Therolinguistics
For our third anthology, we will curate a collection of creative responses on the theme of Therolinguistics: Languages Beyond the Human.
For this anthology, we would like to decentre human perspectives by imaginatively focussing on non-human communication and expression. We are seeking creative and experimental work in various modes, both fiction and non-fiction.
Therolinguistics is a term first employed by fabulist Ursula K. Le Guin in her short story “The Author of the Acacia Seeds and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics” (1974); where she brings forth a science devoted to the study of animal communication and artistic, political & poetic expressions. As such, it can be considered as a subgenre of biopoetic literature and arts. Four years ago, Vinciane Despret joined this speculative celebration of multispecies literature, and offers the first definition of the term, in Autobiography of an Octopus (2021):
“Therolinguistics (n.): the term ‘therolinguistics’ was coined from the Greek thèr (θἠρ), ‘wild beast’. It refers to the branch of linguistics committed to the study and translation of written works by animals (and later plants), whether in the literary form of the novel, poetry, epic, pamphlet or archive… As this science explores the so-called savage world, other expressive forms will emerge that go beyond human literary categories (and which will then fall into another field of specialization, that of the ‘cosmophonic and paralinguistic sciences’).”
To this glossary, Despret adds entries on geolinguistics and theroarchitecture. Additionally, she brings forth the concept of paralinguistics throughout her tales. While the first two focus on the analysis of the geologic and architectural productions of nonhuman animals, paralinguistics studies spectral or imperceptible communications, which only some creatures can perceive. For example, tinnitus and thought-messages sent out by spiders.
For more information about Therolinguistics, please refer to the following manifesto prepared by one of our co-editors, Oscar Salguero, the founder of Interspecies Library.
Following Le Guin and Despret, we’re seeking experimental work that challenges an anthropocentric notion of literature, language, grammar and communication. We invite our writers to be as creative and experimental as they can, in whatever style or mode they choose, and to think beyond the boundaries of established genres. Hybridity and creativity with form, as well as artistic enhancement with visual components, are encouraged. 
For organisational reasons, the anthology will be in English. However, we invite authors to develop their writing projects in their native or preferred language and then proceed to submit an English translation. If you are unable to translate your work into English, then we will also accept submissions in Spanish, Portuguese and French, which we will then translate if accepted. If submitting a text in these three languages, please send both the original and a translation for the purposes of review.
We primarily aim to collect original work that has not been previously published. However, we will also accept translations of previously published texts, provided they speak to the theme and are not under copyright or have any other legal restrictions. If accepted, we may then need to go through an editorial process to help get your text ready for print.
Payment: We will pay each author $50 AUD per story, plus a free digital copy of the book. Alternatively, authors may instead choose to have two physical copies of the book shipped to them inclusive of international shipping.
Please submit your original composition consisting of a maximum 5000 words, comprehensive of a title and a 150 word bio to: editor@posthumanpress.com by the deadline, January 31st, 2026.
The main theme is Therolinguistics and Languages Beyond the Human, but we encourage contributors to expand on this idea in any direction. Below are some suggested topics, though you are not limited to these.
Still stuck with what to write? Try to fabulate an extract for the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics. Otherwise, stay tuned for our upcoming writing workshops.
References
Additionally, here is a list of resources and references compiled by another one of our co-editors, Maria P. del Portillo-Cure.
“I wish I could write as mysteriously as a cat.”
(Quote attributed to Edgar Allan Poe)
Narrative
“The Author of the Acacia Seeds, And Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics” (1970), Ursula K. Le Guin.
Autobiography of an Octopus (2019), Vinciane Despret. (Available in its original French, and in Spanish. Forthcoming in English.)
Articles
“Ursula K Le Guin and Therolinguistics” (1998), Rosaleen Love.
“Idiorrhythmy and Its Discontents: Cultures of Animality in Roland Barthes and Ursula K. Le Guin” (2022), Michael Lundblad.
“‘[Me] llama desde el futuro para devenir. [Me] llama desde el futuro para volver’. Aportes de la terolingüística para seguir con el problema” (2024), Camila Arce Torre.
Selection of poems from Finding My Elegy, Ursula K. Le Guin, 2012
“The Marrow”
“Slick Rock Creek, September”
“Antigua: The Silence of the Mountain”
“Talk Shows”
“Two Crow Poems”
“Stammersong”
Proto-therolinguistics: biopoetics and inter-species language and communication
“The Apology of Raimond Sebond”, Michel de Montaigne
The Songs of Maldoror, Isidore Ducasse
A Report to an Academy, Franz Kafka
Yzur, Leopoldo Lugones
“At the Grave of Elizabeth Bishop”, Henry Cole
“Song of the Lionness for Her Cub”, Anon
Aracne, Antonio Franco Alexandre