Margaret Atwood is universally acknowledged as a hero. Her books attest to the power of imagination, dedication, a clear eye, dark humour and moral courage. Only now can The Handmaid's Tale, published in 1985, be seen to have been so prescient. In a photograph taken the day after the inauguration of President Trump, a protester held a sign reading “MAKE MARGARET ATWOOD FICTION AGAIN.”
Tireless in support of green issues and budding writers, fiercely loyal and generous with her time, Atwood has still managed to write 17 novels, 10 volumes of short stories, 20 volumes of poetry, 10 works of non-fiction, seven children's books – and that leaves out graphic novels, TV scripts, libretti, audio recordings and shopping lists. She has won more than 55 Canadian and international awards. Who better to deliver FlipSide's keynote address?
A bar serving food and refreshment will be open in the Hoffmann Building.
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her latest book of short stories is Stone Mattress: Nine Tales (2014). Her MaddAddam trilogy – the Giller and Booker prize-nominated Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013) – is currently being adapted for HBO. The Door is her latest volume of poetry (2007). Her most recent non-fiction books are Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (2008) and In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (2011). Her novels include The Blind Assassin, winner of the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; and The Robber Bride, Cat’s Eye, The Handmaid’s Tale – coming soon as a TV series with MGM and Hulu – and The Penelopiad. Her novel, The Heart Goes Last, was published in September 2015. In 2016, the following works were published: Hag-Seed, a novel revisitation of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, for the Hogarth Shakespeare Project, and Angel Catbird – with a cat-bird superhero – a graphic novel with co-creator Johnnie Christmas (Dark Horse). Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.