The Penelopiad (10 page)

“Canongate launches its series with small beautiful books by three wise women. Karen Armstrong provides a critical rationale for the project … In
The Penelopiad
Margaret Atwood plays Armstrong’s game with vigour and ingenuity … Jeanette Winterson, retelling in
Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles
the story about holding up the world, beautifully sympathises with the natal globe.”

Observer

“One of the most ambitious acts of mass story-telling in recent years, and one transcending racial and historical borders.”

Metro

“A feat of mythic proportions … far-reaching and ambitious.”

Los Angeles Times

“A feat even the gods would marvel at … a glittering pantheon of the most esteemed contemporary writers breathe bright golden light into the world’s classic tales.”

Vanity Fair

“With her succinct, thoughtfully elucidated
A Short
History of Myth
, religious historian Karen Armstrong supplies the brilliant anchor work for a vast new series in which dozens of writers are refashioning myths … The first two novels in the series, Margaret Atwood’s
Penelopiad
and Jeanette Winterson’s
Weight
, offer provocative mythical recastings … this unprecedented undertaking is one for the ages.”

Elle

Nominated for the inaugural 2005 Man Booker International Prize, which recognises one writer for his or her outstanding achievement in fiction, Margaret Atwood is the author of more than thirty-five internationally acclaimed works of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her numerous awards include the Governor General’s Award for
The
Handmaid’s Tale
, and the Giller Prize and Italian Il Premio Litterario Internazionale Mondello for
Alias
Grace. The Handmaid’s Tale, Cat’s Eye, Alias Grace
and Oryx and Crake were all shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, which she won with
The Blind Assassin
. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, has been awarded the Norwegian Order of Literary Merit and the French Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and is a Foreign Honorary Member for Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She lives in Toronto.

Fiction

Oryx and Crake
(2003)
The Blind Assassin
(2000)
Alias Grace
(1996)
The Robber Bride
(1993)
Good Bones
(1992)
Wilderness Tips
(1991)
Cat’s Eye
(1988)
The Handmaid’s Tale
(1985)
Bluebeard’s Egg
(1983)
Murder in the Dark
(1983)
Bodily Harm
(1981)
Life Before Man
(1979)
Dancing Girls
(1977)
Lady Oracle
(1976)
Surfacing (1972)
The Edible Woman
(1969)

For Children

Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda
(2004)
Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes
(2003)
Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut
(1995)
For the Birds
(1990)
Anna’s Pet
[with Joyce Barkhouse] (1980)
Up in the Tree
(1978)

Non-Fiction

Curious Pursuits
(UK) (2005)
Writing with Intent: Essays, Reviews, Personal Prose:
1983–2005 (US) (2005)
Moving Targets: Writing with Intent
1984–2002 (2004)
Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing
(2002)
Two Solicitudes: Conversations
[with Victor-Lévy Beaulieu] (1998)
Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian
Literature
(1996)
Second Words
(1982)
Days of the Rebels
1815–1840 (1977)
Survival: A
Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature
(1972)

Poetry

Morning in the Burned House
(1995)
Selected Poems II: Poems Selected and New
1976–1986
(1986)
Interlunar
(1984)
True Stories
(1981)
Two-Headed Poems
(1978)
Selected Poems
(1976)
You Are Happy
(1974)
Power Politics
(1971)
Procedures for Underground
(1970)
The Journals of Susanna Moodie
(1970)
The Animals in That Country
(1968)
The Circle Game
(1966)
Double Persephone
(1961)

Myths are universal and timeless stories that reflect and shape our lives – they explore our desires, our fears, our longings, and provide narratives that remind us what it means to be human.
The Myths
series brings together some of the world’s finest writers, each of whom has retold a myth in a contemporary and memorable way. Authors in the series include: Chinua Achebe, Margaret Atwood, Karen Armstrong, AS Byatt, David Grossman, Milton Hatoum, Natsuo Kirino, Alexander McCall Smith, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Victor Pelevin, Ali Smith, Donna Tartt, Su Tong, Dubravka Ugresic and Jeanette Winterson.