{"id":41479,"date":"2025-09-24T22:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T22:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/41479\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T22:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T22:30:07","slug":"the-handmaids-tale-turns-40-and-special-events-are-being-held-around-the-world-to-pay-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/41479\/","title":{"rendered":"The Handmaid’s Tale turns 40, and special events are being held around the world to pay tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"

Margaret Atwood’s iconic\u00a0novel\u00a0The Handmaid’s Tale<\/a>\u00a0is turning\u00a040 this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To celebrate, the book’s Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart is launching\u00a0a number of\u00a0commemorative events\u00a0to pay tribute to the special anniversary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Canada,\u00a0images of handmaids will be projected onto\u00a0Toronto’s City Hall\u00a0from about 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday (Sept. 24).<\/p>\n

The images will also be projected onto select public libraries across the world at the same local time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Acclaimed authors from across the globe\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Salman Rushdie, Elisabeth Moss, Lauren Groff, Cheryl Strayed\u00a0and Samira Wiley\u00a0\u2014 will also\u00a0join\u00a0the celebration through\u00a0video tributes they’ve created\u00a0to acknowledge the novel’s\u00a0lasting impact and its urgent cultural relevance.<\/p>\n

Special\u00a0anniversary\u00a0editions of the novel will also be released later this fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A (McClelland & Stewart)Lasting legacy\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally published in 1985, The Handmaid’s Tale<\/a> imagines a dystopia in a near-future New England, where a\u00a0totalitarian and patriarchal regime known as the Republic of Gilead has overthrown the United States government.<\/p>\n

In response to a fertility crisis, fertile women \u2014 called Handmaids \u2014 are forced into reproductive servitude for the ruling elite. The novel\u00a0follows Offred, a Handmaid who is navigating this oppressive world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Atwood began writing the novel in 1981, and deliberately chose to craft it as\u00a0“speculative fiction” that’s rooted in real historical precedents and emerging political trends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The story\u00a0was inspired by the intersection of forces that were present at the time, including declining birth rates, right-wing fundamentalism and the erosion of women’s reproductive rights\u00a0\u2014\u00a0issues that persist today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Since the book was published in 1985, these issues have not gone away \u2014\u00a0in fact they are now more urgent than ever,” said the publisher\u00a0in a statement.<\/p>\n

“This is why the book has endured so powerfully.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adaptations and controversy\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since its release, The Handmaid’s Tale<\/a>\u00a0has sold over eight million copies in English and\u00a0\u00a0been translated into more than 40 languages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The work has been adapted into\u00a0every conceivable format\u00a0\u2014\u00a0film, theatre, dance, graphic novel<\/a>, and\u00a0an Emmy Award\u2013winning television series<\/a> starring Elisabeth Moss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AJune Osborne, played by actress Elizabeth Moss, leads a group of handmaid’s in an uprising against the commanders of the fictitious Republic of Gilead in the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s acclaimed 1985 novel. (The Handmaid’s Tale\/Crave)<\/p>\n

The book won the\u00a0Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 1985, the\u00a0Arthur C. Clarke Award in\u00a01987 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1986.<\/p>\n

It was also a finalist in the first Canada Reads<\/a> in 2002, where it was defended by former Prime Minister Kim Campbell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2019, Atwood returned with its sequel, The Testaments<\/a>, set 15 years after the events of the original novel, which received and shared the 2019 Booker prize.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Handmaid’s Tale<\/a>‘s reach has also not come without resistance\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the book is\u00a0currently banned <\/a>in school libraries in Florida, Missouri, Oregon, Texas and other U.S. states.<\/p>\n

Last month, the book appeared on a list of 226 titles<\/a> identified for removal by Edmonton public schools for its depiction of explicit sexual content.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response, Atwood penned a\u00a0satirical short story<\/a> that took aim at the controversial ban \u2014 and it wasn’t the first time she has responded to her critics.<\/p>\n

Atwood\u00a0created\u00a0an “unburnable” edition<\/a> of the novel in collaboration with Penguin Random House in 2022. Printed on fireproof materials, the single copy was auctioned off to protest the banning of books and to “stand as a powerful symbol against censorship.”<\/p>\n

Canadian literary icon\u00a0<\/p>\n

Atwood, now 85, was born in Ottawa and currently lives in Toronto.\u00a0She began her writing career with poetry, publishing\u00a0The Circle Game<\/a>\u00a0and winning the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry in the late 1960s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She’s since published more than a dozen poetry\u00a0collections, including\u00a0The Journals\u00a0of Susanna Moodie<\/a>\u00a0in 1970,\u00a0Power Politics<\/a>\u00a0in 1971\u00a0and, most recently,\u00a0Paper Boat<\/a>\u00a0in 2024.<\/p>\n

Atwood has\u00a0won several awards for her work including the Governor General’s Literary Award, the\u00a0Scotiabank Giller Prize<\/a>,\u00a0Writer in the World Prize<\/a>,\u00a0the\u00a0PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award<\/a>, the\u00a0German Peace Prize<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the Griffin Poetry Prize lifetime achievement<\/a>\u00a0award.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her other notable books include\u00a0the novels\u00a0The Edible Woman<\/a>,\u00a0Oryx and Crake<\/a>,\u00a0The Handmaid’s Tale<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Cat’s Eye<\/a>,\u00a0the essay collection\u00a0Burning Questions<\/a>\u00a0and the nonfiction work\u00a0Survival<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her\u00a0debut memoir,\u00a0Book of Lives, which will also reflect on the inspiration and creation of The Handmaid’s Tale<\/a>,\u00a0is set to be published<\/a>\u00a0on November 4, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Margaret Atwood’s iconic\u00a0novel\u00a0The Handmaid’s Tale\u00a0is turning\u00a040 this year.\u00a0 To celebrate, the book’s Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[288,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-41479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}