About the Book: On Writers and Writing
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 the development
of her 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 seen fit to assume, what roles they have chosen to
play. In her final chapter she takes up the challenge of the books title: if a
writer is to be seen as gifted, who is doing the giving and