Wilderness Tips is a collection of short stories by Margaret Atwood, published in 1991 by McClelland and Stewart. It was a finalist for the Governor General's Award. Certain stories were previously published in The New Yorker, Saturday Night, Playboy, Harper's and Vogue.[1]

Wilderness Tips
First edition
AuthorMargaret Atwood
Cover artistFrida Kahlo, The Wounded Deer, 1946
LanguageEnglish
GenreShort story collection
PublisherMcClelland and Stewart
Publication date
1991
Publication placeCanada
Media typePrint (hardcover)
ISBN0-7710-0819-8

Several of the stories are fictionalized portrayals of Atwood's contemporaries in Canadian literature. The mysterious poet Selena in "Isis in Darkness" is based on Gwendolyn MacEwen, and the journalist Marcia in "Hack Wednesday" is based on June Callwood.[2] One story, "Uncles", prompted a feud between Atwood and Robert Fulford, who claimed to have been the model for the character Percy Marrow, described in the story as a "peeled potato with a little tuft of fuzz on top".[2]

Contents

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  • "True Trash"
  • "Hairball"
  • "Isis in Darkness"
  • "The Bog Man"
  • "Death by Landscape"
  • "Uncles"
  • "The Age of Lead"
  • "Weight"
  • "Wilderness Tips"
  • "Hack Wednesday"

Notes

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  1. ^ Garvie, Maureen (Sep 21, 1991), "Lost in the Woods", The Whig-Standard, p. 1
  2. ^ a b Brian Busby, Character Parts: Who's Really Who in CanLit. ISBN 0307368580.
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