BROADCASTS.com

b'

Claudia Rankine, one of America\\u2019s leading literary figures, and the double-Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood look at the world afresh, challenging conventions \\u2013 with Kirsty Wark.

In her latest book, Just Us: An American Conversation, Claudia Rankine reflects on what it means to experience, and question, everyday racism. Her poems draw on a series of encounters with friends and strangers, as well as historical record. Her work moves beyond the silence, guilt and violence that often surround discussions about whiteness, and dares all of us to confront the world in which we live.

Margaret Atwood recently won the Booker Prize for a second time with The Testaments, her sequel to the 1985 prize-winner The Handmaid\\u2019s Tale. Her story of the fictional Gilead\\u2019s dark misogyny has retained its relevance after more than three decades. The world of Gilead was originally sparked by an earlier poem, Spelling, and Atwood explores the importance of poetry in firing the imagination.

Producer: Katy Hickman\\nPhotographer: John Lucas