Lea SchneiderAuthor

Of Animals and Other Humans

In times of factory farming, pet culture and animal testing, award-winning essayist and poet Lea Schneider advocates a new approach to our fellow creatures.
For readers of Robin Wall Kimmerer, Helen Macdonald and Robert Macfarlane

English sample translation available

A radical re-examination of the relationship between humans and animals.

When Lea Schneider began observing birds, she learned that only males sing – to attract females, preserve the species, evolutionary theory. But in reality, 71% of female songbirds also sing. And both do so not only out of necessity, but also because they simply enjoy it.

Modern research confirms what indigenous philosophies have always known: animals are subjects, active agents who shape the world with us. This radically different perspective on our fellow creatures gives us hope in the midst of the climate catastrophe: hope for a future in which we build new worlds together.

What distinguishes us from animals? And what exactly is an ‘animal’?

Sample Translations

English

Publisher: S. FISCHER
Release: 23.09.2026
ISBN: 978-3-10-397659-5
240 Pages
Author: Lea Schneider

Buchcover von Of Animals and Other Humans — Lea SchneiderOf Animals and Other Humans

Lea Schneider

Lea Schneider (1989) studied comparative literature, sociology, linguistics, sinology and cultural studies in Berlin, Shanghai and Taipei and received her doctorate with a thesis on radical vulnerability as a feminist writing strategy. Her most recent publications are the poetry collection made in china (2020) and the essay Scham (Shame, 2021). She has received numerous awards for her work, including being a finalist in the Open Mike competition and receiving the Dresden Poetry Prize, the Horst Bingel Prize and the Berlin Art Prize for Literature. She also studies indigenous philosophy, behavioural research, animal studies and ornithology. Lea Schneider lives in Berlin and teaches creative writing and comparative literature.