NONFICTION | AVAILABLE OCTOBER 2026
ANIMALS TAUGHT ME EVERYTHING
“Houston shows us how to become better people by learning from the creatures around us.”
—ARSEN KASHKASHIAN, Boulder Bookstore
What can a wagging tail and soaring wings teach us about a life well lived?
From Icelandic mares and Irish wolfhounds to elephants, leopards, hyenas, and a desert-adapted lioness named Charlie, Pam Houston has learned life’s most important lessons from animals. How to play. How to rest. How to love. How to die. How to be present with the dying. How to be present with the living and with the Earth. How to find joy in the least likely places. How to find joy, literally, everywhere. With playful sincerity, Houston finds power and promise in the teachings of our fellow creatures and reminds us that animals are here for us, every day and everywhere.
Trade Paper Original | ISBN: 9798890920485 | Nonfiction | $18.95 | 210 pp | Trim: 5.25 in X 8" | October 2026
“A gift to readers. This is a book I desperately needed—grateful it fell into my hands!”
—MONA SUSAN POWER, A Council of Dolls
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PAM HOUSTON is the award-winning author of two novels, Contents May Have Shifted and Sight Hound; short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat; and nonfiction, Without Exception, Deep Creek, and Air Mail. Houston teaches at UC Davis and the Institute of American Indian Arts, and she co-founded Writing By Writers. She lives on a homestead in Colorado with her husband.
ALSO BY THE AUTHOR
Without Exception is a call for freedom by way of abortion rights.
With equal parts candor and lyricism, Pam Houston illuminates the interconnected histories of abortion in the United States and in her own life during the decades when Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. Houston guides us through the shifting landscapes of politics, the law, and self-determination in a country where access to medical care and the power to determine your own destiny are increasingly—and once again—dependent on geography and circumstance.
“A timeless story of self-determination inextricably intertwined with a political moment in time.”
—SHELF AWARENESS
Letters of Politics, Pandemic, and Place
When the state of Colorado ordered its residents to shelter in place in response to the spread of coronavirus, writers Pam Houston and Amy Irvine—who had never met—began a correspondence based on their shared devotion to the rugged, windswept mountains that surround their homes, one on either side of the Continental Divide. As the numbers of infected and dead rose and the nation split dangerously over the crisis, Houston and Irvine found their letters to one another as necessary as breath. Part tribute to wilderness, part indictment against tyranny and greed, Air Mail reveals the evolution of a friendship that galvanizes as it chronicles a strange new world.
“An affecting collection of candid, heartfelt letters that stands as a testimony to the sustenance of friendship in frightening times.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
PRAISE FOR ANIMALS TAUGHT ME EVERYTHING
“From her ranch in Creede to Iceland and the African savannah, Houston introduces the animals that shaped her life in this beautiful, surprising book. Her prose is as varied as her subjects, blending originality with deep feeling. With wisdom and clarity, Houston shows us how to become better people by learning from the creatures around us.”
—ARSEN KASHKASHIAN, Boulder Bookstore
“Animals Taught Me Everything is a gift to readers. The radical generosity of Houston’s heart and spirit worked on me like the strongest medicine. This is a book I desperately needed—grateful it fell into my hands!”
—MONA SUSAN POWER, A Council of Dolls
“Pam Houston’s words fly across the page in this rich essay collection, echoing the strength and grace of the Icelandic horses that are among her most beloved teachers.”
—ANNETTE MCGIVNEY, Plastic Shaman
“Animals Taught Me Everything is bound to become a classic in the literature of the natural world, alongside Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces and Barry Lopez’s Of Wolves and Men. It’s a glorious, necessary manifesto for living a more awake and grateful life on Earth. Read these pages, and you’ll understand how the world still sings—if only we’re willing to listen.”
—SAMANTHA DUNN, Bookish
“Beauty, dignity, and grace are abundant in Animals Taught Me Everything. In Houston’s companionable prose, the wisdom of the animal world proves itself heroic and indispensable in the face of our present darkness, showing us, with pain and pleasure and everything in between, a way forward.”
—KATIE PETERSON, Fog and Smoke
“Houston has spent a lifetime paying attention to the animals who share her life and the land beneath their feet. In Animals Taught Me Everything, she reminds us that horses, dogs, sheep, and the wild beings who live alongside us are not scenery but teachers. These essays honor kinship, endurance, and the fierce love that binds a life together. Houston’s writing is both map and legend, guiding us back to the relationships that root us in the living world.”
—CMARIE FUHRMAN, Salmon Weather
“This collection is both heartening and heartbreaking. Houston’s voice is candid and unwavering as she shares rich stories about her lifelong connection to animals, and we are better for taking the journey with her.”
—KIM BISSELL, Broadway Books
“Pam Houston once again shows us how to love the world with everything we have, and how worth it our most tender efforts are. This is a book for all of us who know our fates are tied to those of the Gila’s wolves and to the elephants of Namibia. We are all so lucky to have—in Pam—a writer who so fearlessly shows us the way through.”
—CHARLIE J. STEPHENS, A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest
“These essays feel alive—running, jumping, rolling, flying. Early on, when Houston describes what animals have taught her, it reads like everything you wish you’d learned sooner about living well and freely. Each reflection lingers, settling into body and heart, mind and soul. The contrast of sweetness and violence, abundance and loss, is powerful. A wild ride you’ll be glad you took.”
—JEAN DEVINE, Garcia Street Books
“Using resplendent prose, Houston explores why we love animals and shows how listening to them helps us understand ourselves. Animals Taught Me Everything moves from Houston’s home in the Rocky Mountains to the horse trails of Iceland, offering hard-won truths about climate, COVID, and capitalism. This book is for anyone whose heart aches for the world, assuring them they are not alone.”
—ARVIN RAM, Townie Books
