Dan Werb in conversation with Elizabeth Weinberg
Free (with RSVP)
The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe is excited to welcome author Dan Werb to celebrate the release of his latest book, Our Wild Familiars. Werb will be joined in conversation by Elizabeth Weinberg.
Although this is a free event, we kindly ask that you RSVP in advance. Thank you!
About the book:
In Our Wild Familiars: How Animals Are Adapting to Cities and Reshaping the Natural World, Dan Werb sheds fascinating light on synanthropes, wild creatures that have found a way to survive and thrive in human-modified environments. From rats, bats, pigeons, and raccoons to the Superb parrot, the grey-headed flying fox, and the giant Pacific octopus, these diverse animals are much more than pests and threats. As Werb notes: “Synanthropes show us the world as it is and a path forward to connecting with nature beyond simply mourning what we’ve lost. And if we look closely enough, they can show us that wonder is alive all around us.”
RSVP for Werb
Although tickets are free we kindly ask you to register in advance.
Dan Werb
Dan Werb, PhD, is an award-winning writer and social epidemiologist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, TIME, Salon, and other outlets. He holds faculty appointments at the University of California San Diego and the University of Toronto. His previous books include The Invisible Siege: The Rise of Coronaviruses and the Search for a Cure (2022).
Elizabeth Weinberg
Elizabeth Weinberg is a queer essayist living and writing in Portland. They are the author of Unsettling: Surviving Extinction Together, and their essays have appeared in High Country News, Identity Theory, The Rumpus, Buckman Journal, and elsewhere. Weinberg has spent the last decade as a professional science communicator and currently serves as the assistant director of the Portland Urban Coyote Project. They are at work on a book about urban animals.

