Boston Book Festival 2019

From Aesop's fables to Odysseus’s dog Argos, from Wilbur the pig to Boxer the horse, animals have been a part of human tales (or should we say “tails”?) for as long as stories have existed. But how do we write the true stories of animals? What can we learn from reading nonfiction about non-human creatures? What does memoir and narrative nonfiction about animals, or that includes animals, teach us about the human experience? How can relationships with animals transcend human connection? How can the inclusion of animals in our stories further complicate our understanding of a character? And why write or read about animals at all? In this session, panelists Matthew Gilbert, Sangamithra Iyer, Jessie Male, and Grace Talusan, led by moderator E.B. Bartels, will discuss how and why they, and other writers, integrate animals into their nonfiction, spanning the range from works solely centered on the animal experience to animals as supporting characters in a memoir.