Rachel Poliquin
all things orderly and disorderly in the natural world
Photography Michael Dee
I am currently working on a four-book Superpower Field Guide series for young readers about the surprising supertalents of humpy-dumpy animals. The series is illustrated by the award-winning Nicholas John Frith and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Beavers are first up -- look for it December 2018!
I have written two books for grown-ups -- one about taxidermy, one about beavers -- both of which explore the ways humans make sense of the natural world.
Taxidermy is a particularly strange, particularly provocative encounter with nature. My book The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and the Cultures of Longing was part of my Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I also wrote Beaver for Reaktion Books' Animal Series, which investigates all things beaver from hats to dams to ice cream.
I hold a Ph.D. in the Programme of Comparative Literature at the University of British Columbia (UBC). My thesis, "To make the stubborn Clod relent: Climate, Culture, and Cultivation in Early Modern England," investigates medical and cultural interpretations of climate and nature in seventeenth-century England. I also have a B.F.A. in painting and printmaking from UBC, a Post-Baccalaureate in painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and a Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities from Stanford University, during which time I focused on material culture and early modern cabinets of curiosity.
I have worked with collections at various art galleries and museums. I curated Ravishing Beasts: The Strangely Alluring World of Taxidermy for the Museum of Vancouver and the permanent vertebrate exhibits at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.
I live in Vancouver, Canada.
Literary Representation:
Amy Tompkins, Transatlantic Agency, amy@transatlanticagency.com