Stories allow us to be more than we are | Lauren Beukes | TEDxJohannesburg

Lauren writes stories for a living. In her own household, in fact, stories are sacred. So sacred that she would go just about anywhere to find the best of them. Recent escapades include hanging out with a vodou priest in the depths of Port-au-Prince in Haiti, or spending time with a colourful range of locals amidst the ruin porn of a decaying Detroit, and going shoulder-to-shoulder in a packed and tense refugee shelter in downtown Johannesburg. All of this in an effort to go beyond the cliche and to get underneath the skin. Amongst the rewards, she says, is the possibility of gaining a perspective that you wouldn’t otherwise come up with on your own. In this talk, delivered at TEDxJohannesburg 2015, Lauren takes us on a dizzying trip into her world. In the process, she gives us an enlightening glimpse of the mind of a wonder woman writer at the height of her powers.



Lauren Beukes writes books that defy genre. If there is a consistent theme in her work, it is that her fiction magically manages to slice up reality into bits and pieces, then bring it back together as a slightly twisted version of itself. The results are often fantastically horrific, but always illuminating. Her books have been translated into 26 languages and have been optioned for film and TV. She is a recipient of some of the highest honours in her field, including the Arthur C Clarke Award for best science fiction. Her work has been praised by Stephen King, George RR Martin, James Ellroy and Gillian Flynn.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx