Atwood latest star of Brockport's Writers Forum
Margaret Atwood, an acclaimed author of more than 40 books of fiction, poetry, children 's literature and social criticism, is the featured speaker Wednesday at The College at Brockport's Writers Forum, which is beginning its 50th season that runs into 2017.
Over the years, the forum has hosted two Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction, two winners of four Pulitzer Prizes for drama and 31 poets who have won 34 Pulitzer Prizes.
The list of honors that forum speakers have earned also includes two National Book Award winners for fiction and 24 for poetry.
On top of that, there have been five Nobel Laureates on the speakers' lists.
Both Atwood and the forum have grown in reputation since she made her first appearance there in 1979, when she was most known for her poetry. Her novels have been translated into more than 20 languages.
Atwood will appear at the SERC Field House on the Brockport campus at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The event is open to the public, free of charge.
At this year's appearance, Atwood will discuss probably her best-known work, The Handmaid's Tale, a 1985 novel that is often taught in schools and was made into a film and an opera.
College at Brockport President Heidi Macpherson, who specializes in women's literature, is an authority on Atwood, having written The Cambridge Introduction to Margaret Atwood.
"The novel's power resides in its clear depiction of a future dystopia, a vision that recalls earlier dystopias such as Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984 and Evgeny Zamyatin's We," wrote Macpherson.
In an interview, Macpherson told how Atwood "looks at issues of importance to us today — things around the environment, things around nationalism, things around women's place in society."
Macpherson noted how Atwood is full of complexities, taking "multiple viewpoints to reflect on the world."
Inspiring writer
Atwood, 76, who lives in Toronto, was among 10 inspiring writers listed last spring by The Guardian, the British-based newspaper. One reader described Handmaid's Tale as predicting "all that is happening today."
Her activism has led her to sign the PEN International's statement last year urging the Chinese government to release Nobel laureate and poet Liu Xiaobo, jailed for his human rights activism.
In a 2014 essay on "Our Robotic Future" for The New York Times, Atwood asked: "What fate is in store for us in The Future? Will it be a Yikes or a Hurrah? Zombie apocalypse? No more fish? Vertical urban farming? Burnout? Genetically modified humans?"
In an interview with the Paris Review, Atwood was asked whether survival has always been intrinsic to her work.
"I grew up in the north woods of Canada. You had to know certain things about survival," she answered.
Atwood described the United States as "big and powerful" and Canada as "divided and threatened."
And she said that "everyone 'writes' in a way; that is, each person has a 'story' — a personal narrative — which is constantly being replayed, revised, taken apart, and put together again."
The Writers Forum dates back to the fall of 1967 when Gregory Fitz Gerald, who had been teaching at Ithaca College, came to Brockport to start a creative writing program.
Phil Gerber, who was chairman of the English department at Brockport, recounted the early years of the forum in an eight-page summary, on file in the college's archives.
"As chairman of the department, I became Gregory's chief professional confidant, which meant that I did a great deal of listening and — when it seemed right — responding," wrote Gerber.
Fitz Gerald, recalled Gerber, kept asking, "What's a writing program without writers?"
As it was, the prominent British writer Stephen Spender had already been scheduled to spend a week at Brockport in the summer of 1967. His visit helped create the groundwork for the Writers Forum.
As the forum evolved, Gerber told the college it "would bring a series of writers to Brockport for one-day visits, specialties to be balanced so far as possible among poets, novelists, short-story writers, and critics."
Among the big names that have appeared are Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Edward Albee, Nelson Algren, Allen Ginsberg, Wendell Berry, Anne Sexton, Nadine Gordimer, Archibald MacLeish, Isaac Asimov and Joyce Carol Oates.
An important part of the visit became taping interviews with the visiting authors. The forum's videotape library was started in 1968 and has more than 300 interviews, readings and discussions with major contemporary authors.
The visiting writer also meets with students, now spending a half hour with the English Department's Writer's Craft class.
Anne Panning, a professor of English at the college, selects the speakers with James Whorton Jr., a creative writing professor at the college.
She tells of the student's excitement at being able to meet these writers.
"I have students tell me this is the best experience of their educational careers," Panning said.
JGOODMAN@Gannett.com
Upcoming fall Writers Forums
- Clifford Thompson: October 12, 8 p.m., New York Room, Cooper Hall, on the College at Brockport campus.
- Jack Pendarvis: Oct. 26, 8 p.m., New York Room, Cooper Hall.
- Kevin Young: Nov. 30, 7:30 p.m. Temple B'rith Kodesh, 2131 Elmwood Ave., Brighton.
All events are free and open to the public. For more information, call 585-395-2503 or visit
www.brockport.edu/academics/english/writers_forum