Writers festival attracts Atwood

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This article was published 08/05/2019 (2386 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood will close this year’s Winnipeg International Writers Festival.

Atwood will appear at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre on Monday, Sept. 30 as part of the festival and in support of her forthcoming novel The Testaments, which will be released Sept. 10 by McClelland & Stewart, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada.

Atwood’s best-known novel, 1985’s The Handmaid’s Tale, was recently made into an Emmy-winning television series of the same name for Hulu; Atwood is a consulting producer for the show, which is available on Bravo and Crave TV in Canada. Other critically acclaimed and bestselling novels by the 79-year-old author include the Booker Prize-winning The Blind Assassin, the Giller Prize-winning Alias Grace as well as Oryx and Crake, Cat’s Eye and more; she has also been critically lauded for her essays and poetry.

The Testaments picks up the story of Offred, the protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale, 15 years after the close of the first novel. While The Handmaid’s Tale is told in Offred’s voice, The Testaments will offer narratives of three female narrators from Atwood’s fictional, dystopian world which is controlled by a dictatorship known as the Republic of Gilead.

“Winnipeg has always given Ms. Atwood an enthusiastic reception, said festival director Charlene Diehl in a press release. “Throughout her impressive writing career, she has been an outspoken advocate for environmental responsibility, gender equity and social justice, and her dystopic work in particular demonstrates a tireless drive to galvanize positive action… After more than three decades, we are just now comprehending the chilling relevance of The Handmaid’s Tale; The Testaments will catapult us forward.”

Tickets for Margaret Atwood’s appearance are $25, and are available via Eventbrite.com.

books@freepress.mb.ca