‘Handmaid’s Tale’ author celebrates major milestone for her literary work

Margaret Atwood has recently celebrated major milestone as she’s being honoured with Eleanor Roosevelt Bravery in Literature Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Handmaid’s Tale author accepted the award, which was co-presented by the Eleanor Roosevelt Centre and PEN America during Literary Awards at the Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, NY, on October 11.

“It’s a great honor to be receiving the Eleanor Roosevelt Lifetime Achievement Award for Bravery in Literature,” said the 85-year-old after receiving the award onstage.

Margaret remarked, “For people of my generation, the war babies, a dwindling demographic, Eleanor Roosevelt was a towering figure.”

The literary icon, who is one of the most-banned authors in the United States, talked about censorship efforts targeting her work.

“Book banning happens when people are feeling angry, and they feel somebody has to be blamed for something,” noted Margaret.

The author went on to say, calling such actions “a power grab on behalf of a certain group of people who want to demonstrate their dominance by squashing other people underfoot”.

Margaret also discussed the importance of defending human rights, protecting librarians from the targeting of “people who want to be more powerful” than them, and remembering that “the future we get is going to depend partly on what we do in the present”.

Meanwhile, the author also gave a peek into her upcoming memoir, Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts, which is slated for a November 4 release.

“In my mind, a memoir is what you remember, and what you mostly remember, looking back over decades on this planet, is stupid things you did, catastrophes that occurred, stuff like that,” she explained.