Linda Hogan is a Chickasaw poet, essayist, and novelist, who has worked as a volunteer in wildlife and raptor rehabilitation. She is the author of The Radiant Lives of Animals, Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World, The Book of Medicines, and Solar Storms, among others. In 1995 she organized a conference for tribal elders on endangered species and was part of a working group for Native input into the reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act. Her lifelong area of interest has been the traditional relationship between indigenous peoples and animals. Hogan is a professor emerita at the University of Colorado, former faculty at the Indian Arts Institute, the writer-in-residence for The Chickasaw Nation, and she was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for her novel Mean Spirit. She lives in Colorado.

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To read the full interview, visit Fiction Advocate and be sure to check out the previous installments of Non-Fiction about Non-Humans with Bethany Brookshire, Sabrina Imbler, Erica Berry, Tove Danovich, Karen Fine, Jaime Green, Cat Warren, Gloria Dickie, Karen Pinchin, Rosanna Xia, and Maddalena Bearzi!

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Gloria Dickie is an award-winning journalist and the author of Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future. She is currently a global climate and environment correspondent at Reuters News Agency, based in London. Dickie has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, Wired magazine, Scientific American magazine, Al Jazeera, Public Radio International, The Atlantic, Outside, Columbia Journalism Review, Mongabay, Yale Environment 360, and Science News, among others. She was a 2022 finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, a 2021 finalist for the Covering Climate Now awards in the Breaking News category, a 2019 nominee for a National Magazine Award, and the inaugural winner of the 2017 Food Sustainability Media Award, Print. As a foreign correspondent and magazine writer, Dickie has reported from more than 15 countries and six continents, along the way receiving generous support from the United Nations Press Foundation; National Geographic Society; Overseas Press Club; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Oregon State University; University of Alaska Fairbanks; National Tropical Botanical Garden; Fund for Investigative Journalism; Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources; and the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity.

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To read the full interview, visit Fiction Advocate, and be sure to check out the previous installments of Non-Fiction about Non-Humans with Bethany Brookshire, Sabrina Imbler, Erica Berry, Tove Danovich, Karen Fine, Jaime Green, and Cat Warren!

The post Non-Fiction about Non-Humans: Gloria Dickie appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

Cat Warren is the author of What the Dog Knows and What the Dog Knows: Young Readers Edition, books about training her German Shepherd, Solo, as a cadaver dog. She is professor emerita at North Carolina State University, where she taught science journalism, editing, and creative nonfiction courses. Before starting her academic career, Warren worked for newspapers across the United States, reporting on crime, poverty, and politics, from California to Wyoming to Connecticut. Warren lives in downtown Durham, North Carolina, with her husband, David Auerbach, a retired professor of philosophy at North Carolina State University, and their two dogs, Rev and Brio.

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To read the full interview, visit Fiction Advocate, and be sure to check out the previous installments of Non-Fiction about Non-Humans with Bethany Brookshire, Sabrina Imbler, Erica Berry, Tove Danovich, Karen Fine, and Jaime Green!

The post Non-Fiction about Non-Humans: Cat Warren appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

Dr. Karen Fine is a holistic veterinarian who writes about the human-animal bond, holistic veterinary medicine, pet loss, grief, and narrative medicine. She owned and operated her own house-call practice, Fine Veterinary House Calls, for twenty-five years. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life and Mortality and the veterinary textbook Narrative Medicine in Veterinary Practice: Improving Client Communication, Patient Care, and Veterinary Well-Being. Fine also co-edits Reflections, an online journal on veterinary narrative medicine, and has written for TheNew York Times, the Brevity blog, Bark magazine, and Inside Your Cat’s Mind. She is a graduate of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and Brandeis University, and is certified in veterinary acupuncture through the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society. Fine currently practices small animal medicine in Central Massachusetts, where she lives with her husband and son and an assortment of rescue animals.

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To read the full interview, visit Fiction Advocate, and be sure to check out the previous installments of Non-Fiction about Non-Humans with Bethany Brookshire, Sabrina Imbler, Erica Berry, and Tove Danovich!

