Margaret Atwood, Literary Tourist in Kingston
Literary Tourist in Kingston, Ontario
A Biblio File podcast interview, in which: I talk, in rather rushed fashion, to great Canadian author and "bad" feminist Margaret Atwood about literary tourism: 'place' and her novel MaddAddam, Harvard and The Handmaid's Tale, and the Kingston Penitentiary and Alias Grace, also about: the real and the imaginary, the unreliability of eye witnesses, following the research, Samuel Johnson, Ernest Hemingway, food and underclothing, bodies, space and smell, plus the importance of plumbing - all of which took place at the Kingston Writers Festival
several years ago, a wonderful literary celebration that occurs every September in the city of wind turbines
...of my (and now my youngest daughter's) alma mater, Queen's University
Queen's University, Kingston
with its Jordon Special Collections Library, full of Lorne Pierce's Canadiana,
...of Berry and Peterson's bookshop, where I regularly visit John and Richard to get the latest and hottest antiquarian book gossip
John Berry, Berry and Peterson bookshop
and learn stuff about books etc., like for example that important early editions of Canadian Forum magazine are worth diddly-squat.
...of Morrison's where I used to go 30-odd years ago for hungover breakfasts (now I hear from famed Canadian book designer Laurie Lewis [Listen to our conversation about her time at the University of Toronto Press with Allan Fleming here]:
that it’s not the 'go to' place anymore, Peter’s on Princess is, but still this is a pretty damned good photo so I’m leaving it in anyway)
Morrison's restaurant, Kingston
...of the Belvedere Hotel
Belvedere Hotel, Kingston
where I once met my hero, Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee who signed about 25 of my/his first editions and after my yammering on for about 10 of the signatures I suddenly shut up, realizing that I don't know J.M from Adam, and what the fuck am I trying to do here anyway? Convince myself that there is some sort of relationship when in fact there's nothing? And why am I so obsessed with signed firsts editions anyway...
Chez Piggy, Kingston, ON
...of Chez Piggy where I've spent some stellar evenings shooting the breeze with friends about airy concepts out on the back patio, and
...of Pat Grew my best friend, and the best math teacher in the world. Okay don't take my word for it.
