France’s next-gen star writer Jean-Baptiste Del Amo won the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Animalia, a powerful novel about man’s desire to control nature and a tracing of five generations of pig farmers – and the violence passed down among them – on a single plot of rural soil.

Danish writer Mathilde Walter Clark won six awards for her latest book, A Blind Eye, which interrogates why the animals were left out of the story when Denmark culled its 17 million mink during the Covid-19 pandemic. The book sold 35,000 copies and changed the conversation around animals in her country.

Together with Elisabeth Easther they discuss their affecting works that capture man’s thirst to conquer nature, and the dark consequences of overpowering the animals we live amongst.

Supported by the Embassy of France and the Nordic Council of Ministers.