In-Store: UNDER THE HENFLUENCE by Tove Danovich

Join us for an in-person event celebrating the release of Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them by Tove Danovich! For this event, Tove will be joined in conversation by Sophie Lucido-Johnson.

Please note: Pre-registration for this event is required. By pre-registering, you are verifying that you are fully vaccinated and will wear a mask throughout the entirety of the event.

An immersive blend of chicken-keeping memoir and culture reporting by a journalist who accidentally became obsessed with her flock.

Since first domesticating the chicken thousands of years ago, humans have become exceptionally adept at raising them for food. Yet most people rarely interact with chickens or know much about them. In Under the Henfluence, culture reporter Tove Danovich explores the lives of these quirky, mysterious birds who stole her heart the moment her first box of chicks arrived at the post office.

From a hatchery in Iowa to a chicken show in Ohio to a rooster rescue in Minnesota, Danovich interviews the people breeding, training, healing, and, most importantly, adoring chickens. With more than 26 billion chickens living on industrial farms around the world, they’re easy to dismiss as just another dinner ingredient. Yet Danovich’s reporting reveals the hidden cleverness, quiet sweetness, and irresistible personalities of these birds, as well as the complex human-chicken relationship that has evolved over centuries. This glimpse into the lives of backyard chickens doesn’t just help us to understand chickens better—it also casts light back on ourselves and what we’ve ignored throughout the explosive growth of industrial agriculture. Woven with delightful and sometimes heartbreaking anecdotes from Danovich’s own henhouse, Under the Henfluence proves that chickens are so much more than what they bring to the table.

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Tove Danovich is a freelance journalist who has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Ringer, Backyard Poultry Magazine, and many others. Her articles have been included in Year’s Best Sports Writing and Best Food Writing. She lives in Portland, Oregon with one husband, two dogs, and an ever-changing number of chickens. The flock's Instagram @BestLittleHenhouse is more popular than hers.

Sophie Lucido Johnson is the author of Many Love: A Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love(s); Love Without Sex: Stories on the Spectrum of Modern Relationships; and Dear Sophie, Love Sophie: A Graphic Memoir in Diary Entries, Letters, and Lists. She is a cartoonist for The New Yorker Magazine, and has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Bon Appetit, The Chicago Reader, The Believer, and lots of other places. She lives in Rogers Park and publishes a monthly print newsletter about her chickens called Coop News. It contains fowl language.

Accessibility: This event will be held at the store, which is an accessible space. For other questions or access needs, please contact events@womenandchildrenfirst.com.