10-26 May
Become a FriendHow To Be Animal
Melanie Challenger
Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2020 has been cancelled
It is with regret that we have taken the very difficult but ultimately inevitable decision to cancel the 2020 Norfolk & Norwich Festival.
With the rapidly escalating health-crisis and with the safety of our audiences, staff and artists at heart, we have taken the decision that it is impossible for us to deliver the Festival this May.
If you have booked a ticket for the Festival, you do not need to do anything. You are entitled to a refund and we will be in touch soon. Please bear with us during this difficult time. If you have the capacity to make a donation of part or all of your ticket value, we would be extremely grateful – it would help ensure we’re well-placed to support artists and be able to present future Festivals.
Humans are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive and baffling animals on the planet, but how well do we really know ourselves?
Through a blend of natural and environmental history and philosophy, award-winning researcher and writer Melanie Challenger argues that at the heart of human psychology is a profound struggle with being animal. A remarkable look at human existence, our animal nature and our relationship to other species.
‘Challenger is an exquisite writer’ – Observer
Important information
Duration: 1 hour
About Melanie Challenger
Melanie Challenger studied English literature and language at Oxford University and has since worked as a researcher on the history of humanity and the natural world, and environmental philosophy. Her first book On Extinction: How We Became Estranged From Nature (2011) was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best non-fiction books of 2012, longlisted for the Dolman Travel Book of the Year and received the Santa Barbara Library’s Green Award for environmental writing. Melanie received a Darwin Now Award for her research among Canadian Inuit and the Arts Council International Fellowship with British Antarctic Survey for her work on the history of whaling. From 2007-2010, she was a Fellow at the AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity at University College London.
Tickets
City of Literature Weekend is a Norfolk & Norwich Festival and National Centre for Writing presentation, programmed by National Centre for Writing.
