West Michigan Women's Studies Council to Host Margaret Atwood

September 14, 2005 == MEDIA ADVISORY

The West Michigan Women's Studies Council will host award-winning author
Margaret Atwood on Thursday, October 6 for a presentation at Fountain Street
Church.

She will speak on "Writing Women" at 7 pm that evening with a book signing and
author reception to follow. Doors will open at 6:30 pm. The event is free and
open to all.

Atwood, a native of Canada who resides in Toronto, is best known for her
internationally acclaimed novels, including the Booker-prize winning The Blind
Assassin, Alias Grace, The Robber Bride and The Handmaid's Tale. Her latest
novel, Oryx and Crake, portrays a future overrun by the products of science and
technology gone awry.

The West Michigan Women's Studies Council, which includes members from local
colleges Aquinas, Calvin, Davenport, Grand Rapids Community College, Grand
Valley and Hope, is best known for bringing to the area a wide variety of
thought-provoking speakers, including Margaret Cho, Barbara Ehrenreich, Molly
Ivins and Lani Guinier.

The Council was formed in 2001 to "inform the West Michigan community of
gender issues and to collaborate with other groups to enhance the lives of
women." Its lecture series began that year and is underwritten by the Nokomis
Foundation.

Helen Sterk, a professor of communication arts and sciences at Calvin College,
is the current Council president. She's excited to add Atwood to the growing
list of Nokomis Lecture Series speakers.

"Her novels are now part of the Western literary canon, and yet they remain
very much rooted in ordinary life in the late 20th and 21st centuries," says
Sterk. "We are thrilled to have an author of her stature speak in Grand
Rapids."

Atwood is the author of more than 30 works, including novels, collections of
short stories, poetry, literary criticism and children's books. Her work has
been published in some 35 countries and translated into over 30 languages,
including Turkish, Japanese, Farsi, Finnish, Icelandic and Estonian.

She is also the recipient of numerous honors, including The Sunday Times Award
for Literary Excellence in the U.K., the National Arts Club Medal of Honor for
Literature in the U.S., and Le Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
in France.

For more on Atwood see http://www.owtoad.com/
Contact Simona Goi at 616-526-6459

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Received on Wed Sep 14 10:05:22 2005