The Travel Writing Life 
  • Blog
  • Stories (uncut)
    • Casa Misha, San Miguel de Allende
    • Diary of a Reluctant Cruiser: Antarctica and Patagonia
    • My Favorite Place
    • Heli-Hiking in the Rockies
    • Pondering Happiness in Bhutan
    • Ditching Holidays for Kripalu Yoga Retreat
    • Quest for a Hidden Forest
    • Considering an Expat Year? Consider Cuenca or San Miguel
  • Laurie Gough Website
  • My Books
  • Published Stories

Meeting Margaret Atwood with Spinach in my Teeth

2/22/2012

15 Comments

 
_
Picture
Margaret Atwood in San Miguel
_I just got back from ten days in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, my old hometown, where I gave a travel writing workshop at the San Miguel International Writers’ Conference.

On the first morning, I was invited to a faculty brunch in the courtyard of an old colonial hotel. As I was reaching for a mug, I looked beside me and there stood Margaret Atwood pouring herself a coffee. She was shorter than I thought she’d be, with smooth rosy skin and robin’s egg blue eyes. Surprisingly, this brilliant heroine of mine, a world literary giant whose books I’ve been devouring since high school, appeared to be an actual human being. I figured she wouldn’t mind a fellow Canadian saying hello. Just as I was about to ask her if she thought the coffee was the shade-grown, fair-trade variety, which I knew was important to her to protect the habitat of birds, a bossy woman came to tell us to sit down to eat. 

I wasn’t deterred. A few minutes later, I saw Margaret Atwood again, sitting at a round table surrounded by four other writers, two of whom I knew, sort of. There was one empty seat. I thought to myself, why the hell not? The rest of the tables were quickly filling up with American and Mexican writers. Why shouldn’t I sit with the Canadian writers? I smiled and asked if I could sit down. They said sure.  

Just as we started to talk, the conference organizer announced she wanted all of us to stand up and introduce ourselves, all 50 of us from our separate tables. Margaret groaned and rolled her eyes, giving me a knowing smirk, one that said, Oh please! Half an hour later, when we were deeply into our vegan antojitos and non-shade-grown coffee, we finally began to chat, discussing sex scandals at Canadian publishing houses; how Americans purportedly don’t want to read about their own country from an outsider’s point of view (both myself and a married couple at the table, Merilyn Simonds and Wayne Grady, have written travel memoirs set partly in the U.S.); and Margaret Atwood’s latest book, The Year of the Flood.  

I was especially interested in this topic since I’m reading the book now. The Year of the Flood  is her latest dystopian speculation about a world of survivors in a violent future, complete with genetically engineered humans and animals, a stifling hot planet, and a corporation ruling the world. The seeds of everything she writes about have already been planted today. The book is scary as hell.  Especially fascinating to me is the cult of Gardeners who cling to religion even though the cult’s leader knows that God is just a cluster of neurons in our brain and we’ve evolved to believe in gods as an evolutionary advantage. Since I believe this myself, I wanted to ask her if she thinks it’s an evolutionary advantage because those who believe in gods live longer, having more hope. But instead, all I could do was look at her despondently and say, “Margaret, is there any hope for the world?”  

She sighed. I’d asked her a question I learned that night in her keynote address she gets asked a lot. “We have to have hope,” she answered, “because without it, nothing can get better.” She smiled and shrugged.

The next day, after a lunch of spinach empanadas, I happened to sit next to Margaret Atwood again to hear Naomi Wolfe’s talk on advocacy. (My favourite of Naomi Wolfe’s lines was, “If you’re true to yourself, your writing can’t have clichés.) That night I went to a party in Naomi’s Wolfe’s hotel room and a cute young guy told me I had spinach in my teeth. I hadn’t eaten since the empanadas. I’d had a huge piece of spinach in my teeth while talking to Margaret Atwood. “Margaret Atwood must have noticed! I’m mortified!” I groaned.

I drank another margarita and thought, what the hell.  We’re all going to burn up in a plague anyway. Bottoms up.

15 Comments
Ian Ord link
2/22/2012 04:59:15 pm

Brilliant post, Laurie.