The post Non-Fiction about Non-Humans: Karen Fine appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

If you’d like to hear Tove Danovich and E.B. Bartels in conversation in person, come to Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA tomorrow (Friday 4/7/23) at 7pm! To register and learn more information about the event, click here.

Tove Danovich is the author of Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them. Her work appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Ringer, Eater, NPR, Vox, Grid, and many others. Her articles have been selected for The Year’s Best Sports Writing and Best Food Writing and have been notable selections in Best American Food Writing and Best American Travel Writing. She has been interviewed about her work by 99% Invisible, Marketplace, KERA Think, Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio, and others. She lives in Portland, Oregon and works as a freelance journalist.

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To read the full interview, visit Fiction Advocate, and be sure to check out the previous installments of Non-Fiction about Non-Humans with Bethany Brookshire, Sabrina Imbler, and Erica Berry!

The post Non-Fiction about Non-Humans: Tove Danovich appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

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Okay so I really dropped the ball on consistent monthly Non-Fiction by Non-Men interviews since my book came out but hey that doesn’t mean I am any less excited about this conversation with Robin Lee Carlson!!!

Robin Lee Carlson is a natural science writer, illustrator, and the author of The Cold Canyon Fire Journals, a close study of fire ecology in the Western environment based on six years’ careful observation, research, and illustration at Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve, which burned in 2015 and again in 2020. After studying evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz and the University of Chicago, Carlson spent many years working on stream habitat restoration projects in California. She is most interested in how landscapes and ecological communities change over time, especially ecosystem dynamics after disruption. Her artwork is grounded in observing and documenting the world around her as it unfolds. Visit her website at www.robinleecarlson.com.

The post Non-Fiction by Non-Men: Robin Lee Carlson appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

I can’t believe it has been a month. It both flew by and also felt like the longest month of my life. More below on everything that has happened since 8/2! But thank you to everyone who preordered the book, purchased the book once it was out, showed up at an event either virtually or in-person, posted about Good Grief on social media, texted my mom when they heard me on NPR, snapped a photo when they spotted Good Grief  “in the wild” (please NEVER STOP sending me pictures when you see Good Grief in bookstores or libraries, it makes me so happy), and/or sent me an email, DM, text, or other kind of message about how much the book meant to them. All I can say is I have been completely overwhelmed in the best possible way. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So much has happened since Good Grief came out on 8/2. First, here is a list of all the wonderful interviews, essays, media coverage, reviews, etc. that have come out in the past month. Seriously, it has only been a month???? How????

• Good Grief has been reviewed favorably in Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Shelf Awareness, The Wellesley News, Booklist, and The Washington Independent Review of Books.
• Good Grief was recommended in reading lists from Book Riot, Literary Hub, Wellesley Magazine, and the New Castle Public Library, plus veterinarian Karen Fine includes Good Grief in the list of pet loss resources on her website.
• You can read an excerpt of Good Grief on Literary Hub!
• The 8/2 Good Grief launch event got a shout-out in the Boston Globe!
• I got to speak about Good Grief on several different podcasts including Library Love Fest (in conversation with Ivy Givens), Writer’s Bone (in conversation with Daniel Ford and Kelly J. Ford, who are not related), Debut Spotlight (in conversation with Rachel Barenbaum), and Dog Talk (in conversation with Tracie Hotchner a.k.a. the Radio Pet Lady).
• My essay “The Heart of a Professor” (about the way one of my college professors showed me great empathy when I had to euthanize my childhood dog Gus)as the Endnotes essay in the summer 2022 issue of Wellesley Magazine.
• Good Grief got a write-up in my hometown local newspaper, The Lexington Minuteman!
• “Ashes to Ashes, Pet to Plant” is my essay for Slate’s Future Tense series about the new industry of pet composting. Thanks to editor Jaime Green for her wise feedback on that piece!
• I was interviewed by the great biologist Marc Bekoff for Psychology Today!
• I also did an interview for AKC.org! Thanks to journalist Ranny Green for taking the time to speak with me for it.
• My essay about #MassAveLola ran on Cognoscenti. Thank you to editor Sara Shukla for giving Lola a home on WBUR!
• I also had an essay about learning to love and let go when it comes to pet pigeons run on Salon!
• The legendary Chewy.com featured Good Grief on their blog Be.Chewy. Thanks to journalist Alyssa Sparacino for writing the piece, and to Lindsey Bluher for getting it set up in the first place, which is full of really helpful concrete tips if you are going through pet loss. It’s a great resource!
• Nicole Graev Lipson took the time to talk to me about Good Grief for the Chicago Review of Books! Thank you, Nicole!
• The Noble & Greenough School, my high school alma mater and former employer, featured Good Grief in the summer issue of their alumni magazine, complete with gorgeous illustrations by John Jay Cabuay.
• The tables turned and Fiction Advocate editor Brian Hurley interviewed me for the August installment of Non-Fiction by Non-Men!
• And Good Grief was featured on NPR’s Here & Now! I got to go into the WBUR studios for my interview with Peter O’Dowd (see above). It was like doing college radio on steroids. My years of WZLY prepared me for this!!!!

