Introduction

Animals might be considered, broadly, unsophisticated and unremarkable, while also being cosmically bananas, like the rest of the natural world. It’s interesting to compare how they are observed, presented and communed with in short story form. In this personal anthology, their purpose varies: they are metanarrative, character study, plot device, scene detail and more. The great auk, giant snails, a goldfinch, axolotls, a horse, a polar bear, ortolans, the missing link, the memory of a dog, angels (they count), an invisible creature (it also counts), and finally Lucia Berlin on devastating form (because people are animals too).