Writing Animals

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Laura Jean McKay

Laura Jean McKay
27 April 2019 - 10:00 to 4:00 PM
Laura Jean McKay
What does it mean to write animals now? People have been depicting nonhuman animals for millennia, but how can we create meaningful nonhuman animal characters in 2019? What are the implications? Isn’t anthropomorphism bad?

In this course we look at ourselves as writing animals and how we can write other animals in a meaningful way. We draw from ancient and modern examples of animal fiction and work through character-driven exercises to explore the nonhuman in our fiction.

You will learn:

•             How other writers have written nonhuman animals

•             How to read and write for animals

•             How you might depict nonhuman animals in your fiction

•             How representation and anthropomorphism play out in animal fiction

•             How to develop nonhuman animal–driven narratives


About Laura Jean McKay

Laura Jean McKay writes about humans and other animals. Her novel, 'The Animals in That Country', is out with Scribe in 2020. She is also the author of the short story collection 'Holiday in Cambodia' (Black Inc. 2013). Her work appears in 'Best Australian Stories', 'The North American Review' and 'The Saturday Paper'. Laura has a PhD from the University of Melbourne and she is currently the ‘animal expert’ presenter on ABC’s 'Animal Sound Safari'.

Event registration fee
Concession member $ 135.00
Member $ 145.00
Non-member $ 195.00

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