Laura Jean McKay (born 1978) is an Australian author and creative writing lecturer. In 2021 she won the Victorian Prize for Literature and the

Arthur C. Clarke Award The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award i ...

for her novel '' The Animals in That Country''.

Life and career

McKay was born in

Orbost Orbost is a historic early settlers town in the Shire of East Gippsland, Victoria, east of Melbourne and south of Canberra where the Princes Highway crosses the Snowy River. It is about from the surf and fishing seaside town of Marlo on th ...

, Australia, in 1978. She grew up on a horse farm in Sale, in the

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It cove ...

region of the Australian state of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. She worked at international aid organisations in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and subsequently wrote ''Holiday in Cambodia'' while completing an MA in creative writing at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

. She completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne, where she wrote ''The Animals in that Country''. Since June 2019 McKay has been a lecturer in creative writing at Massey University in New Zealand. She has said that

Janet Frame Janet Paterson Frame (28 August 1924 – 29 January 2004) was a New Zealand author. She was internationally renowned for her work, which included novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, and an autobiography, and received numerous awar ...

is one of her writing influences: "I still turn to Frame when I've forgotten how to flip the world over and look at it from a new perspective".

''Holiday in Cambodia''

McKay's first book, ''Holiday in Cambodia'', a short story collection, was published by

Black Inc. Schwartz Publishing is an Australian publishing house, digital media and news media organisation based in Carlton, Victoria, Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria established by Australian property developer Morry Schwartz in the 19 ...

in 2013. It was shortlisted for the Glenda Adams Award for New Writing at the

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, t ...

, the Steele Rudd Award for an Australian short story collection at the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, and the

Asher Award The Asher Award was a biennial Australian literary award administered by the Australian Society of Authors between 2005 and 2017. It was established by the Australia Council after a bequest from the late author Helen Asher. It was disestablished ...

. The stories in the collection examine the effects of expatriate life and foreign influence on Cambodian people.

''The Animals in That Country''

McKay's second book and debut novel, ''The Animals in That Country'', was published by Scribe Australia in March 2020, by Scribe UK in September 2020, and by Scribe US in November 2020. A second edition was published in the UK in July 2021. The novel is a speculative fiction book about communication between species sparked by a pandemic, and was inspired by her experiences of the

chikungunya virus Chikungunya is an infection caused by the ''Chikungunya virus'' (CHIKV). Symptoms include fever and joint pains. These typically occur two to twelve days after exposure. Other symptoms may include headache, muscle pain, joint swelling, and a ra ...

caught at a writer's festival in Bali in 2013. She had started working on the novel at that time and its eventual release at the start of

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

was a coincidence. McKay said of her experiences recording the audiobook in March 2020: The title is a homage to an early poetry collection by Margaret Atwood. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' described it as an "extraordinary debut", and "a stirring attempt to inhabit other consciousnesses and a wry demonstration of the limits of our own language and empathy". ''Slate'' editor Dan Kois selected it as one of his ten best books of 2020, and

Simon Ings Simon Ings is an English novelist and science writer living in London. He was born in July 1965 in Horndean and educated at Churcher's College, Petersfield and at King's College London and Birkbeck College, London. Ings has written a number o ...

selected it as one of the five best science-fiction books of 2020 for ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

''. In February 2021, the novel won the Victorian Prize for Literature, Australia's richest literary award, as well as the Fiction Award at the

Victorian Premier's Literary Awards The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary p ...

. The novel also won an

Australian Book Industry Award The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) are publishers' and literary awards held by the Australian Publishers Association annually in Sydney "to celebrate the achievements of authors and publishers in bringing Australian books to readers". ...

for Small Publisher's Adult Book of the Year, and an Aurealis Award for best science fiction novel (co-win with Corey J White for ''Repo Virtual''). It was shortlisted for the

ALS Gold Medal The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal (ALS Gold Medal) is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for "an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year." From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the ...

, the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, and the Stella Prize. In September 2021 the novel was announced to be the winner of the

, presented in the UK to the best science fiction novel of the year. The director of the award said "the novel speaks for the silent victims of our real-world climate crises, but while the environmental and social themes are deeply serious, our judges also praised the book's dark humour, sense of character and place, and its active opposition to easy genre tropes".

2022 onwards

In February 2022 Laura was awarded the NZSA Waitangi Day Literary Honour. In August 2022, Scribe announced that it had acquired ''Gunflower'', a collection of short fiction by McKay, with publication planned for late 2023.

Selected works

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKay, Laura Jean 1978 births Living people Academic staff of the Massey University University of Melbourne alumni Australian science fiction writers 21st-century Australian women writers 21st-century Australian novelists Australian women novelists 21st-century Australian short story writers Australian women short story writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers People from Sale, Victoria People from Orbost