On Writers and Writing
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Narrated by:
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Margaret Atwood
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By:
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Margaret Atwood
About this listen
What is the role of the writer? Prophet? High priest of art? Court jester? Or witness to the real world?
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? Atwood's wide reference to other writers, living and dead, is balanced by anecdotes from her own experiences, both in Canada and elsewhere. The lightness of her touch is offset by a seriousness about the purpose and the pleasures of writing, and by a deep familiarity with the myths and traditions of western literature.
Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Quebec, Ontario, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College. Throughout her 30 years of writing, Atwood has received numerous awards and honorary degrees. Hew novel The Blind Assassin won the 2000 Booker Prize for Fiction. She is the author of more than 25 volumes of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include Alias Grace (1996), The Robber Bride (1994), Cat's Eye (1988), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), Surfacing (1972) and The Edible Woman (1970). Acclaimed for her talent for portraying both personal lives and worldly problems of universal concern, Atwood's work has been published in more than 35 languages, including Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic, and Estonian.
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Oakland-bred LaVeesha “Vee” Gilliam (Coco Jones) is a determined single mother of an autistic son and a gifted aspiring coder. When Vee loses her job as a food-services worker at the onsite restaurant at Grapengine, a large Silicon Valley tech company, she’s unable to pay for her son’s much-needed specialized education. By a twist of fate, mistaken identity, and her tech skills, Vee meets Troy Wilson (Keith Powers), the company’s wealthy founder and CEO and a wunderkind in the tech industry, who believes that Vee is a college-educated techie who works at his company.
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Overdue Diverse Representation in Tech!
- By Jatai Pollock on 09-26-24
By: Michael Elliot
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Fahrenheit 451
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- Narrated by: Tim Robbins
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Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family."
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Wish I Hadn't Cliff Noted This in High School
- By Joel on 03-27-17
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Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
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- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
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As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops, Halloween approaches. Come, brave listener, pull up a chair, and spend some time with master storyteller Stephen Fry as he tells us some of his favourite ghost stories of all time, in truly terrifying spatial audio. From the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow to the tortured spirits of M.R. James, from Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying tale of a doppelganger to Charlotte Riddell’s Open Door that should definitely stay shut, join Stephen as he tells you some truly terrifying tales.
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Wonderful narration. Mediocre stories.
- By Michael Fuchs on 11-07-23
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Brain Damage
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
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As Charly struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realize that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now, she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her...before he finishes the job he started.
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Who Else Laughed, Cried, and Shuddered?
- By Jennifer Chichester on 09-16-22
By: Freida McFadden
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Slayers: A Buffyverse Story
- By: Christopher Golden, Amber Benson
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- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
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Original cast members from the beloved TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reunite for an all-new adventure about connections that never die—even if you bury them. A decade has passed since the epic final battle that concluded Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV). The game-changing spell that gave power to all potential Slayers persists. With new Slayers constantly emerging, things are looking grim for the bad guys.
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A dream come true
- By Anonymous User on 10-12-23
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Home Is Where the Bodies Are
- By: Jeneva Rose
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After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm’s length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction. Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn’t been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before.
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Perfect Audio.
- By Black Women Read Too on 05-19-24
By: Jeneva Rose
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Disturbing, humorous, and compassionate, Cat’s Eye is the story of Elaine Risley, a controversial painter who returns to Toronto, the city of her youth, for a retrospective of her art. Engulfed by vivid images of the past, she reminisces about a trio of girls who initiated her into the the fierce politics of childhood and its secret world of friendship, longing, and betrayal.
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Excellent
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Whether or not one has lived an exceptional or dramatic life, we inherently understand that writing memoir—whether it’s a book, blog, or just a letter to a child - is the single greatest portal to self-examination. Stop treading water in writing exercises or hiding behind “writer’s block” and learn how to write with intent. Marion Roach Smith’s disarmingly frank but wildly fun tactics offer you simple and effective guidelines that work. Your legacy beings now.
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amazing what you can learn from brevity
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Marian is determined to be ordinary. She lays her head gently on the shoulder of her serious fiancé and quietly awaits marriage. But she didn't count on an inner rebellion that would rock her stable routine and her digestion. Marriage a la mode, Marian discovers, is something she literally can't stomach....
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Representation of a Thousand Lives
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Murder Your Darlings
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With so many excellent writing guides lining bookstore shelves, it can be hard to know where to look for the best advice. Should you go with Natalie Goldberg or Anne Lamott? Maybe William Zinsser or Stephen King would be more appropriate. Then again, what about the classics - Strunk and White, or even Aristotle himself? In Murder Your Darlings, Roy Peter Clark, who has been a beloved and revered writing teacher to children and Pulitzer Prize winners alike for more than 30 years, has compiled a remarkable collection of more than 100 of the best writing tips.
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Surprisingly engaging
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Alias Grace
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It's 1843, and Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders. An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember.
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Stein on Writing provides immediately useful advice for writers of fiction and nonfiction, whether newcomers or accomplished professionals. As Sol Stein, renowned editor, author, and instructor, explains, "This is not a book of theory. It is a book of usable solutions, how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place."
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Excellent advice and examples for better writing.
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Great content!
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Good Story Impossible? 'Au Contraire'!
