Bora Chung and Zoë Beck write about contemporary reality in very different ways. Chung moves between speculative fiction, horror, folklore and science fiction; Beck uses crime fiction and near-future scenarios to explore how political and social developments affect individual lives.

Both writers are interested in what happens when reality is shifted, exaggerated or taken one step further. Their work deals with power, technology, violence and social inequality, but always through story, character and genre.

Both are also literary translators and are engaged in social and political issues beyond their own writing. In this conversation, they talk about the relationship between fiction and the real world, about writing and political engagement, about what translating other writers brings to their own work, and about why literature sometimes needs to move away from reality in order to see it more clearly.