On Writers and Writing

Looking back on her own childhood and writing career, Margaret Atwood examines the metaphors which writers of fiction and poetry have used to explain – or excuse – their activities, looking at what costumes they have assumed, what roles they have chosen to play.In her final chapter she takes up the challenge of the title: if a writer is to be seen as 'gifted', who is doing the giving and what are the terms of the gift? Margaret Atwood's wide reference to other writers is balanced by anecdotes from her own experiences, both in Canada and on the international scene. The lightness of her touch is underlined by a seriousness about the purpose and the pleasures of writing, and by a deep familiarity with the myths and traditions of Western literature.

'A witty and profound rumination about writing.' -- The Times
'Wearing her learning lightly, Atwood allows her wit to shine on almost every page.' -- Library Journal
'This interesting and compelling book is as wise as it is charming, and it is very charming indeed.' -- Washington Post Book World

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa, and grew up in northern Ontario and Quebec, and in Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master’s degree from Radcliffe College.Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction, but is best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1969), The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Her newest novel, MaddAddam (2013), is the final volume in a three-book series that began with the Man-Booker prize-nominated Oryx and Crake (2003) and continued with The Year of the Flood (2009). The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short fiction) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, a collection of non-fiction essays appeared in 2011. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth was adapted for the screen in 2012. Ms. Atwood’s work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian.Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson. Margaret Atwood is the author of more than 40 volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction and non-fiction, but is best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood’s work has been published in more than 40 languages. She currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

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