#573: Margaret Atwood — A Living Legend on Creative Process, The Handmaid’s Tale, Being a Mercenary Child, Resisting Labels, the Poet Rug Exchange, Liminal Beings, Burning Questions, Practical Utopias, and More

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Margaret Atwood (@margaretatwood) is the author
of more than 50 books of fiction, poetry, critical essays, and
graphic novels. Dearly, her first collection of poetry in over a
decade, was published November 2020. Her latest novel, The
Testaments, is a co-winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. It is the
long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning
TV series. Her other works of fiction include Cat’s Eye, finalist
for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller
Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind
Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; the MaddAddam Trilogy;
and Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare’s The Tempest Retold.


Margaret’s work has been published in more than 45 countries, and
she is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace
Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International
Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award,
and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Innovator’s Award.


Burning Questions, a collection of essays from
2004–2021 will be published in March of this year.
Practical Utopias: An Exploration of the
Possible, an eight-week live online learning experience,
will run later this year.


Please enjoy!


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When jumping into a new writing project, does Margaret know if
it’s going to be expressed as poetry or prose? From her
perspective, is there a difference in where they originate? How
do these two sometimes act in synergy? [07:59]


How does Margaret maintain her vital life energy at 82 years
young? [16:55]


In what way does astrology — particularly Gemini rising — explain
Margaret’s tendency to “stick [her] nose into things?” [18:45]


The Gift vs. Trickster Makes This World. [24:24]


What drives Margaret’s ability to craft engaging speculative
fiction? [26:51]


What are the downsides of raising a family in the woods,
blissfully isolated from the world? Margaret shares a glimpse
into her own childhood. [33:07]


How crossing a football field in a pink princess line dress
nudged Margaret toward writing poetry for the first time. [38:03]


How the limited number of career options from which a young woman
was expected to choose guided Margaret toward her current
profession — and how long it took to start paying off. [44:17]


What benefit did Margaret get from writing during the time before
being paid to do so? [49:44]


As someone who’s often found herself in the teaching profession,
what type of teaching has Margaret enjoyed most? [52:59]


Why Margaret considers The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson to
be required reading for young adults. [55:28]


Why Margaret resists the act of labeling that humans tend toward.
[58:24]


What explains Margaret’s ongoing interest in dystopian — as well
as utopian — literature, and what can people expect from
“Practical Utopias: An Exploration of the Possible,” her
eight-week online learning experience? [1:02:58]


Comparing and contrasting major revolutions and political
upheavals of recent centuries, and what Margaret learned by
visiting Eastern Bloc countries during the Cold War. [1:08:31]


How is the DISCO online learning platform that will host
“Practical Utopias: An Exploration of the Possible” different
from other such platforms, and what kind of problems will
participants be solving? [1:12:01]


What readers can expect from Burning Questions. [1:14:42]


How has Margaret’s writing process changed over the course of her
life? What does it look like these days? [1:19:24]


A tangent about shows we binge when our writing quotas for the
day are fulfilled, an H.G. Wells story about perspective, and a
Twilight Zone episode that (surprise!) doesn’t end well for its
protagonist. [1:22:04]


Tezos NFTs, illustrated utopias, and inventions fitting
unexpected functions. [1:24:22]


A spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t yet read The Testaments and
doesn’t want to know what happens to a character from The
Handmaid’s Tale: skip ahead to the next timestamp! [1:31:48]


Does Margaret do research for her characters? [1:33:27]


Margaret turns the tables and asks me what prompted my podcasting
endeavors. [1:35:36]


Dictation apps, the three Henry Jameses, and confessional
stenographers. [1:37:48]


Undertaking winter adventures at high elevations and other
parting thoughts. [1:41:25]


*


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