Word: atwood
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Life experiences undoubtedly contribute to any author’s work, however, few writers would admit it as readily as Atwood. During her address and in the interview, Atwood liberally provided her listeners with autobiographical anectdotes that have appeared, only slightly disguised, in her fiction. In fact, Harvard provided the setting for her critically acclaimed 1986 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale...
...audience member asked about the role of Cantabrigian landmarks in Handmaid’s setting, so Atwood provided specific examples: One building in the book is Memorial Hall, another is the Brattle Theater, another Widener Library...
...Queen Victoria was not amused,” Atwood told me with glee, recalling the University’s reaction after her novel’s publication...
...Atwood returned to Harvard last week to speak give a lecture titled “How I Became a Writer.” She began with her family history, then moved on to her childhood in northern Quebec and later Toronto, a time where she “read everything I could get my hands on.” Atwood placed the “literature” of her childhood into three categories: “acceptable” books read for school, “acceptable” books read out of school and, finally, True Romance novels...
...audience laughed at the prospect of being lured into writing by dimestore novels with shapely, off-color Fallen Women on the cover, but quickly became quiet at what Atwood said next. Her decision to become a writer, she recounted, “simply happened in 1956 while I was crossing the football field on the way home from school [and composed a poem in my head]. From that point on there was nothing else I wanted to do.” There was a moment of silence. Then the audience laughed, disbelieving. Just like that. There had to be more...