The Stories of Writer Margaret Atwood
Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Lemonada Media
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2023
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Margaret Atwood is the author of over 50 books of poetry, critical essays, graphic novels, and fiction. Her latest short story collection, Old Babes in the Wood, was recently published this March.
Today, we revisit our 2022 conversation, beginning with essay collection Burning Questions (4:47), which wrestles with catastrophe (5:28), Atwood's upbringing in the wilderness (7:36) under egalitarian parents (10:30), and how she circumvented the traditional roles for women of the 1950s (12:55). She also shares some personal stories: her first book signing event (16:05), the day she met her late husband Graeme Gibson (17:35), and the innumerable ways in which he'd shape her life (20:29).
On the back-half we discuss the historical antecedents behind The Handmaid’s Tale (23:34), its renewed relevance amid threats to reproductive justice (25:04), the debate around ‘the writer as political agent’ (31:24), patriarchal gatekeeping inside the publishing industry (34:12), the limits of art-making (35:08), and why she continues to write at age 82 (38:57). To close, Margaret reads from both her elegiac poem Dearly (41:05) and her essay “Polonia” (47:10).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Pushkin. This is talk easy. I'm Sam Forgo, so welcome to the show. Today we're returning to our conversation with legendary writer Margaret Atwood. |
| 0:47.0 | Atwood is the author of over 50 books of poetry, critical, Graphic Noveles, and Fiction. |
| 0:54.6 | Most notably Cat's Eye, Elias Grace, The Blind Assassin, The Testaments, and of course The Handmaid's |
| 1:00.5 | Tale, which was released back in 1985. |
| 1:04.8 | Around this time last year, we spoke to Atwood |
| 1:07.6 | as she published Burning Questions, |
| 1:10.2 | a collection of essays, speeches, forwards, and other non-fiction pieces. |
| 1:15.0 | Now, she's released a collection of short stories entitled |
| 1:18.0 | Old Babes in the Wood. |
| 1:20.0 | It was published earlier this month |
| 1:22.0 | and can be found wherever you do your reading. |
| 1:25.0 | If you've already started on this new collection, you'll hear more about the titular piece |
| 1:29.7 | which was originally published in the New Yorker in this conversation. |
| 1:34.1 | We also talk about her first book signing event, a party where she met her late husband, |
| 1:39.2 | Graham Gibson, the legacy of the Handmaid's tale, the joys of aging, and of course her lifelong fight for reproductive justice on and off the page. |
| 1:49.5 | If you recently found us through our episodes with writers like Mingen Lee, Joyce Carol Oates, |
| 1:55.0 | George Saunders, Marco Jefferson, or Jennifer Egan, thank you for being here. |
| 1:59.8 | If you happen to be around back when we aired this talk in 2022. Welcome back. |
| 2:05.1 | This coming Sunday will be releasing a new episode featuring actor and comedian Bob Odenkirk. |
| 2:11.5 | But until that, here is my conversation with the one and only, Miss Atwood. What did you have for breakfast today? |
| 2:35.0 | You don't need to know that. |
| 2:38.0 | We tried out something new. |
... |
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