Illustrated by Colleen McCallion. Episodic and picaresque, Fanny Howe's novella What Did I Do Wrong? tells the story of a revolutionary mutt's journey through the kennels, parks, and suburban waste spaces around Boston in search of true freedom. This dog offers a firsthand account of the cruelty meted out to both animals and forgotten members of human society. Like The Golden Ass, What Did I Do Wrong? takes on moral and spiritual questions without abandoning earthly appetites. In a twist on the fabulous tradition established by Apuleius, we are urged not to maintain our humanity but rather to look for the dog within.
Fanny Howe is a prolific poet, novelist and essayist. She has won a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lenore Marshall Award, and the Ruth Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award, among other recognitions. Born in Buffalo, New York in 1940, she is Professor Emerita of Writing and Literature at the University of California, San Diego and now lives in Boston, Massachusetts.