In the past month, I did eleven Good Grief events: nine were in person, two were virtual, five were in Massachusetts, one was in New Hampshire, and three were in California. They were hosted by six different indie bookstores (Porter Square Books, Once Upon A Time Bookstore, Toadstool Bookshop, Newtonville Books, Tatnuck Bookseller, and An Unlikely Story), one library (Tewksbury Public), two organizations (The Order of the Good Death and the Wellesley College Club of Los Angeles), one book club (People Who Read Darkness!), and one oddities shop (Memento Mori Los Angeles). I got to be in conversation with Kelly J. Ford, Cat Warren, Sy Montgomery, Chloe Shaw, and Karen Fine. I got to see SO many people I love who came out to support me — far too many to name here, though special shout-outs go to Rachel Barenbaum (for the beautiful introduction at my launch), Erin Greene (who traveled up from NYC to be there on 8/2), Lee Ung (for attending every single one of my West Coast events), Karen and Rich Bartels (for attending almost every single one of my East Coast events, and, in their defense, they would have been at every one but I told them to skip 8/24 because they were tired), and the great Richie Corrado (for his toast at my launch that made everyone cry). If you missed any of these events and are bummed about it, don’t worry! There are recordings of several of them:

• Click here to watch the recording of my 8/2 launch at GrubStreet / Porter Square Books: Boston Edition, in conversation with Kelly J. Ford.
• Click here to watch the recording of my 8/17 virtual event with the Tewksbury Public Library, in conversation Chloe Shaw.
• Click here to watch the recording of my 8/24 event at An Unlikely Story in Plainville, MA.
• Plus a recording of my 8/3 conversation with Cat Warren is available to members of The Order of the Good Death, so become a member today to watch!

But don’t worry!!! I am totally exhausted but that doesn’t mean I don’t have MORE great things planned for September, October, and beyond! Below is a list of all my upcoming events, and be sure to keep checking the events page on my website for the most up-to-date into. (I promise the page will load now! I know there was a bug before, sorry!) All of the below events are in-person unless they are labeled ***VIRTUAL***.

SEPTEMBER:

• TOMORROW!!!!!! Saturday 9/3, 3:00pm EDT: Homecoming event at the Fishers Island Library on Fishers Island, NY!
• Wednesday 9/7, 7:00pm EDT: I get to be in conversation with Kelly J. Ford for the launch of her second novel Real Bad Things at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA!
• Tuesday 9/13, 6:30pm EDT: Author event at Gibson’s in Concord, NH! (Thank you to Sue Smith for setting that one up!)
• Thursday 9/15, 5:00pm EDT: Local Author Book Fair at new indie bookstore Hummingbird Books in Chestnut Hill, MA!
• Sunday 9/18, 4:00pm EDT: ***VIRTUAL*** author talk with the Perfect Paws Pet Ministry!
• Tuesday 9/20, 7:00pm EDT: Author event at Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, NH! (Thank you to Sue Smith for setting that one up!)
• Wednesday 9/21, 7:00pm EDT: Atomic Anna x Good Grief event at Belmont Books in Belmont, MA, where I’ll be in conversation with Rachel Barenbaum!
• Monday 9/26, 7:00pm EDT: ***VIRTUAL*** event with Morbid Anatomy, in conversation with Annie Hartnett! Click here to register.
• Wednesday 9/28, 8:00am EDT: Presentation in assembly at the Noble & Greenough School, followed by a guided tour of the Pine Ridge Pet Cemetery!
• Thursday 9/29, 7:00pm EDT: Part of the Books and Buzz series at Brewster Book Store on the Cape (fundraiser for the Animal Rescue League of Boston)!

OCTOBER:

• Tuesday 10/4, 7:00pm EDT: I get to be in conversation with Rita Zoey Chin for the launch of her debut novel The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern at Wellesley Books in Wellesley, MA!
• Thursday 10/6, 12:30pm EDT: Visit to professor Christine Carpenter‘s class “The Power of Pets” at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire!
• Thursday 10/20, 8:00pm EDT: “Burgers & Books” party at Tasty Burger in Harvard Square celebrating four GrubStreet authors with 2022 books: Neema Avashia, Rachel Barenbaum, Kelly J. Ford, and me!
• Thursday 10/27, 6:00pm EDT: I’m honored to share that I’ve been chosen to be the Roslindale Book Ambassador for September + October 2022! On this Thursday, I will have a “Conversation with the Author” event from 6:00pm-7:00pm, followed by a book signing from 7:00pm-7:30pm, at the Roslindale Branch of the Boston Public Library.
• Sunday 10/30, 1:00pm EDT: Session on “Writing Collections: Short Stories and Essays” with Thomas McNeely as part of the Concord Festival of Authors, at the Concord Free Public Library.

NOVEMBER:

• Thursday 11/3, 7:00pm EDT: Book event in New York City at McNally Jackson’s Seaport location (4 Fulton Street)! I will be in conversation with the artist Heide Hatry, and a reception will follow at McNally Jackson Seaport’s new snazzy cocktail bar!

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If you know me, you know I am obsessed with Kira Jane Buxton‘s crow-narrated zombie apocalypse novel Hollow Kingdom, so of course I loved talking with Kira about her new book, Feral Creatures, the sequel to Hollow Kingdom. The interview is up on Chicago Review of Books and Feral Creatures is available now from Grand Central Publishing. Thank you so much to CHIRB editor Mandana Chaffa who helped so much with getting this interview into shape! Enjoy.

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And bonus content: Little E.B. and Little Richie with said dead dogs! From left to right: Gus, Gwen, and Cocoa. RIP.

The post Dead Dog Love Story in Thimble Lit Mag! appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

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Photograph: © Isa Leshko

For a long time I was a photographer in addition to being a writer. Images and words always went hand-in-hand for me, and I found that often photographs influenced how I thought about writing and that often writing influenced how I thought about photography. While I don’t make images of my own anymore with any regularity, I still love visiting museums and galleries and reading art books, and black and white photographs, especially those made with large format cameras and printed in silver gelatin, are still the ones that always grab at my heart.

I was drawn to Isa Leshko‘s images for these reasons, and because her photos are of animals, which of course makes sense, because I am all about animals. But reading Isa’s book Allowed to Grow Old: Portraits of Elderly Animals from Farm Sanctuaries, published this past spring by University of Chicago Press, was truly a life-changing experience. Her images made me reconsider how we as people think about aging, and how getting old can feel like a burden, but it is actually quite a gift. Many animals — both human and non-human — never make it to their elderly years.

This essay I wrote inspired by Allowed to Grow Old is up now on Entropy Mag. I hope you read it, and take some time to look at Isa’s images. Her work is transformative.

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