Creature Needs: Writers Respond to the Science of Animal Conservation

by Christopher Kondrich (editor), Lucy Spelman (editor), Susan Tacent (editor)

A kaleidoscopic literary exploration of extinction and conservation, inspired by the latest scientific research

Creature Needs is a polyvocal call to arms about animal extinction and habitat loss that harnesses the power of literature and scientific research to move us, and stir our hearts and minds, toward action and change. A collection of new literary works by prominent writers paired with excerpts from recent scientific articles that inspired and informed them, this innovative anthology engages the collaborative, cross-disciplinary spirit and energy that is necessary to address the impact of humans on all other animals on our planet.

Divided into six sections representing the basic needs for survival—air, food, water, shelter, room to move, and each other—the stories and poems in Creature Needs vividly portray how these essential conditions are under assault through climate change, habitat loss, plastic and industrial pollution, and human intervention in natural landscapes. As the dominant species on Earth, humans not only control access to survival resources but we also overconsume and harm them. Rather than surrender to despair, the writers here believe that we have the power, if we choose, to change course and protect these resources.

A collaboration with the nonprofit organization Creature Conserve, Creature Needs is a path-setting fusion of literary art and scientific research that deepens our understanding of the interdependence between life and habitat, illuminating the stark choices we face to conserve resources and ensure that the basic needs of all species are met.

Contributors: Kazim Ali, Mary-Kim Arnold, Ramona Ausubel, David Baker, Charles Baxter, Aimee Bender, Kimberly Blaeser, Oni Buchanan, Tina Cane, Ching-In Chen, Mónica de la Torre, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Thalia Field, Ben Goldfarb, Annie Hartnett, Sean Hill, Hester Kaplan, Donika Kelly, Robin McLean, Miranda Mellis, Rajiv Mohabir, Kyoko Mori, David Naimon, Craig Santos Perez, Beth Piatote, Rena Priest, Alberto Ríos, Eléna Rivera, Sofia Samatar, Sharma Shields, Eleni Sikelianos, Maggie Smith, Juliana Spahr, Tim Sutton, Jodie Noel Vinson, Asiya Wadud, Claire Wahmanholm, Marco Wilkinson, Jane Wong.

Genres: Science, Animals, Nonfiction, Essays, Ecology, Environment

184 pages, Paperback

Published January 21, 2025

About the author

Christopher Kondrich is a poet and writer whose most recent books are Tread Upon (Copper Canyon Press, 2026) and Valuing (University of Georgia Press, 2019). His poems appear widely in such venues as The Atlantic, The Believer, The Kenyon Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, New England Review, The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, Poetry London, and The Yale Review, and he has received fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo. He is also the co-editor of Creature Needs: Writers Respond to the Science of Animal Conservation and an associate editor for 32 Poems. He is currently Poet-in-Residence for the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland.

Reviews

[Sookie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection is organized based on six basic needs that animal conservationists recommend: Air, Food, Water, Shelter, Room To Move and Each Other. The introductory essays lays the foundation for this collection, broadly classifying for edification and efficacy. The essays are written by prominent voices, experts, scientists, writers - those who have feet on the ground and ears to ecological pulse. While some of the essays are effective in bring out perspectives that are thought provoking, some require a deeper exploration of an issue for better understanding.

The ones that really, really stand out are those that require a deeper critical look into the ways alternative energies are generated, habitats are created and the notion of conservation requiring radical change in perspective that's more holistic in its approach as an entire ecosystem with its biodiversity, than a targeted species.

A good read calling for urgent need for catering to needs of the non human species in an age of extinction.

Thank you to Netgalley and University of Minnesota Press for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to partners NetGalley and University of Minnesota Press for the digital ARC of Creature Needs: Writers Respond to the Science of Animal Conservation, edited by Christopher Kondrich, Lucy Spelman, and Susan Tacent.

As an English teacher at a school with an environmental focus, where I’m constantly exploring the ways that literature can fuel a deeper understanding of science, I was immediately intrigued by the premise of Creature Needs: Writers Respond to the Science of Animal Conservation, an anthology of essays, short stories, and poetry. Editors Christopher Kondrich, Lucy Spelman, and Susan Tacent organized their collection around six basic needs that all creatures share: air, food, water, shelter, room to move, and each other. Each need has its own devoted section.

The real hook is what comes next: within each section, the individual creative pieces are inspired by peer-reviewed articles that delve into specific conservation needs or concerns. For example, the article “Bumble Bee Species Distributions and Habitat Associations in the Midwestern USA, a Region of Declining Diversity” inspired Maggie Smith’s lovely poem “A Single Worker,” and “A Systematic Review of Potential Habitat Suitability for the Jaguar Panthera onca in Central Arizona and New Mexico, USA” fueled Sofia Samatar’s essay “The Sublime Is a Foreign Species.”

