Poems and Portents

MARGARET ATWOOD IS ON message. Not, mind you, about The Testaments, the acclaimed new book she’s promoting, a sequel to her most famous novel and Emmy award–winning TV series The Handmaid’s Tale.

In fact, Atwood does not seem all that interested in speaking about her writing, herself, or even her considerable passion for birding. Canada’s outspoken novelist, accomplished poet, and avian advocate extraordinaire has a talking point: how the birds themselves are doing.

We’re on the wins the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction, and I ask her about how birds are used as symbols in literature, a tactic that she deploys often. A cursory answer, then the pivot: “Why don’t we talk about why birds are important,” she says. Later, this time with a chuckle punctuating her trademark wry monotone, she turns a question I have posed around with this: “That’s important from the point of view of people, but let’s talk about it as being important from the point of view of birds.”