Nine Central Ohio libraries host Margaret Atwood

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The Grandview Heights Public Library, in partnership with 8 other Central Ohio libraries, will host A Conversation with Margaret Atwood on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, at 7 pm, at the Palace Theatre (34 W. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215).

PRESENTING CENTRAL OHIO LIBRARIES

ABOUT THE EVENT

ABOUT MARGARET ATWOOD

  • Margaret Atwood has long been a literary titan. With her 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale adapted into an 11-time Emmy Award-winning television series, and its sequel, The Testaments, winning the 2019 Booker Prize, Atwood’s sharp eye is more crucial—and prescient—than ever.
  • Atwood’s novel and sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, performed so well, it broke the record for best first-day sales of any Penguin Random House title in 2019. 
  • Her latest release, Burning Questions, is a collection of more than 50 essays that aim her prodigious intellect and impish humor at our world.  The roller-coaster period covered in the collection brought an end to the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump, and a pandemic. From debt to tech, the climate crisis to freedom; from when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) to how to define granola, we have no better questioner of the many and varied mysteries of our human universe.
  •  Atwood is the winner of many international literary awards, including the prestigious Booker Prize, Arthur C. Clarke Award, Governor General’s Award, the PEN Pinter Prize, the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In October 2019, she was presented with the Companion of Honor award—given for achievements in the arts, literature, science and politics—by Queen Elizabeth, making Atwood only the third Canadian to receive the honor.
  • She is the author of more than fifty volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction; perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman, The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood. Her non-fiction book Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, part of the Massey Lecture series, was made into a documentary.  The Oryx and Crake trilogy is being adapted into an HBO TV series by celebrated filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. Her work has been published in more than 40 languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. She co-invented the LongPen, a remote signing device that allows someone to write in ink anywhere in the world via tablet PC and the internet. She is a founder of the Writers’ Trust of Canada and a founding trustee of the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is also a popular personality on Twitter, with over a million followers.

ABOUT THIS CENTRAL OHIO LIBRARY COLLABORATION

  • This library collaboration allows libraries to host large, impactful events in Central Ohio collectively by sharing costs, resources, and expertise.
  • In addition to resource sharing and encouraging partnership on various community-wide initiatives, these collective events enhance and further engage a community of readers and raise the visibility of libraries throughout Central Ohio.
  • This collaboration hosted travel author and TV host Rick Steves at the Southern Theatre in December 2019; the event sold out within hours of going on sale. In 2020, the collaboration hosted a community read of Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You and online discussion with author Jason Reynolds.

 

Photograph by George Whiteside