Margaret Atwood Twitter contest

Margaret Atwood herself posted this press release on her blog today. Instead of wasting time grousing about "what-has-the-world-come-to" I'm going to get busy tweeting. I suggest you do too, because the prize is unbeatable: MA's entire Virago back catalog, which are gorgeous.

Virago/ The Year of the Flood Twitter competition – announced 19^th July. Opens 29^th July

Margaret Atwood has one of the largest literary Twitter followings with 66,718 followers to date. To celebrate her Twitterati and the publication of the Virago edition of The Year of the Flood, Virago are delighted to announce the ‘Publisher for a day’ Twitter competition.

The competition – be Publisher for a day…

Margaret Atwood considered five titles for The Year of the Flood before choosing ‘The Year of the Flood.’ You: Propose a different but appropriate title. Then write an imaginary back cover quote — from a newspaper, from a celebrity, from one of your friends, from your cat — it’s wide open! Word limit: 140 characters each for title and for quote. (Like Twitter!). Then email your entry to the Virago website.

What to do…

The competition opens 29^th July. On this date, head to http://www.virago.net where there will be a special page for the competition as well as the original cover blurb. The competition closes on 12^th August.

The prize…

Virago will then decide the winner and the runner ups. The cleverest tweeter will win £100. The second and third prize winners will receive copies of Margaret Atwood’s backlist with the new Virago jackets. Honourable mentions, as well as the winning three, will be posted on the Virago website and shared via Twitter.

For further information please contact Zoё Hood, Virago, 020 7911 8070, zoe.hood@littlebrown.co.uk

Margaret Atwood on Twitter? It's true.

The interactive, worldwife tour for Margaret Atwood's new novel The Year of the Flood is to involve actors and music composed exclusively for the book, which needless say sounds supremely awesome. (I can't find a complete tour schedule as of this post, but rest assured I will stay on top of this). The book itself is a sequel, or rather companion book, to 2004's speculative novel Oryx and Crake).

In order to keep us up to date, she has not only set up a tour blog but also has begun tweeting on Twitter. (As of today, she already has over 4,000 followers. Oh, Peggy, why must you make it so hard for me to ever catch up?)

To be sure, I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be able to type @MargaretAtwood, and that her perpetual and regal genius would be as real as your average pr0nbot or marketing scammer, but it's a delightful prospect. Now would probably be a good time to note, for the benefit of full disclosure, that my love for Atwood's writing has been boundless ever since I read The Handmaid's Tale (voluntarily, not for class) my sophomore year of high school. You know that writer who you discover and immediately decide to read his or her entire oeuvre right then and there? Well, that's Atwood for me. Ultimately, The Blind Assassin came out at the top of the list. Neither I, nor my writing, was ever the same after that book. Please read it.

To tie-in with the release of The Year of the Flood, Virago has redesigned Atwood's back catalog. Here's what The Blind Assassin looks like, all turned out with its new cover:



Beautiful.

Update:

Atwood's complete tour schedule for The Year of the Flood, featuring music composed by L.A.-based composer Orville Stoeber, can be found here. It's one hell of a trip, comprising the U.S., Canada and Europe, and kicks off August 23rd aboard none other than the Queen Mary 2.

The American leg of the tour is as follows:

Oct 4 2:00pm	Denver	Tattered Cover Book Store, 1628 16th Street, 80202	Reading & Book Signing	Details to come
Oct 6 8:00pm	San Francisco	San Francisco City Arts & Lectures-Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue	Literary performance with music followed by book signing	415-392-4400 or click here
Oct 7 7:30pm	Seattle	Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Avenue, 98101	Reading & Book Signing in association with Elliott Bay Books	Details to come
Oct 9 8:00pm	Los Angeles	University of California, Royce Hall. 340 Royce Dr. 90095	Literary performance with music followed by book signing in association with UCLA Live! Series	310-825-2101 or click here
Oct 24 8:00PM	Toronto	International Festival of Authors, Fleck Stage (formally the Premier Dance Theatre), Harbourfront Centre, 270 Queens Quay West	Reading	416-973-4000 or click here
Oct 25 8:00pm	Cambridge	First Parish Church, 3 Church St, 02138	Literary performance with music followed by book signing- in association with Harvard Book Store	Details to come
Oct 27 7:00pm	New York	Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street	Literary performance with music followed by book signing	Details to come
Oct 30 8:00pm	Washington	George Washington University, Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st Street NW, 20052	Literary performance with music followed by book signing	Details to come
Oct 31 TBD	Austin	TBD	Reading & Book Signing in association with Texas Book Festival	Details to come
Nov 6 TBD	Chicago	DePaul University, Merle Reskin Theater, 60 E. Balbo Drive	Literary performance with music followed by book signing	Details to come
Nov 8 TBD	Miami	TBD	Reading and Book Signing in association with Miami Book Fair	Details to come