Laura Jean McKayLaura Jean McKay

Laura Jean McKay is the author of Holiday in Cambodia (Black Inc. 2013), shortlisted for three national book awards in Australia. Her work appears in Meanjin, Overland, Best Australian Stories, The Saturday Paper, and The North American Review. Laura is a lecturer in creative writing at Massey University. Her new book is The Animals in That Country (Scribe).

How to be brave in the face of, you know, everything

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What does it mean to find courage in the face of a global pandemic, race protests, border strife and climate anxiety?  Books editor Catherine Woulfe writes: Christchurch’s Word spring festival opens tomorrow. In real life! A highlight will be the Brave Worlds gala on Friday night, at which luminaries (Becky Manawatu, Witi Ihimaera, Elizabeth Knox, … Read more

The novel coronavirus: On writing a pandemic, then watching it play out

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Laura Jean McKay is hunkered down in Palmerston North but her much-hyped novel The Animals in That Country is out there in the world – earlier than expected, too, because it’s about a strange new flu. Two women stand close to each other in an aisle labelled CANS. They’re young, with strong pink arms in … Read more