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Mother Atwood

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April 5, 2012 | 12:17 pm

Want to buy a limited edition Margaret Atwood short story? You can’t, unless you subscribe to The Walrus

The Walrus Foundation announced the launch of its imprint The Walrus Books today, and the first book in its roster is a limited edition of a short story by famed Canadian author and Rob Ford rival Margaret Atwood, titled I Dream of Zenia With the Bright Red Teeth. A press release from The Walrus states that the story revisits Zenia, the protagonist from The Robber Bride. Only 2,000 copies of the Brian Morgan and Marian Bantjes–designed hard copy will be printed, and it will be available only to new and renewing subscribers of The Walrus until the story is published in the magazine’s “Summer Reading” issue. If the Walrus Foundation’s executive director, Shelley Ambrose, wants to drum up a little extra gravy, we suggest getting Mayor Ford photographed toting around a copy in his back pocket. No one can resist a reformed bad boy.

Mother Atwood

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August 24, 2011 | 12:55 pm
Dates with Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje up for grabs in Toronto library contest (we’re looking at you, Doug Ford) 

Doug Ford better start brushing up on his writing chops (because this might be a surefire way for him to finally figure out who Margaret Atwood is): Toronto’s Public Library Workers Union is offering lunch and a “literary-themed outing” with Atwood to winners of its My Library Matters to Me competition. The contest is a response to the recent discussion of service cuts at city hall—and Ford’s, shall we say, candour on the subject of Canadian literary icons—and invites Toronto residents to express their love of the city’s libraries in essay or video form. Of course, Ford did eventually clarify that when he said he wouldn’t know Atwood if she passed him on the street he actually meant that she’s a great writer and, naturally, everyone knows who she is. So get cracking, Doug: other prizes include dates with Michael Ondaatje, Sylvia Fraser and Susan Swan. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

Mother Atwood

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October 26, 2010 | 11:42 am

Margaret Atwood designs Halloween costumes for Detroit doctor

No fair: Atwood can write and draw. Fingers crossed for a self-illustrated novel. (Images: Twitpic)

If you haven’t been paying attention to our literary matriarch lately, you may be unaware that Margaret Atwood is on Twitter, and she’s quite taken with the 140-character medium. When a Detroit nephrologist recommended two of her books to a friend, Atwood decided to contact him, then offered to design superhero Halloween costumes for the good doctor and his lady friend. Was this a joke? One might think so, but five days later, Peggy checked in with the following update:

@DrSnit and @kidney_boy: still tinkering with your outfits and magic words… can one make a crown out of painkiller pills?

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Mother Atwood

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September 24, 2010 | 11:00 am

Margaret Atwood accused of thinking moon landing was a hoax

When Margaret Atwood entered the Sun TV debate (in vehement opposition, of course), she opened herself up to the wrath of right-wing bloggers across the country. After a Twitter-based feud with SunMedia columnist Ezra Levant, her detractors began searching for skeletons. Good luck, we thought. It’s hard to imagine Atwood has done or said anything that she wouldn’t own up to. But the investigators did find something: a 2009 radio interview with a Sudbury high school student, who accused Peggy of believing the moon landing was a hoax.

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Mother Atwood

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August 5, 2010 | 11:56 am

Margaret Atwood documentary coming to Toronto in October

Ron Mann’s In the Wake of the Flood, the documentary about Margaret Atwood’s less-than-typical book tour, had its world premiere in Sydney yesterday, but a Toronto gala debut at the soon-to-open Bell Lightbox isn’t far off: the film is slotted to launch the Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival on October 13.

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Mother Atwood

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July 29, 2010 | 12:03 pm

Hear Margaret Atwood sing with The Sadies

Atwood on The Year of the Flood set (Image: Marco Secchi/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images)

Margaret Atwood’s singing cameo may have been cut from TIFF opening film Score: A Hockey Musical, but she showed the producers what they’re missing by singing on Q yesterday. She performed a song from her unconventional Year of the Floor book tour (billed as “a literary performance with music”), with Canadian indie rock band The Sadies backing her up. The tune—called “The Water-Shrew That Rends Its Prey”—is all Southern saloon-style twang, and Peggy nails it. She’s tone-deaf, sure, but no one can deny that she’s got swagger; we especially like the way she repeatedly chants “Constant threat” like she’s going to eat us, and concludes with a menacing growl (to be fair, the song is about predators). Have a listen here.