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Writing Creative Nonfiction
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Bringing together the imaginative strategies of fiction storytelling and new ways of narrating true, real-life events, creative nonfiction is the fastest-growing part of the creative writing world. It's a cutting-edge genre that's reshaping how we write (and read) everything from biographies and memoirs to blogs and public speaking scripts to personal essays and magazine articles.
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Not what I expected but useful
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Dancing Girls
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Students and journalists, farmers and birdwatchers, ex-wives, adolescent lovers, and dancing girls. All are ordinary people. Or are they? In this splendid collection of short stories, Margaret Atwood maps the human motivation we scarcely know we have in a startlingly original voice, full of a rare intensity and exceptional intelligence. With brilliant flashes of fantasy, humor, and unexpected violence, these stories reveal the complexities of human relationships and bring to life characters that evoke laughter, compassion, terror, and recognition.
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This is a great listen
- By Russell on 03-31-23
By: Margaret Atwood
What listeners say about On Writers and Writing
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-24-21
pensive Margaret Atwood
I really liked hearing the book read by Margaret Atwood herself. At times she put in almost too much detail, but overall it was very rewarding.
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- Anna Battle
- 09-10-21
One of the Greats
I read a lot of craft books (books on writing), and this one surprised me with Atwood's simple honesty and gruff charisma. She is very candid, well read, and mixes her thoughts on writing with a multitude of relatable anecdotes. If you write or are a fan of her work, definitely pick this one up. Her narration is also wonderful - it is very special when an author voices their own work.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Sarge
- 08-02-21
I could have continued listening.
I could have continued listening but time ran out. I always appreciate it when the author reads their own work. Atwood’s insight is so precise and her references to other works not only brings the listener a broad spectrum of creative viewpoints but illustrates the broad foundation of literature that she draws from. The closing interview was audio shock after swimming lazily to the flow of Atwood’s voice. It took me a while to come around but I did eventually. I enjoyed my time.
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- Placeholder
- 11-03-22
A writer who honestly likes writing
Unlike some listeners who say they would have preferred to read this book, I was very happy to listen. I like her no-fanfare voice and Canadian accent as well as her marvelous sense of humour and irony which is accentuated through her voice. The content is a major review of literature ancient and modern and much of it that I had not read, I now will read. I am thankful she was not brought up on TV.
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- Koala koala
- 02-01-24
Atwood Great, Audible Also There
The book was as lovely and informative and thoughtful as any Atwood book, but I was absolutely astounded to hear in the interview and Audible credits that the book I’ve so enjoyed was not, in fact, ON WRITERS AND WRITING, but NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE DEAD. Shock! Awe! Double checking the title, comparing the TOC of the print of this book which I also have and have read. As it turns out, Audible lied to me. This is ON WRITERS. Alas, I cannot rate on production quality, otherwise this would get one star in that category.
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- Ryan Clark
- 11-12-22
A Gift to Chew Not Imbibe
Reading @therealmargaretatwood’s #OnWritersAndWriting could have threatened the knowing that I am writer though I’m not writing, but I remained largely unscathed. It also could have inspired or grounded the knowing, but I’m not certain it did that either. There were times I hit “huh, I never thought of it that way,” and I am always seeking that out and seldom finding it, so goodie, but I found myself largely just getting through the audiobook. My #adhd tendencies drifted me away from being able to focus more than usual, in part, because it was an intellectual feat to stay on track.
It’s not the kind of book with steps and bullet points and tips and tricks. It’s more of an essay, an attempt, to metatextually embody what is writing, the writer, and the others too. And it does.
Don’t get me wrong. Atwood is brilliant and this work is true to her brilliance. It is inspiring and revealing.
But it’s heavy lifting.
It’s riddled with scholarly references of stories, tales, and works I was largely not familiar with. They may have been minimally obscure works I would have encountered had I been in a situation to go to grad school for literature. She explained them well enough without being condescending, it was very honorable to this ignorant reader. I could still follow and get the gist. But it was work.
I think I would prefer to consume this as a handbook. A little at a time, at my own pace, as needed. It would need be a physical copy. And it would likely sit on my desk for accessibility when the mood struck. I’m certain I would like a paragraph or page at a time more than the unrestrained flow of narration.
And the narration. Atwood was 81 the day this was released. It’s a gift we got to hear this work in her own voice. Yes it’s gravely, more so at times than others. It has the dignified monotone of the high brow, scholarly reciter of their own work. That can be intimidating or grounding or annoying or inspiring. I found it to be a gift.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Ella
- 03-12-22
amazing book
amazing book, I need to reread some of my old books with a new perspective/light
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-27-23
Thought provoking and informative!
As I am New to jump on the bandwagon. This book was so refreshing I wish it was longer lol
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- SJSmith
- 03-20-21
For writers and readers alike
This little memoir was enormously helpful and insightful. I struggled with Ms. Atwood's vocal frying, but I still think it was important to hear it in her voice.
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- James Adams
- 03-22-21
A soft-spoken brilliance
What a delightful experience to hear calm brilliance, wit and musings from what must be a Canadian national treasure. Required reading I’m sure for anyone remotely inspired to putting creative pen to paper, this book is a beautiful meditation on the relationship of the written word (thus its Writer) to the readers of said word. Count me, late again, a new fan of Ms. Atwood and her ilk: the un-young and too un-sung.
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