Drawing on her panoramic reading and her experiences of the authorly life cycle, Atwood surveys her trade with a mix of seriousness and gentle fun“You may find the subject a little peculiar,” warns Margaret Atwood, before she discusses the writer’s relationship with mortality. “It is a little peculiar. Writing itself is a little peculiar.” Atwood’s survey of her profession makes this seem like an understatement: after all, she argues, writers have been placed in close company with the devil and the dead; they have secret identities and hidden doubles; they are death-defying magicians, self-erasing nobodies, even – if you want to get “murky and pretentious” – shamanistic travellers. This book prefers to stay on the side of clarity and self-deprecation, combining evidence drawn from her panoramic reading – one chapter deals with The Tempest, The Wizard of Oz and Klaus Mann’s Mephisto – with her own experiences of the life cycle of an author. She tempers the seriousness of her questions – What is a writer? For whom do writers write? – by poking gentle fun at her trade, describing the machine-like publishing industry as “cog eat cog”, and quietly mocking endless discussion panels. Yet Atwood sees her kind reflected everywhere – from Gilgamesh to The Beast With Five Fingers – and works hard on their behalf: advocate, analyst and always, writer.•To order On Writers and Writing for £7.99 (RRP £9.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lily James will join Margaret Atwood as a special guest for the live cinema event to mark the long-awaited publication of The Testaments (Chatto & Windus). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-19 10:18:34 UTC ]
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The Booker Prize Foundation revealed the longlist for its literary award Tuesday, with Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Valeria Luiselli and Jeanette Winterson among the nominees. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-07-24 19:43:58 UTC ]
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Margaret Atwood is longlisted for this year's £50,000 Booker Prize for her "terrifying and exhilarating" sequel The Testaments (Chatto & Windus) alongside fellow former winner Salman Rushdie, in the first year the prize has been sponsored by charitable foundation Crankstart. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-23 23:49:31 UTC ]
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Cultural Cross Sections Margaret Randall Children’s choir at the 2014 La Matanza Book Fair / Photo by Mauro Rico / Ministerio de Cultura de la Nación / Flickr When good engineers or scientists emigrate, they are able to continue their work. Novelists... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2019-07-10 21:07:28 UTC ]
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Though the average writer earns £10,000 a year, mean household earnings are more than £81,000 – a result bestselling author Kit de Waal calls problematicWriting is in danger of becoming an elitist profession, with many authors being subsidised by their partners or a second job in order to stay... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a new research project, new books by men were found to receive 12% more broadsheet review coverage than those of their female counterparts. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sequel to the Canadian author’s bestselling feminist dystopia will be published around the world in September 2019Margaret Atwood has announced a sequel to her bestselling feminist dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, titled The Testaments. It will be published in September 2019.“Dear Readers,”... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Society of Authors has warned MPs that Universal Credit could silence working-class writers, impeding diversity in publishing and making it harder to attract different types of reader. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The septuagenarian Canadian author has, this year, become a cultural icon, as well as Canada’s best-known author—and 'The Handmaid's Tale' has become a backlist sensation. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-12-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new survey of Canadian readers found that Margaret Atwood is the Canadian author most residents recognize. The BookNet Canada survey also found that one in five Canadian readers cannot name a single Canadian author. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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During Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany's publishers and booksellers will honor Margaret Atwood as 'one of the most important storytellers of our era.' The post German Book Trade’s Peace Prize Goes to Canada’s Margaret Atwood appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This year’s much-buzzed 10-episode adaptation of "The Handmaid’s Tale," which was streamed on Hulu in collaboration with MGM Television, rocketed Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel back onto bestsellers charts. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-06-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Franz Kafka prize winner speaks on Saturday (June 3) at BookExpo's BookCon with 'The Handmaid's Tale' showrunner Bruce Miller. The post Margaret Atwood Named Winner of Prague’s Franz Kafka International Prize appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The non-MFA writing school, run by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Philip Schultz, turns 30 this year, and marks the milestone with a new anthology. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-05-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Celebrated comics writer G. Willow Wilson pays tribute to literary icon Margaret Atwood and her geeky love of superhero comics, and to Volume 2 of Atwood's delightful superhero graphic novel, 'Angel Catbird.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There were plenty of new graphic novels of all kinds at this year's Comic-Con, including one by acclaimed Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Robert Bringhurst’s translations of Haida stories in A Story as Sharp as a Knife are published in the UK for the first time, thanks to the Booker winner’s championing of this ‘book of wonders’A book which preserves in print the almost lost oral literature of the Native American Haida people has... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Past winners of the The Sunday Times/Peters Fraser & Dunlop Young Writers of the Year Award share their writing tips and their favourite books written by writers aged 35 and under. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Anthology of uncollected writings should secure a reappraisal of notorious occultist, says publisherAleister Crowley, the occultist once dubbed the “wickedest man in the world”, is due for a reassessment as a short-story writer, according to a new anthology of his uncollected writing which... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-10-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Will social media and aggregated preferences sweep away book reviewing and literary culture? There’s nothing new about the death of literatureThe writer Caleb Crain is unhappy about “the intrusion of counting into the life of literature”. He believes that big data and predictive-taste algorithms... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-08-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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