A Literary Love Story

128 Sterling

Graeme Gibson, the Canadian writer and avid ornithologist and conservationist who died this last September at the age of 85, and his partner, author and poet Margaret Atwood, met in 1970 in Toronto, when both were associated with the fledgling Canadian independent publisher, the House of Anansi, founded by poet Dennis Lee and writer David Godfrey in the basement of the latter’s house on Spadina Avenue near Bloor Street. Graeme Gibson’s lauded experimental novel, Five Legs, and Margaret Atwood’s Governor-General’s Award-winning collection of poetry, The Circle Game, were early and surprising bestsellers for a publisher that remains a fundamental pillar of the Canadian literary scene to this day. In “A Literary Love Story” Graeme Gibson and Margaret Atwood remember the beginnings of the House of Anansi and the literary scene in Toronto of the nineteen sixties and seventies. Presented by Noah Richler and produced by Mihira Lakshman and Nick Parker, with sound provided gratis by freesound.org, and dedicated to the memory of Graeme Gibson.