With each new piece, I eagerly anticipated the way that a given contributor would use the statistics or facts within an article as a springboard for their own reflections, often melding personal anecdotes with considerations of the interconnectedness of the lives of these creatures and our own experiences.

As with all anthologies, some of the pieces resonated more with me than others did, whether because of writing style or because of the way the creator navigated the bridge between the article’s objectively described focus and the subjective truths that often hit more deeply. As a whole, however, Creature Needs was just the text I hoped it would be.

[Kat Harnisch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an interesting collection to read! It included poems, short essays, speculative fictions, and creative nonfiction in interesting forms. Each piece is written in response to a scientific study/article, with a short except placed before each creative piece.

I found this book because one of my grad school professors wrote an essay for it. So of course I read her essay first, then skipped around to others I thought had interesting titles. Then I started at the beginning and filled in all of the gaps. Reading it from start to finish showed how the editors chose to organize the pieces (and some interesting choices were made! Organized by specific needs such as water, shelter, etc., there is some overlap).

If you are a lover of nature writing, or someone who enjoys creative writing collections, I would definitely recommend this book!

My favorites of the collection were Words at Dawn Break by Beth Piatote, Wonderful by Annie Hartnett, and Ancient Music by Kyoko Mori.

[Christine Craft · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won an advance copy of this book.
I love that this collection explores animal conservation in both a creative and scientific way. I enjoyed the essays the most and liked that each contribution was inspired by a scientific study. Overall, the science is easy to understand and the essays, art, & poetry made it a fun read that also helped me to gain a greater insight into conservation & nature.

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writers from all over have come together to share personal stories, scientific research, poetry, and observations about animals near extinction and the habitats that they live in that are being destroyed. The essays include animals here in the Midwest, like a woodpecker, and animals around the globe, like a whale or jaguar. You’ll read about changing climates and natural disasters that affect the livelihood of the creatures that call it home. All living creatures require six basic needs: air, food, water, shelter, room to move, and each other. These needs are broken down into sections, with artists, writers, and scientists taking a basic need and writing about it based on a particular creature. Because these essays stand alone, you can read them in any order and slowly over a few weeks or months, or all at once.

Because fireflies (or lightning bugs as I call them) use their flashing lights to court each other, male courtship signals have been reduced or blocked due to artificial lights at night. I had never heard of this being an issue, but I will for sure be turning off as many lights as possible during our lighting bug season here in Iowa. Watching them flash around in our backyard in the summer is one of my favorite things, and I had no idea their flashing lights were part of the important courting and mating process.

My favorite essay in the whole collection was written by Kimberly Blaeser, a Poet Laureate who lives in the Northwoods of Minnesota near the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area. In her essay, she shares a diary of nine days during the Greenwood Fire in Northern Minnesota during August 2021. My cousin’s husband is a National Forest Firefighter based in Northern Minnesota, and her essay felt familiar and personal to me as I read it. As the fire continued to grow by the thousands of acres, I too thought of the loons, bears, and even campers and canoers who were being forced from their habitat. Her writing is beautiful, picturesque, and haunting.

Many other essays held my attention, from the one about a couple with a daughter living in Alaska working to save the polar bears to the one about a woman whose home was being inundated by frogs due to the drought. I realized, after reading, that it is easy to turn a blind eye to all the changes happening in our world. I’ve shared many children’s books that discuss the topics related to environmental hazards and endangered species, but I haven’t read many books written for adults. These writers smacked me in the head with numerous situations that are a cause for great concern. It’s hard to see how I can make a difference, but if I don’t, who will? Each small thing I do can have a ripple effect on the environment that I live in and share with the creatures here.

Lucy Spelman reminds readers in her introductory essay, “We are all stewards of nature and her creatures.” We can all do things to create less of a footprint. Reducing the amount of energy we use in our homes, planting flowers to encourage bees and butterflies to visit, and stopping the purchase of and no longer using one-time-use plastic are a few easy ideas. Even excess noise and nighttime lighting can affect various animals and how they live, sleep, and engage with their environment, including migratory birds’ patterns.

For those who are concerned about our environment or concerned about the demise of various endangered species, read this book or support a non-profit like Creature Conserve to help ensure we are all here and can comfortably share space on this planet.

