The Burgess Shale: The Canadian Writing Landscape of the 1960s

By Margaret Atwood and Marie Carrière

The Burgess Shale is a geological formation discovered in the Canadian Rocky Mountains that contains the fossils of many weird and strange early life forms, different from but not unrelated to later and existing forms. Atwood has named her re-visitation of the Canadian writing landscape of the 1960s after it, somewhat whimsically: that period is already fossilized, in a manner of speaking, and it does contain many weird and strange life forms. The generation of the 1960s was instrumental in creating the writer-related institutions we see around us today, from unions and private grant programs and prizes to book tours and book festivals; they did it, not for fun, but out of perceived need. Indeed, today’s Canadian writing landscape would be mostly unrecognizable to those writing in the 1960s. Fans of Margaret Atwood, Canadian Literature enthusiasts, readers, and writers will find this book informative and entertaining.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The University of Alberta Press
• Release date: Mar 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781772123067

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the author of over fifty books, including fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning television series, her works include Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The MaddAddam Trilogy; The Heart Goes Last; Hag-Seed; The Testaments, which won the Booker Prize and was long-listed for the Giller Prize; and the poetry collection Dearly. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in Great Britain for her services to literature. She lives in Toronto.

Reviews for The Burgess Shale

[ammy villanueva · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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