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Writing for Animals is popular with both writing and animal studies programs. For more information about each essay, please feel free to check out the contributor Q&As on our blog.
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Release date: August 7, 2018
Price: $18.95
Pages: 222
Binding: 5.25 x 8 x .5
ISBN: 978-1-61822-058-5
“[John] Yunker has gathered an all-star team for this valuable how-to book.”
A unique anthology of articles and essays to inspire animal-themed creative writing
Despite all we know about the sentience of animals, society tends to view and treat nonhuman animals as lesser creatures. And for society to change its views, writers must change their views. We must look closely at how we depict animals and ask ourselves difficult questions. For example, are we using animals for our writing in a way that is authentic and fair? Or are we using them for our own purposes, leading to further misconceptions and abuses?
As our awareness awakens about animals’ intelligence, sensitivity, and social and emotional lives, literature is beginning to reflect this change in awareness. Yet little has been written about the process of writing about animals, from crafting point of view to giving animals realistic voices.
Writers face many questions and choices in their work, from how to educate without being didactic to how to develop animals as characters for an audience that still views them as ingredients. In this book, writers will find myriad voices to assist them in writing about animals, from tips about craft to understanding the responsibility of writing about animals.
Praise for Writing for Animals
“Writing for Animals provides impetus and direction for writers who are ready to get on with the doing. It is practical. It’s process-focused. It makes an urgent case for writing about the beings we share the planet with now—before it’s too late, and before there’s no one left to write for.”
“How can fiction writers give authentic voices to animals and the issues that affect them? Playwright and novelist [John] Yunker has gathered an all-star team for this valuable how-to book.”
Articles & Contributors
| Do We Have the Right to Write About Animals? | Joanna Lilley | |
| Animals that Work in Stories | Lisa Johnson | |
| A Case for More Reality in Writing for Animals | Rosemary Lombard | |
| Meeting the Wild Things Where They Are | Kipp Wessel | |
| Rewilding Literature: Catalyzing Compassion for Wild Predators through Creative Nonfiction | Paula MacKay | |
| Rabies Bites: How Stephen King Made a Dog a Compelling Main Character | Hannah Sandoval | |
| Real Advocacy within Fantasy Worlds | Beth Lyons | |
| Writing Animals Where You Are | Hunter Liguore | |
| Other Nations | Marybeth Holleman | |
| Giving Animals a Voice: Letters from an Ashland Deer | John Yunker | |
| No One Mourns an Unnamed Animal: Why Naming Animals Might Help Save Them | Midge Raymond | |
| Are You Willing? | Sangamithra Iyer | |
| With a Hope to Change Things: An Exploration of the Craft of Writing about Animals with the Founders of Zoomorphic Magazine | Alex Lockwood |
