a Mystery of the Season
Walker & company, young adult
Deadline For Final Art
Walker & company, adult mystery
STRING: Tying It Up, Tying It Down
Scribners
The Backyard Naturalist's 1994 Journal
and Book of Days
Ragged Mountain Press
The Ragged Mountain Wilderness Anthology
Ragged Mountain Press
Captain Bill Pinkney's Journey
Open Court Publishing, textbook for young readers
Machines In Our Garden
Open Court Publishing,
textbook for young readers
The Wonder of Light
Ginn, textbook for young readers
Dreamspinner: the Art of Roy Andersen
Settler's West, biography of illustrator/painter
"Obelisks" section
One section of the BBC companion
book to series
Secrets of Ancient Civilizations
Bridges, From my Side to Yours
Roaring Brook Press, 2002
Pirates
Roaring Brook Press
John Adams: Stubborn Patriot
Simon & Schuster
What If You Meet a Pirate?
Roaring Brook Press, 2003
IN PROGRESS:
Illustration: A Literate Art
Prentice Hall, textbook
Villains
uncontracted, non-fiction for young adults
Lieutenant Kijé
Uncontracted, retelling of a charming Russian story
by Yury Tynyanov, filmed by LenFilm in Soviet Russia, score
by Serge Prokofiev, from which the symphonic "Lt. KijÈ Suite"
is taken
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Nominee, National Book Award
for The Art & Industry of Sandcastles
Lewis Carrol Shelf Award
4 Brooklyn Museum Art Citations
2 Showcase Awards
Children's Book Council
Japanese Exhibition of American
Children's Books
Featured Speaker
"Children's Literature of the Sea",
Texas A&M
6 Awards of Excellence
Art Directors Club of
Metropolitan Washington
Merit Award
Art Director's Club of New York,
Annual Exhibition
2 Certificates of Merit
Society of Illustrators 25th
Annual National Exhibition
Award of Excellence For a Series of Editorial Illustrations
Communication Arts Magazine Nominee: The Newbery Award
for A Storm Without Rain
2 Awards of Excellence
Communication Arts Magazine
3 Merit Awards
Art Director's Club of New York
Award of Excellence for Editorial Illustration
Communication Arts Magazine
Certificate of Distinction for Creativity
Editorial Design of a Multiple Unit,
Art Direction Magazine
2 Merit Awards
Art Directors Club of
Metroplitan Washington
3 Merit Awards
Art Directors Club of New York
3 Certificates of Merit
Society of Illustrators
26th Annual National Exhibition
Best Science Book of 1985
American Society of Science Teachers
Certificate of Design Excellence
Print Design Annual
5 Certificates of Merit
Society of Illustrators 27th
Annual National Exhibition
Certificate of Merit
Society of Illustrators
"Art of Medicine" Exhibition
Award of Excellence
Communication Arts Magazine
Merit Award
Art Directors Club of New York
Award of Excellence
International Editorial
Design Competition, Two
2 Awards of Merit
Museum Publications Competition,
for Maine Maritime Museum's
Lobstering Poster
Guest Lecturer
Norman Rockwell Museum
"Masters of Illustration" Series Best Mystery
Stories of the Year
for "Barratry" in the anthology
Unusual Suspects
Silver Addy Award for Design
Orlando Art Directors
Featured Author
Something About the Author,
Autobiography Series
Gold Medal, Best Essay of the Year
International Regional
Magazine Association
Outstanding Contribution to Literacy For Young Readers
Bridgewater State College, Massachusetts
Best Illustration Series of the Year
Naval History Magazine
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