As one of Canada’s finest writers, Margaret Atwood is a poet, novelist, story writer, essayist and environmental activist – the embodiment of a storyteller.
On Friday, March 27, 2015, Atwood will reflect on her prodigious career, the landscape in which it took shape and how writing can be a vote of confidence in the future as the featured speaker at the University of Lethbridge’s 2015 Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner.
“I’m not that different from other writers. In fact, I’m not that different from other people because human beings are by nature storytellers; it’s just what we do,” explains the incomparable Atwood. “The narrative interest is a human interest; writers are just people that express it publicly.”
Her work has received critical acclaim in the United States, Europe and, of course, Canada, and she has received numerous literary awards, including the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Governor General’s Award, twice.
“To be able to bring a writer as accomplished and respected as Margaret Atwood to the Alumni & Friends Dinner is very exciting,” says University of Lethbridge President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mike Mahon. “Her voice is one that resonates throughout our country and the body of work she has created over the course of her career has established her place as a true Canadian icon.”
Readers around the world know Atwood’s name and rightly associate her with feminism, environmental activism and futurism. A beloved cultural figure in Canada, she is considered an authority on any one of these topics, among others, but it’s the overlapping of these spheres in her novels, stories, poems, essays and even tweets that make her work so compelling and pays heed to the value of liberal education.
The Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner was established in 2010 with the goal of bringing alumni together in fellowship and offering attendees a compelling and engaging speaker who reflects the values and goals of the University of Lethbridge.
A limited number of tickets are available for the March 27, 2015 dinner, priced at $175 each or $1,400 for a table of eight. Tickets to the event are available online.
Looking ahead, Atwood is reticent about her upcoming address.
“If you’re asked to give a speech, it’s best to talk about things you know something about,” says Atwood. “It would be a violation of the rules of writing for me to talk about everything I’m going to put in my speech.”
And with that, the suspense builds.