Lockdown lit
The Covid 19 pandemic, and lockdown, have led to shifts in practically every aspect of our existences as individuals and as a society. Lockdown has affected every layer of our being: how we live, work, socialise, travel, process culture and communicate have all changed. For some, this is a much-needed chance to take stock and reset; for other people, the losses are personal and immense. With the UK death toll standing at more than 150,000 – the population of a town the size of York or Peterborough – as a society we’re living through collective loss and trauma. Anxiety and uncertainty about the future are part of our everyday experience.
Some of the changes may be temporary. Others will be permanent. How does this affect us as writers? In a great many ways. None of us write in isolation, but in response to the world around us. Even if we’re not writing directly about the pandemic, it will have an effect on what we write, and how we write about it.
Beyond the
