Tove Danovich—Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them

UNDER THE HENFLUENCE:
INSIDE THE WORLD OF BACKYARD CHICKENS
AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM
Tove Danovich
Agate (William Collins in the UK), March 28, 2023, $27
ISBN13: 978-1572843219, ASIN: B0BNQDH42N

Danovich reports:

In 2018 I bought three chickens. My intention was to have a source of eggs from hens I knew had been treated well. It’s probably the journalist in me but my first inclination when starting any new venture is to read everything about the topic I can get my hands on. So I read about chickens. As I spent more time with my flock and began to appreciate them for the funny, quirky birds they are, I began to think that what had been written about them was lacking.

I started recording my research in a Scrivener file and making notes about my adventures with my chickens almost from the moment I brought them home. I already had an agent from a project that hadn’t sold. We started working together in 2019 on the proposal for the book that would become Under the Henfluence.

I’m a slow proposal writer. Figuring out the structure of this book was key. I hated writing the chapter summaries but I wound up being very grateful for the process. The finished book is exactly what the proposal lays out. I sold the book in August 2020 and turned in a full draft in December 2021.

I aimed to take readers on a journey like the one I’d gone on with my own flock.

I’ve read a lot of books about farm animal welfare and they’re all quite shocking and sad. But I don’t know that they have much of an audience outside of people who already care about food systems and animal welfare. There are 26 billion chickens alive on the planet now. I wanted to show people that chickens can have as much personality as a dog or cat and be as interesting to study as wild animals like wolves. I used reporting trips as a framework for my research. In a chapter on a chicken training camp, I tied in chicken intelligence and behavioral biology.

The result is a combination of memoir and reporting that talks about the place of chickens in the world and what we owe them.

Contact info:

• Tove Danovich: tdanovich@gmail.com , https://www.tovedanovich.com/, @tkdano, bestlittlehenhouse
• Book: https://www.agatepublishing.com/9781572843219/under-the-henfluence/
• Publicist: Jacqueline Jarik, jarik@agatepublishing.com
• Agent: Zoe Sandler, zoe.sandler@caa.com

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