Poets & Writers Theater

Watch the book trailer for Fourteen Days: A Collaborative Novel (Harper, 2024) edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston, a project from the Authors Guild in which each character living inside an imaginary New York City apartment building has been written by a different, well-known author. Read more about the book in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this Late Night With Seth Meyers interview, Margaret Atwood speaks about grief, unburnable books, and her latest story collection, Old Babes in the Wood (Doubleday, 2023).

“There’s nothing in this book that hasn’t happened already,” says Margaret Atwood in this 1986 interview for the “Worth Quoting” series sponsored by Florida State College at Jacksonville, in which she discusses the release of her award-winning dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, and the historic and current events that influence her writing.

In this behind-the-scenes video, copies of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Testaments (Nan A. Talese, 2019), a sequel to her 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale, journey through the printing process.

“I’m still in awe of the range of stories and voices that they bring and the worlds that they open up. It’s an incredibly eclectic group.” In this video, Afua Hirsch and fellow members of the judging panel talk about the six books on the 2019 Booker Prize shortlist, which include The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, Quichotte by Salman Rushdie, and Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann.

“Each book has an individual, singular voice…some are very interior, some are very extravagant,” says Xiaolu Guo, one of the judges for the 2019 Booker Prize, about the thirteen titles nominated for the longlist of the prize. The “Booker Dozen” includes The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli, An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma, and Lanny by Max Porter. 

“I’d like us not to be resigned but to be rebellious—I want to see science fiction step over the old walls and head right into the next wall and start to break it down too.” Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is a crowdfunded documentary directed by Arwen Curry, who was able to collaborate with the late author before her death. The film features interviews with Le Guin, as well as authors including Margaret Atwood, Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, and Theodora Goss.

The Handmaid’s Tale, a television series adapted from Margaret Atwood’s classic dystopian novel published in 1985, returns for a second season. Atwood, who was a cowriter on the first season, has also collaborated extensively with series creator Bruce Miller on the storylines for this season.

Alias Grace (Anchor Books, 1996), Margaret Atwood’s fictional account of Grace Marks, an Irish Canadian maid who was convicted of murdering her employer and his mistress in 1843, has been adapted into a television series. Directed by Mary Harron and written by Sarah Polley, the series stars Sarah Gadon, Edward Holcroft, and Zachary Levi.

“But ordinary is just what you're used to.” Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale (McClelland and Stewart, 1985) has been adapted into a television series, directed by Mike Barker and Reed Morano. The series is cowritten by Atwood, and stars Alexis Bledel, O. T. Fagbenle, Joseph Fiennes, and Elisabeth Moss.

“There are big questions about where I take my career, how one makes that decision; to be able to talk about that with somebody who really understands those business questions, as well as the creative questions, is wonderful.” Naomi Alderman, who received the 2017 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction for The Power (Viking, 2017), and Margaret Atwood talk about their experiences being paired together as mentee and mentor, respectively, under the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative program.

The Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist who this week won the 2014 Orion Book Award from Orion Magazine for her novel MaddAddam (Nan A. Talese, 2013), is seen here discussing her creative process as part of Big Think.

This conversation between acclaimed novelist Margaret Atwood and Nobel laureate Alice Munro was streamed live via Google+ Hangout to an audience at New York City’s Symphony Space as part of the live series Selected Shorts. Despite a few glitches, the live stream brought together Atwood, who was in Toronto, having been snowed out of New York, and Munro, who was in Victoria, British Columbia, for a unique exchange.

“You know there is stuff the reader has to know, but it’s not very interesting stuff for you to write.” Margaret Atwood, author of the MaddAddam trilogy, discusses the difficulty of exposition and why she’s always written both poetry and prose.

For last year's Nexus Conference in Amsterdam, the Nexus Institute brought together the world’s foremost intellectuals, artists, diplomats, politicians, and other decision makers and asked them to speak about the theme "How to Change the World." One of the participants, Margaret Atwood, focused her attention in on fiction, the future, and the environment.