Are you still meeting a legend if you don’t technically know who she is or what she’s done? Well, yeah. It just means you’re ignorant.
I found myself in this very situation last Wednesday on the arrival of Margaret Atwood, internationally recognized novelist, poet, scholar, feminist, and thinker. And she’s Canadian to boot. Part of the Visiting Writer’s Series here at Butler University, I found myself invited to President Danko‘s house for a dinner, a reception of Atwood by professors and students.
Prior to the dinner, I did a bit of research into this visiting writer, and quickly discovered that she was a voice I wanted to be familiar with. Then I got the incredibly rare chance to meet her. Now I’m reading one of her books (it seems like at Butler, we do things backwards).
She was a pretty rad lady: all of the students were more timid around her than she was around us. Many were familiar with her fantastic novels (such as The Handmaids Tale and Oryx and Crake, which I am currently reading). Science fiction is only one arena she spends her time in. She also has worked extensively writing poetry and non-fiction. And does everything with the same ingredient: awesomeness.




