Margaret Atwood: Double Trouble

Hello Gentle Reader

Margaret Atwood is most certainly on a roll in two-thousand and seventeen. One of her most famous and controversial novels “The Handmaids Tale,” has been adapted into a television series (with another novel “Alias Grace,” getting ready to be adapted into a television miniseries shortly); the author and the novel have also found themselves as beacons of hope for women’s rights (Atwood has never been shy from being an active proponent for women’s rights), but also a symbol of resistance against Donald Trump and the Republican Administration, which currently governs the United States of America.

Just under two weeks ago, Margaret Atwood was in Prague to give a speech and accept the Franz Kafka Prize. Now along with the Franz Kafka Prize, Atwood has also been awarded the Peace Prize for the German Book Trade, whose previous winners include: Svetlana Alexievich, Orhan Pamuk, Claudio Magris, and Liao Yiwu. Atwood’s win marks the first time a Canadian winner has received the award, whose mandate is to award a writer who reflects and promotes international understanding among cultures.

Along with the German Peace Prize for the German Book Trade, Margaret Atwood, has also been announced as the winner for the PEN Centre USA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, for her large and industrious bibliography. The organization has praised Margaret Atwood and her work which depicts the myriad context of the human experience from oppression, power, authority, language and resistance. Atwood has written about the present, past and speculated on the future; and organizers praise her for finding patterns and pathways in the historical cycle of the human experience; while retaining a humanitarian perspective in which to engage the readers to contemplate the present before it becomes the future.

With the recent cascade of awards befalling Margaret Atwood, many have commented (tongue in cheek) that this is the beginning pavement towards the grandest prize of them all: The Nobel. Though I do agree (to a degree) with their ironic observations that a Nobel is most likely not in Margaret Atwood’s near future, I am cautious about sound absolute and concrete in this assertion, as last year’s Nobel debacle had proven to be earth shattering in proving to never be so certain in gauging and holding a firm opinion with regards to the prize.

Regardless, Congratulations Margaret Atwood, on your growing literary awards and affirmed international fame and appeal!

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader

Take Care

And As Always

Stay Well Read

M. Mary