‘Reading Strange Animals feels a bit like rummaging around in someone’s well-travelled backpack full of old photographs, seashells, tarot, and countless precious found objects collected for “the passing of knowledge”. A brilliant new voice.’ – Roberto Pastore, Hey Bert (Parthian Books, 2019)
About the author
A Canadian grandchild of Dutch and Hungarian immigrants, in ‘Strange Animals,’ Emily Vanderploeg explores issues of language, ritual, death and identity. Having studied English and Art History at Queen’s University and Creative Writing at Swansea University (MA, PhD), she now teaches creative writing to children and adults. Emily was a Hay Festival Writer at Work (2018 and 2019) and received a 2019 Literature Wales New Writer’s Bursary Award for an extract of her recently completed novel. Her pamphlet, ‘Loose Jewels,’ won the Cinnamon Press Pamphlet Competition and was published in 2020. ‘Strange Animals’ was published by Parthian in 2022 and charts the author’s journey from childhood home to settling across an ocean, moving through the vagaries of modern love as she travels to new cities and a newfound maturity. Originally from Aurora, Ontario, she lives in Swansea.
