2004/05/01 by Margaret Atwood · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction #Gothic Literature and Media Analysis #Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies #Amateur #Oryx #Literature #Context (archaeology) #Art #Art history #History
paper · doi:10.1632/003081204x20578
openalex publication_date 2004/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/03
I'm not a science fiction expert. Nor am i an academic, although i used to be one, sort of. Although I'm a writer, I'm not primarily a writer of science fiction. In this genre I'm a dilettante and a dabbler, an amateur—which last word, rightly translated, means “lover.” I got into hot water recently on a radio talk show in Britain: the radio person said she'd just been to a sci-fi conference there, and some people were really, really mad at me. Why? said I, mystified. For being mean to science fiction, said she. In what way had I been mean? I asked. For saying you didn't write it, she replied. And I having had the nerve to win the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction.