About me

I write about animals, mostly. I have written about taxidermied zebras, heroic sled dogs, moles, albino wallabies, and 800 000 jars of pickled fish. I have a fondness for the humpy-dumpy animals, the overlooked and neglected—like moles and beavers—but I’m curious about pretty much every creature under the sun and stars.

I write for children, mostly. However, in a former life I was an academic. I hold a Ph.D. in the Programme of Comparative Literature at the University of British Columbia (UBC). My thesis, “To make the stubborn Clod relent: Climate, Culture, and Cultivation in Early Modern England,” investigates medical and cultural interpretations of climate and nature in seventeenth-century England. I also have a B.F.A. in painting and printmaking, a Post-Baccalaureate in painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and a Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities from Stanford University, during which time I focused on material culture and early modern cabinets of curiosity. 

During my Post-Doctoral degree at M.I.T., I wrote a book on the cultural history of taxidermy, The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and the Cultures of Longing. I also wrote a book about the misrepresentations, facts, and fables of beavers.

I have worked with collections at various art galleries and museums.  I curated the exhibition Ravishing Beasts: The Strangely Alluring World of Taxidermy for the Museum of Vancouver and the permanent vertebrate exhibits at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

I live in Vancouver, Canada. 

You can reach me at racheljudy@shaw.ca.

Literary Representation:
Amy Tompkins, Transatlantic Agency, amy@transatlanticagency.com