Animals Strike Curious Poses
—Helen MacDonald for The New York Times Book Review
Beginning with Yuka, a 39,000 year old mummified woolly mammoth recently found in the Siberian permafrost, each of the 16 essays in Animals Strike Curious Poses investigates a different famous animal named and immortalized by humans. Modeled loosely after a medieval bestiary, these witty, playful, whipsmart essays traverse history, myth, science, and more, bringing each beast vibrantly to life.
Elena Passarello is an actor, a writer, and recipient of a 2015 Whiting Fellowship in nonfiction. Her first collection with Sarabande Books, Let Me Clear My Throat, won the gold medal for nonfiction at the 2013 Independent Publisher Awards. She lives in Corvallis, Oregon.
Elena Passarello is an essayist, teacher, and performer whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Paris Review, Audubon, the New York Times, and Best American Science and Nature Writing. In 2019, Outside named Elena one of “25 Essential Women Authors Writing About the Wild.” A recipient of the Whiting Award in nonfiction and the Oregon Book Award, her writing has been translated into five languages. She teaches in the MFA program at Oregon State University, and can be heard weekly on PRX arts and culture radio show Live Wire!