Do you like animals? OF COURSE.

Do you like writing? YES, DUH.

Then I have the *perfect* class for you: Of Mice and Writers: Writing About Non-Human Animals. It’s happening a week from today on Friday, February 1, from 10am-5pm, at GrubStreet.

Here’s the course description:

For as long as stories have existed, humans have included non-human animals in their tales (or should I say… tails). From Anansi the Spider to Aesop’s fables, from E.B. White’s pig to Jean Craighead George’s wolves, from Helen Macdonald’s hawk to Samantha Irby’s cat to Sy Montgomery’s octopus to Porochista Khakpour’s dog, animals show up in all forms of literature: fiction and nonfiction, adult and children’s, poetry and prose, ancient and contemporary. This session will explore how authors approach writing about animals, both domesticated and wild, in both fiction and nonfiction, and address some of the common questions that come up when writing about non-humans: avoiding sentimentality, grappling with anthropomorphism, and developing animal characters that are more than thinly-veiled allegories. In addition to reading literary excerpts featuring animals, this session will include several writing exercises to help you tackle writing about your own feathered, scaly, or furry friend.

Do you wish you could take this course but you’re under 18? GREAT NEWS.

I am also teaching a *free* version of this class for teen writers as part of GrubStreet’s Young Adult Writers Program on Saturday, February 9, from 12pm-4pm. It’s called Writing Critters: Writing About Non-Human Animals.

Sign up today! You know your pet is just begging you to write their biography!

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