We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

Scribe is delighted to announce the acquisition of Gunflower by Laura Jean McKay, a startling new collection of short fiction from the award-winning author of The Animals in That Country.

Gunflower charts the political, ecological, and bodily themes that are the backbone of McKay's work. A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free, while on another remote farm a group of chickens tells it like it is. A supermarket worker takes a stand with a cigarette. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. Gunflower offers hallucinogenic glimpses into places where dreams overtake reality, where childhood is lived again, where people turn into animals, and where animals talk about their experiences — stories that explode and bloom in astounding ways. 

Of the acquisition, publisher Marika Webb-Pullman says, ‘Laura is a writer of immense talent and vision, and I’m thrilled to be working with her on this brilliant collection of stories. In some, readers will glimpse the origins of the ideas that were taken up so strongly in The Animals in That Country. In others, they will glimpse other, stranger possible futures. In all, they will recognise Laura’s deep engagement with the world, both as it is and as it could be. I can’t wait to share them with readers.’

Laura Jean McKay is the author of The Animals in That Country (Scribe, 2020) — winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Victorian Prize for Literature, the ABIA Small Publishers Adult Book of the Year and co-winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Laura is also the author of Holiday in Cambodia (Black Inc., 2013) and an Adjunct Lecturer in Creative Writing at Massey University. She was award the NZSA Waitangi Day Literary Honours in 2022.

Scribe has acquired world rights in Gunflower. It will be published in late 2023.