Why choose Margaret Atwood–so acclaimed, so recognisable, so accomplished–as the subject of a reading event?

Most of the books I read in school were written by men; that’s remarkable, but what I find even more remarkable is that someone else had to point out this fact to me. I expected to read canonical books in my English classes, and I accepted that most of those books were written by men.

In my final English class in public school, a young teacher with a part-time contract, taught a Margaret Atwood poem, which inspired me to read The Handmaid’s Tale and her other early novels. None of those books were assigned reading in university; there were options to teach some women writers—their names appeared on the reading lists—but most of my professors opted for traditional selections, like Chaucer and Shakespeare, Sterne and Swift.

The work of women writers wasn’t prioritsed on the curriculum. And was that really so long ago? Less than three decades? Now students are assigned The Handmaid’s Tale. And it seems like that book has been around forever. And that it’s always been “important”, if not prescient.

But it’s easy to take it all for granted, to believe that women were always viewed as having the capacity to write and publish. We must not overlook our literary grandmothers, those women who opened doors for other writers. Mr BIP once held the door for Margaret Atwood at the train station. I watched her hold the door at a neighbourhood coffee shop for the man who had just finished cleaning the window. But she’s also opened so many other doors for writers.

It’s not uncommon to see her name in the acknowledgments and authors’ notes written by Canadian authors from other generations, and she frequently recommends writers and books. Pre-internet, via newspaper and magazine articles. Now, online. If you follow her on social media, you’ll see: it seems like she reads and bookchats as much as she writes.

Here are links to the posts that participants have written to share in celebrating Margaret Atwood Reading Month:

The Edible Woman (1969) | Danielle, Laila, Paula, Rebecca

Surfacing (1972) | Ali, Bill, Lisa, Rebecca, Yasmine Rose

Dancing Girls (1977) | Mel

Two-Headed Poems (1978) | Marcie

Life Before Man (1979) | Ali, Bill, Rebecca

Morning in the Burned House (1995) | Naomi

True Stories (1981) | Marcie

Bodily Harm (1981) | Paula, Rebecca

Interlunar (1984) | Rebecca

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) | Naomi, Nancy

Cat’s Eye (1988) | Bill, Marcie

Wilderness Tips (1991) | Rebecca, Lisa (Hairball), Lisa (True Trash)

The Robber Bride (1993) | Rebecca

Murder in the Dark (1983) Good Bones (1992) and Simple Murders (1994) | Ali

Alias Grace (1996) | Lisa, Yasmine Rose

The Labrador Fiasco (1996) | Karen, Whispering Gums

The Blind Assassin (2000) | Laila, Rebecca

Negotiating with the Dead (2002 aka On Writers and Writing) | Karen

Oryx and Crake (2003) | Mel

Moving Targets aka Writing with Intent (2005) | Karen and Karen, Again

The Penelopiad (2005) | Brona, Cathy, Madame Bibi, Mel

Moral Disorder (2006) | Ali, Rebecca

The Door (2007) | Rebecca

MaddAddam (2013) | Ali, Yasmine Rose

The Stone Mattress (2014) Rebecca, Madame Bibi

The Heart Goes Last (2015) | Madame Bibi

Angel Catbird (2016) I Naomi | II Marcie | III Marcie

Hag-Seed (2016) | Ali, Helen, Madame Bibi

The Testaments (2019) | Brona, Iliana, Kay, Laila, Laura, Marcie, Naomi

Dearly (2020) | Naomi

Burning Questions (2022) | Brona, Naomi (“How to Change the World” and “My Evil Mother”)

Old Babes in the Wood (2023) | Old Babes in the Wood, Bill (The Dead Interview), Brona (The Dead Interview), Whispering Gums (Widows), Naomi (My Evil Mother)