[Angie Boyter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science and art unite to save animals!
Creature Needs is a creative approach to bringing the problems of habitat loss and animal extinctions to an audience that is not likely to read deep science books on the subject. Each “chapter” in the book consists of a short excerpt from a science article on a specific problem, such as the serious risk to turtle species due to their ingestion of plastics, followed by a piece of poetry or artistic prose representing a writer’s reaction to the article.
The science articles were eye-opening for me. I read science books for general readers, but these normally treat broader subjects. The articles in Creature Needs get down to very specific issues and species, and I learned a lot of disturbing details. There was the topic of the effect of wind turbines on land-based animals like side-blotched lizards, the fact that camels have unusually small red blood cells that are an adaptation to desert life, how humans use beavers to help restore and protect riparian areas, the harm to eels from dams used to produce hydroelectric power, or how jaguars are being affected by anti-immigration barriers. I also picked up some interesting new vocabulary, like ALAN, “artificial light at night”, which is a real problem for some animals.
The responses to the science by the writers were much more of a mixed bag. A lot of the poetry seemed pretentious and did not engage me. There was also some very nice and imaginative writing. A piece called Ancient Music was a lovely mix of science and thoughtful musing about fish and made me smile. In another piece the writer constructed a clever pairing of her own life with that of migratory snowy owls.
The book description says it is “kaleidoscopic” and that fits! Unlike most kaleidoscopes, though, the structure of this book allows you to pick individual pieces or elements to enjoy while skipping others. If you are prepared to take that approach, I think you will find a lot to enjoy.
I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley and University of Minnesota Press.

[Ann]

A collaboration with the nonprofit organization Creature Conserve, Creature Needs: Writers Respond to the Science of Animal Conservation fuses literary art with science. In a call and response format, the short stories and poetry respond to the scientific research, with the book being divided into six sections representing the basic needs for survival—air, food, water, shelter, room to move, and each other. It's a fantastic premise, along the lines of inspiring readers to feel connected to the science by the art. Maybe even giving us a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. I found the scientific essays to be sweet of their own, though. is not so much a fluid read, as a book to dip in and out of.

[Thanks to University of Minnesota Press and NetGalley for an opportunity to read and share my opinion of this book.]

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Love the premise of this! The marrying of science and art is fascinating and I think can be very impactful and promote change.

These pieces are short and prefaced by a snippet of a scientific article that the authors were tasked with responding to. I think that the page limit, the portions of the article they were to respond to, and how the connection was made perhaps made for some limitations on the art that came off as doom and gloom or overly preaching to a theme instead of subtly allowing your reader to connect with the subject matter and come to their own conclusions.

Despite this, I believe that this collection is a stepping stone to essential collaboration between scientists and artists to promote the change our world needs.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free e-ARC from NetGalley, and that might have been a mistake. I struggle with poetry, and the e-book I received had some formatting challenges that make the poems harder to follow (at least, I hope those were formatting issues).
In addition to the poems were some short fiction pieces and short essays and I liked those better. I have an undergrad degree in Biology so the introduction to each article's topic was actually the best part of each section, in my opinion; however a person does not need a hard science background to understand the topics and appreciate this book.
I think this is actually a great book for literary-minded people who value nature and conservation.

[Isaiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got an ARC of this book.

I loved the idea of this book. I read the first section without even realizing I had read as much as I had. The rest of the book was pretty much more of the same, but it just didn't vibe with it as much after the first section. I don't know what it was. I think the idea was solid, it was a me problem.

The mixture of science articles, poetry, non-fiction, and fiction was fun to bounce around it. I am not a poetry person and some of the stories just didn't land for me.

Overall, a really incredibly important book, just not one I vibed with as much as I was hoping for.

[Jack Towns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not something I would have sought out on my own, or known that it existed. However, I am glad that I read it. Some pieces were more abstract than I liked, but overall, the goal of this book is one that I wholeheartedly support.

The importance of science writing is often overlooked because of the knowledge barrier that keeps out many casual readers. "Creature Needs" is a profound step towards making science writing and communication more accessible, digestible, and intriguing by adding creative elements to very real ideas and challenges. Whether you enjoy the writings or not, they have presented themselves as a catalyst for this creative and scientific collaboration within literature.

[Ruba Abu Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful book is a joint collaboration between artists, scientists and writers. It piqued my interest in learning more about nature conservation, animal extinction and the loss of natural habitat.

The essays based on recent scientific articles were my favorite parts of the book. Enthralling at many instances, nonetheless, poignant at others.

Moreover, the illustrations were brilliant. The cherry on the cake was the clear and comprehensible language.

Thank you to NetGalley for the Advance Reading Copy.

[Lesley Hogan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5