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
Morning in the Burned House (1995) | Naomi
True Stories (1981) | Marcie
Bodily Harm (1981) | Paula, Rebecca
Murder in the Dark (1994) | Ali
containing Good Bones (1992) and Simple Murders (1994)
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
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
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
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
General Musings:
Children’s Books: Naomi, Thoughts Become Words;
Short Stories: Kristie;
Covers: Ali (2018), Karen (2018), Naomi (2018), Paula (2018);
Collections: Ali (2020), Paula (2018);
Discovering: Iliana (2018), Reese (2018);
Events: Rebecca;
Handmaid’s Tale as a Text: Naomi (2022)
Food: Naomi Bakes a Cake; Naomi and the CanLit Foodbook;
Introductions: Karen (to On Cats); Bill (to Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We)
Quotations: Naomi (2018), Paula (2018);
Rereading: Laura (2019), Marcie (2019)
Sci-Fi/Speculative Fiction: Bill (2022)