Meeting Margaret Atwood at a conference in Mexico would be most Canadian writer's dream come true, let alone sitting side by side for the 2 full days. I'm sure the spinach probably went unnoticed (us Canadian's would usually tell someone of that, had we seen it)... but if not, and you're lucky, it may just end up being spinach on one of her characters teeth in an upcoming novel.

Hope you had fun in San Miguel de Allende, spinach, Atwood, margaritas and all!

Reply
Dentist Inver Grove Heights link
7/24/2012 03:24:39 pm

Spinach in the teeth that is something very funny to read.Thanks a lot for the blog post to share.

Reply
Teeth whitening link
10/8/2012 06:13:19 pm

Hi, I actually added your post in the list of my favorites. Looking forward for further updates on the same. Great Job, Keep it up.

Reply
custom writing essays link
10/9/2012 11:42:16 pm

great article….

Shelyn Ponsford
2/22/2012 05:48:17 pm

Excellent, I liked the bottoms up, With happiness of meeting MA comes sadness of our imperfections.

Reply
eric innanen
2/23/2012 02:59:32 am

Is it true she smells like lilacs and cabbage?

Reply
Laurie Gough
2/23/2012 03:09:18 am

more like tulips and kumquats.

Reply
Diana Ekizian
2/23/2012 09:30:59 am

I envy you, Laura. Not only do I relish Margaret Atwood's prose, she is also one of my heroes. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to meet her at the Conf. Thanks for posting this tidbit.

Reply
Del Lobo
2/23/2012 01:50:30 pm

It would have been fun to meet Margaret Atwood for sure but have to say, it was great seeing you in SMA! Love your writing - managed to get a DVD of the workshop :) All the best!

Reply
HILARY D SLATER link
2/26/2012 01:38:36 pm

Well.. if she DId notice your spinach, she'll never forget you.. She'd have been thinking the whole time "Should I tell her she's got spinach in her teeth, or just try to ignore it.. Oh I can't ignore it. but I can't tell her. She'd be mortified.. so I'll try to talk about the book topic. Take my mind off the spinach... Oh why would they serve such an impolite food for our lunch? .. Oh, i wish someone else would tell her.. ."
Or something along those lines :)
(OR perhaps she's already turned you into another character in one of her new and intriguing novels :)

Reply
Gainesville Girls link
7/11/2012 08:15:46 am

First time reading this blog, just wanted to say hi.

Reply
Catharine Johnson
11/4/2012 01:41:22 am

Love the post!
I have such a bad "spinach problem" that my husband came up with a system to let me know. He will lean over and say "10 o'clock". Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out which side he is talking about, but at least I can attempt to remove it.

Reply
ryleexo link
9/5/2013 02:17:30 pm

I'm just browsing around your site for the first time, interesting read

Reply
Carol Colburn
8/29/2014 05:51:39 am

So funny Laurie, as per usual! Love your writing.

Reply
Sam Thompson
9/24/2014 04:37:11 am

So funny! I love your humor. Do you think she noticed?

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Laurie Gough

    I'm an author of books about my travels, a freelance writer, an adventurer, a mother of a little boy, an environmental activist, and someone who daydreams about finding the perfect place to live.

    Archives

    March 2016
    January 2016
    April 2015
    January 2015
    June 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    February 2013
    November 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Airbnb
    Antarctica
    Berber Cultural Centre
    Berber House
    Blablacar
    Boulder
    Bruce Springsteen
    Cheap Gas
    Colorado
    Cruises
    Eat Pray Love
    First Post
    Fort Collins
    India
    Jeans
    Mannequins
    Margaret Atwood
    Mexico
    Morocco
    Nightlife
    Patagonia
    Patrick Gough
    Road Tripping
    San Miguel De Allende
    San Miguel International Writers' Festival
    Sedona
    Skiing
    Spain
    The Year Of The Flood
    Trader Joe
    Travel Writing
    Travel Writing Workshops
    Workaway



    Cool Sites

    Trekity
    GoNomad
    Worldhum
    Perceptive Travel
    Travel Writers Exchange
    World Footprints
    Madam Mayo
    Skip Town
    Gadling
    Atlas Obscura
    Blythe Woolston-Author
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.