Margaret Atwood in conversation with Regina Marler, author and literary critic. 
Presented by the Charleston Literary Festival in partnership with Charleston County Public Library and American Ancestors’ American Inspiration Author Series.

From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, a dazzling collection of short stories that look deeply into the heart of family relationships, marriage, loss and memory, and what it means to spend a life together. Don’t miss hearing from the remarkable Margaret Atwood in this insightful virtual conversation hosted by our partners at the Charleston Literary Festival. 

Margaret Atwood has established herself as one of the most visionary and canonical authors in the world. In partnership with the Charleston Literary Festival, we are delighted to present her and Old Babes in the Woods.  In this new collection of fifteen extraordinary stories, Atwood showcases both her creativity and her humanity illuminating families and the experience of life with her characteristic insight, wit, and intellect. 

The two intrepid sisters of the title story grapple with loss and memory on a perfect summer evening; “Impatient Griselda” explores alienation and miscommunication with a fresh twist on a folkloric classic; and “My Evil Mother” touches on the fantastical, examining a mother-daughter relationship in which the mother purports to be a witch. At the heart of the collection are seven extraordinary stories that follow a married couple across the decades, the moments big and small that make up a long life of uncommon love—and what comes after.

How to access the Margaret Atwood broadcast and video: The Charleston Literary Festival, the event’s producing and presenting hosts, will email registered participants the link to the session the day before the event. Post-event, they will follow-up with a link to the video version, which will be password protected, hosted on YouTube. For viewing by  participants only, please.

Margaret Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her novels include Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid’s Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was a global number one bestseller and won the Booker Prize. In 2020 she published Dearly, her first collection of poetry for a decade. Atwood has won numerous awards and, in 2019, she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto, Canada.

Regina Marler writes for the New York Review of Books, among other publications. She edited Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell and Queer Beats: How the Beats Turned America on to Sex and wrote Bloomsbury Pie: The Making of the Bloomsbury Boom. She lives, writes, and gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area.

For information about the 2023 Charleston Literary Festival and its programs, visit the festival website.