In Episode 117, Annie Hartnett, author of Unlikely Animals, shares the intriguing backstory behind her new novel. She is wonderfully candid and shares interesting tidbits from the germ of the idea, through some of the editing process, all the way to the finished book and finding a publisher. 

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Highlights

• How interesting information transitions to the idea to write a book.
• The importance of voice in her stories.
• How she infuses comedy into her writing and embraces the potential for silliness.
• Annie shares the experience of having her second book under her belt and how that affects her confidence going forward.
• The difficulty in talking about and promoting a multi-faceted book.
• Cover design and summary decisions for Unlikely Animals.
• Why she chose to tell the story in the collective voice.
• The atmospheric place she lived when she began writing Unlikely Animals.
• Annie answers lightning round questions about some delightfully weird elements in the book.

Annie’s Book Recommendations [33:09]

Two OLD Books She Loves

• The Electric Woman by Tessa Fontaine | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [33:18]
• We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [34:56]

Two NEW Books She Loves

• Walk the Vanished Earth by Erin Swan | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [36:30]
• More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [40:05]

One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About

• Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson (November 8, 2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [42:24]

Last 5-Star Book Annie Read

• Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran | Amazon | Bookshop.org : [46:26]

Other Books Mentioned

• Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett : [1:20]
• The Last Chairlift by John Irving (October 18, 2022) : [20:54]
• The Mothers by Brit Bennett : [24:42]
• Our Town by Thornton Wilder : [28:04]
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders : [28:15]
• Wild by Cheryl Strayed : [34:13]
• Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters : [35:27]
• When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East by Quan Barry : [35:48]
• How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu : [37:16]
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel : [37:38]
• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel : [38:19]
• Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber : [40:45]
• Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson : [42:45]
• The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson : [45:30]
• Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson : [45:35]

About Annie Hartnett

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In addition to her new book, Unlikely Animals, Annie Hartnett is the author of Rabbit Cake, which was listed as one of Kirkus Reviews’s Best Books of 2017 and a finalist for the New England Book Award. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. She studied philosophy at Hamilton College, has an MA from Middlebury College, and an MFA from the University of Alabama. When she began writing Unlikely Animals, she was living in the groundskeeper’s house in a cemetery. She now lives in a small town in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and darling border collie, Mr. Willie Nelson.