Member Review
Canadian writers take so much for granted. Canada Council programs. Festivals and readings. Cheques arriving from the Public Lending Right Commission and Access Copyright. The Writers’ Trust of Canada Awards. Apparently, some of us believe that these things sprang unbidden from a naturally generous culture, and will always be with us. But they exist thanks mainly to the sustained creative efforts and constant vigilance of The Writers’ Union of Canada. We owe. We owe those who have gone before us, and we owe those who will come after.
Member Profile
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa in 1939 and has degrees from the University of Toronto and Radcliffe College, and has lived in many places, including Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, Boston, England, Scotland, and France. She supported her word habit with many non-writing jobs in youth, but has been a full-time writer since 1972--fiction, screenplays, poetry, non-fiction--with short interludes of guest teaching here and there. She was chair of The Writers' Union in 1981-82, and president of PEN Canada in 1985 and 1986. She is currently working on a novel.
