In this very special bonus episode, one of our dream dinner guests, Margaret Atwood, invites Saint Joan of Arc to dinner. A multi-award-winning poet, novelist, short story writer, critical essayist, graphic novelist, teacher, and environmental advocate, Margaret Atwood is the author of over 50 books published in more than 45 countries. Her most recent books include the aptly titled (for this dinner party) essay collection Burning Questions (2022), the poetry collection Dearly (2020), and The Testaments (2019), her Booker Prize-winning (she has won two of them!) sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). Margaret Atwood’s imaginary dinner guest is both “a tough cookie” and another powerful female visionary (quite literally): Saint Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc was born in Domrémy, France in 1412, and raised on a farm. As a teenager, following visions that she said she received from God, she led the French army in a momentous victory at Orléans in 1429 during the Hundred Years' War, escorted Charles VII to his coronation in Reims, and was later tried for heresy at the behest of the English and burned at the stake at age 19. She was eventually canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 1920. We talk about the role cross-dressing played in Joan’s death, the subtleties of medieval cuisine, whether witches are real, and whether these days boys really do have it harder than girls. There are digressions involving lusty, disappointed peacocks, 3D-printed cookies, and Joan of Arc canned beans. Fasten your houppelande and join us!
Find Margaret Atwood on Twitter @MargaretAtwood, on her (free!) SubStack newsletter In the Writing Burrow, and on Instagram @therealmargaretatwood
Find her books and more at http://margaretatwood.ca/
Learn more about and support Equality Now at equalitynow.org
The books we mention in the interview:
Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc by Katherine J. Chen
The God of the Witches by Margaret Alice Murray
New book about Julian of Norwich: For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Learn more about and support Equality Now at equalitynow.org
See you soon for season 3!
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