Lauren Beukes

Lauren Beukes is a South African author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker known for her science fiction, crime fiction, and horror. She won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Zoo City (2011), a South African urban fantasy about a woman with a pet sloth-familiar in a Johannesburg where criminals are bonded to animals. Born in 1976 in Cape Town, Beukes worked as a journalist and television producer before turning to fiction. Zoo City was her second novel (after Moxyland) and won the Clarke Award as well as the UJ Prize for Creative Writing in English. Her subsequent novels The Shining Girls, Broken Monsters, and Survivor Song are crime/thriller hybrids with speculative elements. Beukes is known for her sharp political vision, distinctive South African perspective, and ability to blend genre conventions. She has lived in London and continues to be one of the most internationally celebrated South African authors.