In a panel on the Gothic with authors Mona Awad and Naomi Alderman, Margaret Atwood began the conversation with the important question:
“So let us go into your deep dark childhoods,” Atwood began. “Were each of you mutilators of Barbie dolls?”
Canadian literary-giant Atwood joined Awad and Alderman, authors of Bunny and The Power, respectively, at the Tom Patterson Theatre.
The conversation steered from Barbie Dolls to across the Gothic genre, from Dracula to the ghost stories of M.R. James, to Awad and Alderman’s past and upcoming novels.
It also steered into whether or not the panel is superstitious and believes in ghosts themselves. In true Gothic fashion, at that moment Atwood’s fully charged microphone stopped working.
Alderman assured that there must be a rational explanation and Julie Miles, director of the Meighen Forum, later gave one: Alderman had earlier said the name of the Scottish Play, Macbeth, in the green room.
The discussion was one of three conversations Atwood was hosting, as part of the larger Readers and Writers Week at the Meighen Forum.
Miles told StratfordToday that Writers and Readers was one of the themed weeks the forum has organized. It started with Atwood, a friend of the Festival, who chose the topics to speak about.
For Atwood’s conversations there were no moderators or schedule, other than a few questions from the audience. As Miles explained that was a part of what they hoped for.
“We wanted Readers and Writers week to be a conversation with authors,” Miles explained. “It pulls back another layer of what the forum is because … it brings out the human parts of these people that are icons.
“There are people that do exceptional things, and everybody does their own exceptional thing too, but it's really interesting and fun to pull back the layers and just have those amazing people in the same room as yourself.”
Miles disclosed that after the success of themed weeks, Readers and Writers included, the Festival is thinking of keeping the same themes in the future, making it perhaps the inaugural Writers and Readers Week at the Meighen Forum.
As part of Readers and Writers Week, Atwood also held conversations on creativity with Sam White, director of this year’s Wedding Band, and adaptation with Emma Donoghue, a London-based writer best known for her novel, Room.
Additionally, there was Un Grande Pasto Italiano (A Grand Italian Meal), curated by chef Matthew Sullivan with The Food Dudes.
Aside from Readers and Writers Week, the themes of Pride Week, Season Deep Dive, CBC Ideas Week, Global Theatre Week, and Scholars and Experts week are being considered to return yearly.
Scholars and Experts Week caps off the themed weeks at the Meighen Forum, taking place from Sept. 11 to 17, but events continue well into October.
For a complete list of events, including upcoming shows, visit here.
