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On Writers and Writing
- Narrated by: Margaret Atwood
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's summary
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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- Unabridged
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The modern audience hasn't had a chance to truly appreciate the unknowing dread that readers would have felt when reading Bram Stoker's original 1897 manuscript. Most modern productions employ campiness or sound effects to try to bring back that gothic tension, but we've tried something different. By returning to Stoker's original storytelling structure - a series of letters and journal entries voiced by Jonathan Harker, Dr. Van Helsing, and other characters - with an all-star cast of narrators, we've sought to recapture its originally intended horror and power.
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IS THAT NOT SO?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-05-15
By: Bram Stoker
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Brain Damage
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- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
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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?
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Technically Speaking
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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!
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Frankenstein
- By: Mary Shelley
- Narrated by: Dan Stevens
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
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Narrator Dan Stevens ( Downton Abbey) presents an uncanny performance of Mary Shelley's timeless gothic novel, an epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.
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ARE WE ALWAYS TO BE UNHAPPY?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-28-16
By: Mary Shelley
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The Strange Case
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Dr. Jekyll (Vanessa Kirby) is an elite international specialist in energy systems, working closely with her handler Louis (David Oyelowo) in a career that takes her across the globe to politically volatile territories such as Iran and North Korea. But when an arms dealer accuses her of having killed his family, Dr. Jekyll begins to question details of her life, who Louis really is, and whether her strange recurring dream has a greater meaning. She enlists the help of psychologist Sigrun (Sofie Gråbøl), and together they delve into Dr. Jekyll’s darker other side, a brutal assassin named… Hyde.
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Love the Originals !!
- By r2coder on 08-04-24
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Fahrenheit 451
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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
By: Ray Bradbury
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A definitive collection of wisdom on every style of writing and a celebration of the transformative power of the written word from one of the most influential writers and thinkers of the modern age, C. S. Lewis, the beloved author of the Chronicles of Narnia series, Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and other revered classics.
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Through their many best-selling books, Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron have done nothing less than deepen the way millions of us experience the art and practice of writing and creativity. Now, with The Writing Life, Cameron and Goldberg join forces for the first time in this revealing dialogue that speaks to our common search for an everyday spirituality.
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Enjoyed hearing 2 perspectives from writers who have impacted me
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The Winter’s Tale is one of Shakespeare’s “late plays.” It tells the story of a king whose jealousy results in the banishment of his baby daughter and the death of his beautiful wife. His daughter is found and brought up by a shepherd on the Bohemian coast, but through a series of extraordinary events, father and daughter, and eventually mother too, are reunited.
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The narrator of Atwood's riveting novel calls himself Snowman. When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people once lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary. As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly?
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This weekend workshop, recorded live, is a primer on writing the modern memoir, which, unlike your grandmother's memoir, can be written at any age. Also, a memoir can be about just part of your life. "The more you are present, the more the past will come up and be alive," says Natalie. "Only right now can give you your past."
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For right brain writers, not left brain
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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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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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