An Evening with Margaret Atwood – Canceled
2022 GEORGE D. AIKEN LECTURE
We regret to inform the UVM community that the George D. Aiken Lecture Series event, featuring speaker author and activist, Margaret Atwood, on Thursday, October 6 is canceled.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Ms. Atwood is unable to travel to Vermont. We understand how disappointing this information may be and commit to considering how we can offer another opportunity for the UVM community in the very near future.
We sincerely appreciate your continued support of the George D. Aiken Lecture series.
Margaret Atwood, who has been described as the most important living author of our time, is an internationally famous novelist who writes fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. Perhaps best known for her haunting visions of future dystopias, Atwood explores issues related to gender and identity, religion and myth, the power of language, climate change, and even power politics. Atwood’s sharp eye is more crucial—and prescient—than ever.
Additional novels written by Atwood include:
- Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize
- Alias Grace, winner of the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy
- The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize
- Oryx and Crake, short-listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize
- The Year of the Flood
- MaddAddam
- Hag-Seed
- Burning Questions, a collection of essays published in March 2022
Her 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale has been adapted into a 15-time Emmy Award-winning television series, including Best Drama, and its sequel, The Testaments, recently won the 2019 Booker Prize. Atwood’s Giller-winning, Booker-shortlisted murder mystery Alias Grace is now streaming on Netflix and was notably written, produced, and directed by women.
A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.
~Margaret Atwood
Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award. In 2019, she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature–given for achievements in the arts, literature, science, and politics—by Queen Elizabeth, making Atwood only the third Canadian to receive the honor.
But before Atwood was a novelist, she was a poet. And recently, she released her first poetry collection in over a decade: Dearly. By turns “moving, playful, and wise,” the poems gathered in Dearly explore bodies and minds in transition while observing the objects and rituals that ground us in the present moment.
This special event with Margaret Atwood is hosted by the University of Vermont College of Arts and Sciences and produced in partnership with the University of Vermont Professional and Continuing Education. UVM Associate Professor of creative writing and author Maria Hummel will be conducting the interview with Atwood.
About the Aiken Lectures
The University of Vermont’s George D. Aiken Lectures are a permanent tribute to the former Dean of the United States Senate and Governor of Vermont for his many years of service to the people of the state and nation. Supported by an endowment created by George and Lola Aiken and held annually at the University of Vermont, the lectures, which began in 1975, provide a platform for distinctive views on critical American issues and is the University’s major annual public-policy forum. The tradition of keeping the Aiken Lectures free and open to the public endures.
The lecture series will stress four areas of public service for which Senator Aiken is best known, namely, foreign and public affairs, energy and the environment, food systems and health, and economic development for the purpose of making Vermont, the nation and the world a better place to live and work. There will be an annual rotation of these topic areas by the corresponding College at the University: Arts and Sciences, Agriculture and Life Sciences, Engineering and Mathematical Science, Education and Social Services, Environment and Natural Resources, Nursing and Health Sciences, Medicine, and the Grossman School of Business Administration.