Photo: Scribe
Dr Laura Jean McKay is the first New Zealand-based author to win one of the world's top science fiction prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, for her novel The Animals in That Country, in which a pandemic enables animals and humans to communicate.
At the five year anniversary, Laura is reflecting on how far away the pandemic and lockdowns feel, yet how they've changed the world. At the time animal adoptions were rife, and people also celebrated the possible environmental relief of humans staying inside. There were photos of wild animals in city streets and reports of cleaner air.
Laura's writing exposes our sometimes problematic relationships with animals, including in her most recent collection of short stories, Gunflower.
