Please note that I am unable to provide a blurb or quotation for any forthcoming publications. Due to the increasing number of requests and the demands of my own work, I have had to make a decision to say “no” to all. I wrote this poem to explain my reasons for this decision.


Letter sent in reply to requests for blurbs
(I blurb only for the dead, these days)

“You are well-known, Ms. Atwood,” the Editor said,
And we long for your quote on this book;
A few well-placed words wouldn’t bother your head,
And would help us to get in the hook!”

“In my youth,” said Ms. Atwood, “I blurbed with the best;
I practically worked with a stencil!
I strewed quotes about with the greatest largesse,
And the phrases flowed swift from my pencil.

Intelligent, lucid, accomplished, supreme,
Magnificent, touching but rough ,
And lucent and lyrical, plangent, a dream,
Vital, muscular, elegant, tough! 

But now I am aging; my brain is all shrunk,
And my adjective store is depleted;
My hair’s getting stringy, I walk as though drunk;
As a quotester I’m nigh-on defeated.

I would like to be useful; God knows, as a girl 
I was well-taught to help and to share;
But the books and the pleas for quotes pour through the door
Till the heaps of them drive to despair!

So at last I’ve decided to say No to all.
What you need is a writer who’s youthful;
Who has energy, wit, and a lot on the ball,
And would find your new book a sweet toothful,
Or else sees no need to be truthful.

Such a one would be happy, dear Editor, to
Write you quotes until blue in the brain.
It’s a person like this who can satisfy you,
Not poor me, who am half down the drain.

So I wish you Good Luck, and your author, and book,
Which I hope to read later, with glee.
Long may you publish, and search out the blurbs,
Though you will not get any from me.” 

 
 
Recently

Twitter Margaret Margaret's Blog The Year Of The Flood



A beautiful special edition series of my books was published by my UK Publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing, to celebrate my 70th birthday this past November. The titles included in the series are: Surfacing, The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin,
and Oryx and Crake.

Aug. 13- Aug. 15: Winterset Literary Festival in Eastport, NFLD (Bonavista
Bay).

Aug. 29: Listen to The Bottom Line with David Suzuki on CBC Radio One from 11am to 1pm, in every time zone, to hear David's interview with Margaret on the relationship between life and death.

Aug. 29—Sept. 12: Adventure Canada trip to Arctic.

Sept. 20: The Year of the Flood paperback launch event - 92nd Street Y in New York.

Sept. 21: Portsmouth, New Hampshire- Writers on a New England Stage.

Sept. 23: Portland, Oregon- Portland Arts & Lectures- together in conversation with Ursula K. Le Guin.

Sept. 26-31: Keynote speaker for International PEN congress in Japan -“Literature and the Environment”.

Oct. 13: Toronto- Opening night for Ron Mann's In the Wake of the Flood at the Bell Lightbox for Planet in Focus 11th International Film & Video Festival.

Oct. 24-26: Atlanta, Georgia- Delivering the Ellman Lectures at Emory University.

Oct. 27-29: Nashville, Tennessee - Belmont University. Lecture/Reading followed by Q & A.

Nov. 17: Laurentian University for Sixth Annual Margaret Atwood Birthday Dinner.

Nov. 19: Edmonton, Alberta. Opening speaker for Parkland Institute's 2010 Annual Fall Conference at the University of Alberta.

Nov. 30: Toronto- Read for the Cure

March 7-14: Attending Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.