(un)Familiar - stories

In (un)Familiar: stories, sid sibo's collection ranges across Wyoming wilderness to urban Dusseldorf, northern Minnesota's frozen lake country to southern Arizona's drought-stricken desert, and to Ireland's stormy west coast. What each piece brings to readers is a keen awareness of and sensitivity toward the other-than-human creatures sharing the planet. Climate chaos certainly plays its part in challenging the human characters of these various landscapes, and yet humans bring their own challenges to every situation. From confronting authorities about invasive parakeets to protecting mega-mansions against burning mountain forests, other-than-human animals return here to their ancient roles as wisdom keepers. Biologists and immigrant farmers, a retired Air Force pilot or physician, a beer-garden server or a mountain lion hunter, a logger and a math teacher: readers will meet people of many identities and walks of life. Seldom do they, or we, living in our crowded human worlds, reflect on other animals carrying their lives and their stories forward. Seldom do these characters, or we, connect animal agency to the actions we take, or to the thriving future we all desire. Throughout dramatic or humorous moments of human yearning, animals as common as crows and cows or as little known as pikas and glass eels appear in perfectly reasonable ways. For those open to more mystical experiences, however, other interpretations can also be found.