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Margaret Atwood began writing poetry in high school, and the most thrilling moment of her writing career was the publication of her first poem: ‘I mean, all the other things that have happened since then were a thrill, but that was the biggest.’ She has gone on to publish 19 collections of poetry, as well as 14 novels – including 'The Handmaid’s Tale', 'The Blind Assassin' and 'MaddAddam', published last summer. Organised and methodical in writing fiction, she writes poetry ‘in a state of free float’, very often in hotel rooms or on planes. Her poems tend to begin with a cluster of words, around which they form – she has compared the process to ‘dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation’ – and sometimes they result in novels. In a conversation with Peter Kemp, Chief Fiction Reviewer of the Sunday Times, Atwood talks about how she believes that poetry and fiction use different parts of the brain, explains how poems can open doors into rooms which novels then enter and explore, and reads from her work.

We are grateful to the Canadian High Commission in the UK for hosting this event at Canada House. We are grateful to the TLS for supporting this event.

Margaret Atwood reads her poetry

Background, context, and poem text: http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/28/keeping-quiet-sylvia-boorstein-reads-pablo-neruda

Excerpted from https://soundcloud.com/onbeing/what-we-nurture-with-sylvia

MORE / POEM TEXT

Sylvia Boorstein reads "Keeping Quiet" by Pablo Neruda

This is a new concept I'm trying out; A poem within a poem. I think it offers an interesting dynamic. Hope you like it. 
Instrumental: "We're All Leaving" -Arcade Fire (From the "Her" Soundtrack)
Lyrics: 
In my dreams i lose the concept of time, its something that i don't really mind because its gonna take me a while to find out everything about you that i can, from the gentle touch of your hands to your toes in the sand of this beach devoid of reality, these brief moments that you've given me have brought me to the brink of insanity, but i simply don't care; your hair swaying with the wind, our beating hearts making up the only sound in between whispers that carry secrets too heavy to be heard aloud. 

You see, in my dreams every touch is gentle and warm, every kiss is filled with bliss, and every word that you say plays back in my head like the most beautiful song; and i struggle to hold on to the memories of the days where we laughed and played under the soft white bed sheets, the sweet smell of your perfume as you entered the room, those times where we would lay beside each other and smile as we stared at the moon, wondering if it was looking back at us and smiling too. 
In my dreams, forever never seems quite long enough. 
So if this is all the time we have, just don't wake me up. 
But in case you truly cant stay, ill leave you with a final poem:

"find me beneath the porcelain stars, amongst fragments of memories that define who we are,
touch me like a snowflake grazes a cheek, feel me like warm sand sinking under your feet,
And like lights that adorn the edges of streets, we touch the hearts of others as they pass through;
People will come in to our lives and eventually they'll leave, but what always remains...is how they changed you."
- Written and performed by Igor Oro

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/0a33ff" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

"In My Dreams" - A Spoken Word Poem

When it comes to life, it's all about perspective. 

Written and performed by Igor Oro
Music Sample credit: "Do What You Are Doing", by Dexter Britain

LYRICS
One day I asked a blind man if he knew what colors were. He said, "Well, I've never seen them, but in my mind the colour yellow...feels like the warm rays of sunshine. The color green, I imagine, is what covers the soft carpet of grass in an empty meadow; the colour red must be the screech of sirens and horns, and I could have sworn that I felt the calm of blue in the waters of the Atlantic"

"You see, my friend", he added, "I may not have the gift of sight, but I am thankful to be spared the blackness that engulfs the world at night. Although I cannot distinguish dark from light, I can still tell wrong from right; I can hear hidden tones in music that most people cannot, I can dream of beauty from just the scent of a rose, I can feel the crisp droplets of rain on my skin, and unlike others, I can actually see the wind."

"Never feel bad for a blind man," he said finally; "for you see the world for what it is..while I see it for what it could be." 

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/58ca38" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

"Thoughts of a Blind Man" - Inspirational Spoken Word Poetry

An emotional, heartbreaking romance from the author of A Million Miles Away.

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They tell me that my memory will never be the same, that I'll start forgetting things. At first just a little, and then a lot. So I'm writing to remember.

Sammie McCoy is a girl with a plan: graduate at the top of her class and get out of her small town as soon as possible. Nothing will stand in her way--not even the rare genetic disorder the doctors say will slowly steal her memories and then her health.

So the memory book is born: a journal written to Sammie's future self, so she can remember everything from where she stashed her study guides to just how great it feels to have a best friend again. It's where she'll record every perfect detail of her first date with longtime-crush Stuart, a gifted young writer home for the summer. And where she'll admit how much she's missed her childhood friend Cooper, and the ridiculous lengths he will go to make her laugh. The memory book will ensure Sammie never forgets the most important parts of her life--the people who have broken her heart, those who have mended it--and most of all, that if she's going to die, she's going to die living.

This moving and remarkable novel introduces an inspiring character you're sure to remember, long after the last page.

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Available Now from Hachette Audio as a digital download, and as a hardcover and an ebook from Poppy. 

