The Guardian chooses Cat’s Eye for April reading group book
The Guardian recently took votes (which we at Atwood Society participating in, nominating Cat’s Eye as a matter of fact) for which Margaret Atwood book should be their reading group’s pick for April. In their announcement, The Guardian explains their choice, “the 1988 novel was shortlisted for the Booker prize and the Canadian Governor General’s award, and was described in the New York Times as ‘the finest addition to the Best Girlfriend genre yet.’”
Though Cat’s Eye is perhaps not as brutal as The Handmaid’s Tale, do not expect a soft book. There is plenty of betrayal and cruelty to go around, but still a lot of humor and beauty as well. This is a novel you won’t soon forget.
VH1 Trailblazer Honors to fete Margaret Atwood
What better way to celebrate International Women’s Day?
VH1 Trailblazer Honors 2019 will honor Margaret Atwood, along with #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay. *
The special will air on both VH1 and Logo on March 8 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.
*Ava DuVernay is no relation to Atwood Society officer Denise Du Vernay.
Season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale date announced
Breaking from previous years, instead of beginning in April, season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale will start on June 5. The later start date is to maintain the show’s high quality, but it is a bit curious, if only because “the late premiere date pushes The Handmaid’s Tale season three out of contention for the 2019 Emmy Awards, with June 1 as the eligibility cut-off date” (THR).
Comments by show runner Bruce Miller indicate that June will continue on her trek of rebelliousness in a major diversion from the original novel, promising “visceral victories” in season 3.
Coming soon: The Handmaid’s Tale graphic novel
At long last, the graphic novel of The Handmaid’s Tale is to be released March 26, 2019 by Penguin Random House. It is illustrated by Canadian artist Renee Nault.
New Year’s Honours 2019 includes Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood has joined an elite group of 65 people from the commonwealths in the Order of the Companions of Honour, part of the British honours system presented by the queen.
The Companion of Honour is a “special award granted to those who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time.” [More here]
Atwood honored by Equality Now
At Equality Now’s fourth annual Make Equality Reality gala on December 3, 2018 in Los Angeles, Margaret Atwood was honored for “her longtime advocacy of women’s rights.”
Variety reports that, in her speech at the gala, Atwood said, “Enforced pregnancy is a form of slavery. It is time it’s recognized as such.” A while discussing the importance of hope, THR quotes Atwood remarking: “It’s not enough just to hope. You actually then have to do something other than hoping.”
Equality Now and supporters seek to challenge and defeat repressive laws regarding women’s rights, including sex trafficking, sexual violence, and ritual genital mutilation through an international network of activists.
Sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale coming September 2019
If you’re like us, you’ve been dying to know what happens to Offred after the book leaves off and how future historians got a hold of Offred’s story. After 35 we will finally get some answers as a sequel is coming. It will be called The Testaments and will take place 15 years after The Handmaid’s Tale left off. Atwood tells us that the story will be told by three female characters, and the publisher promises that “the book answers the question that has tantalized readers for decades: What happens to Offred?”
Read more at NPR.
Also, cheers to Stephen Colbert for his quip: “Margaret Atwood is writing a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, and Donald Trump is almost finished with the prequel.”
New Atwood Poem “Update on Werewolves”
Just posted today on Literary Hub and it’s amazing and right on time–
Update on Werewolves
In the old days, all werewolves were male.
They burst through their bluejean clothing
as well as their own split skins,
exposed themselves in parks,
howled at the moonshine.
Those things frat boys do.
Went too far with the pigtail yanking—
growled down into the pink and wriggling
females, who cried Wee wee
wee all the way to the bone.
Heck, it was only flirting,
plus a canid sense of fun:
See Jane run!
But now it’s different:
No longer gender specific.
Now it’s a global threat.
Long-legged women sprint through ravines
in furry warmups, a pack of kinky
models in sado-French Vogue getups
and airbrushed short-term memories,
bent on no-penalties rampage.
Look at their red-rimmed paws!
Look at their gnashing eyeballs!
Look at the backlit gauze
of their full-moon subversive halos!
Hairy all over, this belle dame,
and it’s not a sweater.
O freedom, freedom and power!
they sing as they lope over bridges,
bums to the wind, ripping out throats
on footpaths, pissing off brokers.
Tomorrow they’ll be back
in their middle-management black
and Jimmy Choos
with hours they can’t account for
and first dates’ blood on the stairs.
They’ll make some calls: Good-bye.
It isn’t you, it’s me. I can’t say why.
They’ll dream of sprouting tails
at sales meetings,
right in the audiovisuals.
They’ll have addictive hangovers
and ruined nails.
Recent Comments