The Wit and Wisdom of Margaret Atwood

The best thing I can do for today’s blog is to point you in the direction of yesterday’s mini-interview of Margaret Atwood in The Guardian. Every Saturday, they run a Q&A where they ask the same 25 questions. Her answers are the best I’ve ever...

Fiction, Poetry, Science, Wine and Brownies

If that doesn’t make for the perfect 24 hours, then I don’t know what does. Wednesday evening I sat on a panel for Cambridge’s Festival of Ideas discussing such questions as what gives a writer or scientist credibility? Do facts exist? What is the...

Cambridge Festival of !deas

Now this is an event I’m really thrilled to be a part of.The Cambridge Festival of !deas is in the midst of it’s third year as the only free arts, humanities and social sciences festival in the UK. Last year it attracted over 9,000 visitors to over 180...

A Connecticut Yankee

I lived in Connecticut over thirty years ago. I have lots of good associations with the State, but it actually has seemed very far away over the past years. I associate Connecticut with leafy suburbs and sensible lifestyles – a far cry from the ultra-urban life...

Different Sorts of Book Signings

It’s been a busy couple of days.Two book signings. Two books to be signed. Two very different venues and very different audiences.At the Grolier Poetry BookshopFriday afternoon at The Grolier Poetry Bookshop in Harvard Square. This is a wonderful, old-style...