Elephants in Captivity: A Novel

Elephants in Captivity, a novel in the planning stages, is conceived as a loose and fantastical collection of stories about the relations of humans and animals, with a particular emphasis on elephants.

The book takes inspiration from classical texts, such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Aelian’s On the Nature of Animals. It will be similar in tone to the “animal stories” from my short story collection, I Am an Executioner: Love Stories. I am seeking a research partner who would be interested in collecting and cataloguing stories, references, and anecdotes having to do with man’s relationship with elephants and other animals, drawing from sources as diverse as classical texts and contemporary newspapers. The resulting catalogue or compendium might go directly into the book as a sort of appendix (think of the “Extracts” section at the beginning of Moby Dick) and would also be used as inspiration for flights of fiction. 

Reading knowledge of a classical language such as Latin or Sanskrit is desirable but not required. Research partners with such language ability might be requested to assist me with my own attempts at reading primary texts.