The Familiar Wild: On Dogs & Poetry

What does it mean for a poet to love a dog–especially knowing it will never outlive them? The Familiar Wild: On Dogs & Poetry catapults readers into the marrows of living and feeling alongside our mysterious canines: a species that often teaches us about what it means to be human.

These selections, as chosen by Ruth Awad and Rachel Mennies, interrogate our lives as they’ve intertwined with humanity’s most beloved house companion. What catalyzes our hunger in wanting to share our vulnerabilities and lived realities with these curious, interdependent animals.

Writers, including Chen Chen, Noah Baldino, Hanif Abdurraqib, Carly Joy Miller, Maggie Smith, and Raena Shirali, among others, grapple with the simultaneous heaviness, happiness, love, and loss that comes with dog companionship, exposing deep truths about what it means to share space with our fellow non-humans. This collection examines both the routine and the unexpected lives this anthology’s poets have built with their dogs, exploring wildness and domestication, boundaries and freedom, rescue and grief through works centered on the complicated, expansive writer-to-canine connection.