“To see a world in a grain of sand/And heaven in a wild flower” –William Blake, 1863
Danielle Johannesen is a creative person, writer, and university professor living in Polk County, MN with her husband and basset hound. She grew up in Huron, SD and earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of South Dakota in 2012. In July 2024, she began photographing and identifying Minnesota wildflowers. This website documents creative engagement with the world, celebrating the gifts of curiosity and wonder through the lens of Minnesota wildflowers.
Danielle is the author of The Literary Legacy of the Kennedy Assassination: True Crime Tragedy (Routledge, 2026), a scholarly book about literary representations of the 1963 JFK assassination. She has published scholarly articles and book chapters on topics related to American literature, popular culture, rhetorical studies, and sports. Her nonfiction essays and short stories have been published in Brevity, The Best of Brevity, South Dakota Review, 605 Magazine, and elsewhere. She currently publishes a series of botanical chapbooks, Dreaming in Wildflowers, featuring her own creative writing, illustrations, and photography via her Paper Coneflower Books micropress.
Selfie by Danielle. June 2026.
All photographs are my own unless otherwise noted. I make a genuine effort to accurately identify plants and animals using credible resources. Please comment with corrections or suggestions.
Danielle Dreams in Wildflowers 