Download:
http://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/the-memory-book/267042
http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/The-Memory-Book-Audiobook/B01HIH6LXW/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1467837470&sr=1-1
https://www.estories.com/audiobook/95430/Lara-Avery/The-Memory-Book
https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/the-memory-book-unabridged/id1128478606?mt=3
http://www.downpour.com/catalog/product/view/id/233990/?format=Download

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THE MEMORY BOOK by Lara Avey, Read by Casey Holloway- Audiobook Excerpt

Listen to an excerpt of Caroline Angell's ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD audiobook, read by Barrie Kreinik.

An unforgettable debut about a young woman's choice between the future she's always imagined and the people she's come to love.

Charlotte, a gifted and superbly trained young musician, has been blindsided by a shocking betrayal in her promising career when she takes a babysitting job with the McLeans, a glamorous Upper East Side Manhattan family. At first the nanny gig is just a way of tiding herself over until she has licked her wounds and figured out her next move as a composer in New York. But as it turns out, Charlotte is naturally good with children and becomes as deeply fond of the two little boys as they are of her.

When an unthinkable tragedy leaves the McLeans bereft, Charlotte is not the only one who realizes that she's the key to holding little George and Matty's world together. Suddenly, in addition to life's usual puzzles, such as sorting out which suitor is her best match, she finds herself with an impossible choice between her lifelong dreams and the torn-apart family she's come to love.

Caroline Angell's remarkable and generous debut is the story of a young woman's discovery of the things that matter most.

All the Time in the World by Caroline Angell, audiobook excerpt

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Dead to Me by Lesley Pearse, read by Eve Webster.

When Ruby and Verity met as girls they came from different worlds. Verity was privately educated, living in a beautiful Hampstead home, while Ruby was being raised in extreme poverty. Nevertheless, they became firm friends. 

However, fortunes are not set in stone and soon the girls find their situations reversed. As Ruby goes up in the world, Verity encounters more and more tragedy, but still the girls remain a large part of each other's lives. That is, until one day in 1938 when Ruby says the terrible words 'You're dead to me' and it looks like their friendship might be over for good . . .

Dead To Me by Lesley Pearse (audiobook extract) read by Eve Webster

Listen to an excerpt of Beth Harbison's ONE LESS PROBLEM WITHOUT YOU audiobook, read by Orlagh Cassidy.

Meet Prinny, Chelsea, and Diana. Prinny is the owner of Cosmos, a shop that sells crystals, potions, candles, and hope. It's also a place where no one turns down a little extra-special cocktail that can work as a romance potion or heal a broken heart. But Prinny is in love with her married lawyer, and she'll need nothing short of magic to forget about him.

Chelsea works as a living statue at tourist sites around Washington, DC. It's a thankless job, but it helps pay the rent. That and her part-time job at Cosmos. As her dream of becoming a successful actress starts to seem more remote and the possibility of being a permanently struggling one seems more realistic, Chelsea begins to wonder: At what point do you give up on your dreams? And will love ever be in the cards for her?

Diana Tiesman is married to Leif, a charismatic man who isn't faithful. But no matter how many times he lets her down, Diana just can't let him go. She knows the only way she can truly break away is if she leaves and goes where he will never think to follow. So she ends up at Cosmos with Leif's stepsister, where she makes her homemade teas and tinctures as she figures out whether she'd rather be lonely alone than lonely in love.

In Beth Harbison's One Less Problem Without You, three women suddenly find themselves together at their own very different crossroads. It will take hope, love, strength, and a little bit of magic for them to find their way together.

Buy the audiobook

One Less Problem Without You by Beth Harbison, audiobook excerpt

Stand-up comedian Luisa Omielan's story of how she turned her life around with one simple mantra: What Would Beyoncé Do?!

You know when you find yourself approaching thirty and your dreams are broken? You've got a temping career going nowhere, a student debt that’s mounting and you've just had to move back into your mum’s house.

Then to top it all off, you get absolutely annihilated with heartbreak because of an ex, who is just ‘not ready’ but then manages to be ready, a week later, with someone else. 

And it is here, at your lowest point, that one of your best friends decides to remind you that you are the same age as Beyoncé.

FML.

Luisa Omielan is a stand-up comedian who turned her life around after she answered the mantra every person needs in their life: What Would Beyoncé Do?!

Hilariously funny, wonderfully uplifting and brutally honest, Luisa's memoir shows us all that there is no situation in which Bey can’t save the day. 
You know when you find yourself approaching thirty and your dreams are broken? You've got a temping career going nowhere, a student debt that’s mounting and you've just had to move back into your mum’s house.

Then to top it all off, you get absolutely annihilated with heartbreak because of an ex, who is just ‘not ready’ but then manages to be ready, a week later, with someone else. 

And it is here, at your lowest point, that one of your best friends decides to remind you that you are the same age as Beyoncé.

FML.

Luisa Omielan is a stand-up comedian who turned her life around after she answered the mantra every person needs in their life: What Would Beyoncé Do?!

Hilariously funny, wonderfully uplifting and brutally honest, Luisa's memoir shows us all that there is no situation in which Bey can’t save the day. 

What Would Beyonce Do?! written and read by Luisa Omielan (audiobook extract)

Grammy-winning audiobook publisher. Authors include James Patterson, David Baldacci, and Michael Connelly. Earbuds encouraged. Follow us on Twitter at @HachetteAudio.