"The outburst of cultural energy that took place in the 1960s was in part a product of the two decades that came before. It's always difficult for young people to see their own time in perspective: when you're in your teens, a decade earlier feels like ancient history and the present moment seems normal: what exists now is surely what has always existed." In this short work, Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale compares the Canadian literary...

Having students write an essay on a single theme is a time-honored tradition in most schools. Here's how internationally renowned artists respond to this creative challenge by paying tribute in many different media to one of earth's most magnificent creatures: the whale. FOR THE WHALES presents original music by such leading composers as John Cage, Toru Takemitsu and Adrian Belew; the poetry and prose of authors Margaret Atwood, Stanley Kunitz and...

Margaret Atwood is acknowledged as one of the foremost writers of our time. In Moral Disorde, she has created a series of interconnected stories that trace the course of a life and also the lives intertwined with it—those of parents, of siblings, of children, of friends, of enemies, of teachers, and even of animals. As in a photograph album, time is measured in sharp, clearly observed moments. The ’30s, the ’40s, the...

Before The Testaments, there was The Handmaid's Tale: an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from 'the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction' (New York Times).The Handmaid's Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted...

In a dystopic future where a religion-based autocracy rules the country, women are second class citizens and after attempting to escape, June is sentenced to be a handmaid whose role is to bear children for childless government officials.