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Sunday, November 01, 2009

Margaret Atwood: To the Whiting Award Winners, 2009

On this occasion it seems that I’m to act as a kind of symbolic dignitary – writers can’t be actual dignitaries, as they are by nature too undignified – and wield a virtual wand of blessing, like the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio, or wave a banner from a casement window as the young troops ride out to do battle. Gird on your word-swords, I must say to them! Buckle up those adjectives! Make sure your plots are tight, your epigrams sharp and pointed, your lyrical intervals lacking in bathos. Be vigilant – there are ambushes everywhere. On one side lurk the critics, getting ready to sneer and denounce, or worse, to praise for the wrong reasons; on the other side your parent figures, who always wanted you to be doctors, and who have furnished themselves with a list of writers such as Checkhov who were writers, yes, but doctors too: why can’t YOU do that? This is not helpful.
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Posted by Suzanne at 2:10 PM
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About Me

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Suzanne
Author of four poetry books including Whipsaw (Anhinga Press 2024) and Fixed Star (JackLeg Press 2022), as well as five chapbooks.

My poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Cincinnati Review, Denver Quarterly, North American Review, Salamander Magazine, South Dakota Review, Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, and elsewhere.

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Some Poems & Prose Online

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Blog Archive

Whipsaw

Whipsaw

Fixed Star

Fixed Star

Girl on a Bridge

Girl on a Bridge

Lit Windowpane

Lit Windowpane

Chapbooks

  • American Flamingo (2008)
  • Spring Tide (2005)
  • Red Paper Flower (2004)
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