• Margaret Atwood sings with The Sadies [Q Blog]

Mother Atwood

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June 23, 2010 | 9:01 am

Margaret Atwood on the future of books

(Image: Q TV)

Margaret Atwood has spoken on the future of books, and her predictions aren’t as grim as you might think. She is the creator of the LongPen, after all. Far from bemoaning the slow death of paper, Peggy lays out the benefits of e-literacy in a recent post on her blog:

Reading is not decreasing, as feared—in fact it’s increasing, as one must be able to read in order to use the Internet—but it’s being done in different ways… I speculate that the availability of e-books is actually increasing reading, as e-books are cheap, portable en mass, and instantly available. I also speculate—based on the two previous blogposts I did on this subject, and the wide range of comments received—that readers, given the choice, would like to have both formats—the e-book to take on travels long or short, and to read to see if the book is one you might want to keep; and the paper book for favourites, gifts, cozy reading at home (in bed and bath, for instance).

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Mother Atwood

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June 14, 2010 | 12:08 pm

Margaret Atwood book tour to be released as documentary

Show us your jazz hands (Image: Marco Secchi/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images)

Margaret Atwood has never been run-of-the-mill, and her international tour for The Year of the Flood—her dystopian novel set after a humanity-destroying pandemic—was no snoozy book signing affair. Wanting to “break free from the traditional structure of a book tour,” Atwood employed local actors and choirs at each stop to help narrate her novel through “a literary performance with music.”

Thankfully, Canadian director Ron Mann got it all on film for his documentary In the Wake of the Flood. “There is a marvelous convergence of creative energies coming together around Margaret’s stage performance that I felt important to document,” Mann said. The doc will make its debut this August at Possible Worlds, an annual Canadian film festival in Sydney, Australia; it screens at home in the fall.

• Atwood film to debut in Australia [CBC]

Mother Atwood

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June 8, 2010 | 9:15 am

Margaret Atwood calls plan to close prison farms “dumb as a stump”

Margaret Atwood scared us into improving our recycling habits with her novels about environmental apocalypse, but the CanLit queen doesn’t confine her eco-activism to the realm of fiction. She was in Kingston this weekend to head a protest against the closure of the country’s six prison farms, where inmates currently produce much of their own daily bread. Before the marchers posted their demands on the door of the Correctional Service of Canada, Atwood rallied the crowd with a feisty speech in which she argued that, besides being a big step back from sustainability, the supposed cost-cutting measure is penny-wise and pound foolish: the farm program helps rehabilitate prisoners and equip them for a life outside prison, where they won’t continue to eat up taxpayers’ dollars. The author did serious research on Kingston Penitentiary for her 1996 book Alias Grace, so she probably knows what she’s talking about.

True to form, the ever-candid Atwood didn’t mince words in her conclusion:

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Mother Atwood

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March 31, 2010 | 11:38 am

Margaret Atwood, honest to blog, is addicted to tweeting

Margaret Atwood is so hip she could be a high school student, what with her goalie video going viral and now blogging for the New York Review of Books about her new-found addiction to tweeting. That’s right, blogging about tweeting. While the actions are certifiably hip, her analysis is delightfully old school. About her followers, she writes:

They’re sharp: make a typo and they’re on it like a shot, and they tease without mercy. However, if you set them a verbal challenge, a frisson sweeps through them. They did very well with definitions for “dold socks”—one of my typos—and “Thnax,” another one. And they really shone when, during the Olympics, I said that “Own the podium” was too brash to be Canadian, and suggested “A podium might be nice.” Their own variations poured onto a feed tagged #cpodium: “A podium! For me?” “Rent the podium, see if we like it.” “Mind if I squeeze by you to get onto that podium?” I was so proud of them! It was like having 33,000 precocious grandchildren!

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Mother Atwood

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March 16, 2010 | 3:52 pm

The blogosphere’s love of Margaret Atwood’s love of hockey snowballs

It looks like Margaret Atwood isn’t the only one handing out tips. Last Wednesday, we wrote about La Peggy’s involvement in the film that swallowed Canada’s celeb pool whole, Score: A Hockey Musical, and linked to her truly righteous “celebrity tip” segment about goaltending on Rick Mercer’s Monday Report. The Guardian followed suit yesterday morning, Salon linked to the Guardian’s piece a short while later, and the ladies over at Jezebel had showed some love by suppertime. Now if only we could find a way to work in a reference to Pierre Berton’s how to roll a joint celebrity tip… OK, that was easy.

• Margaret Atwood sings in ice hockey film musical [The Guardian]
• Margaret Atwood: hockey star [Salon]
• You don’t deke Margaret [Jezebel]
• Celebrity tip with Pierre Berton [YouTube]

Mother Atwood

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March 10, 2010 | 4:16 pm

Margaret Atwood to sing in Score: A Hockey Musical


Margaret Atwood has joined the growing list of Canadian celebrities set to appear in the upcoming movie Score: A Hockey Musical, and thank heavens, yes, she’ll be singing. This isn’t the first time Atwood has gone on film to show her love of the good ol’ hockey game—remember her celebrity tip segment from Rick Mercer’s Monday Report where she dressed up as a goalie? N0? A reminder, at left.

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