This past week, Holy Cross was graced with the presence of a literary legend, Margaret Atwood!!! The book lovers and literary fanatics on campus, myself included, have been buzzing with excitement and anticipation in the weeks leading up to the best-selling author’s arrival. How did Margaret Atwood, a Canadian born and bred, end up at Holy Cross in the first place? Our school was fortunate enough to have Atwood as our annual Hanify-Howland Memorial lecturer. The Hanify-Howland lecture takes place every year at Holy Cross, bringing in venerated speakers who have “distinguished themselves in the realm of public service” according to the College’s website. Past lecturers have included Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and authors, CEOs, astrophysicists, judges, and more. For those who do not know, Margaret Atwood is an award-winning writer, best known for her classic novel The Handmaid’s Tale, which was adapted into a Hulu series in 2017.Â
The event took place this past Tuesday afternoon and was absolutely packed with Holy Cross students and members of the public alike. My friends and I naively made our way to Hogan fifteen minutes before the lecture was scheduled to start, only to be met with a line of people out the door all the way to the Jo! The event was free and open to the public, so the audience included Holy Cross students, as well as individuals from Worcester and the surrounding area. The sheer number of people at the event shocked me at first. But, with an individual of Atwood’s fame and genius, it does not surprise me that so many people at Holy Cross and around Worcester were eager to hear her speak. According to the police officer manning the door, there were estimated to be around 2,000 people at the event. This meant not everyone was going to be in the room where Atwood spoke, myself included unfortunately.Â
So there I was, watching Margaret Atwood from a projector in Croads. This was definitely not the experience that I imagined, yet I was still captivated by Atwood’s words. The lecture functioned as a Q&A between three moderators, one of them being Ann Dowd, an actress on The Handmaid’s Tale series and a Holy Cross graduate. Topics of conversation ranged from Atwood’s beginnings as a reader and writer in the Canadian backcountry, to pivotal moments in her career, to how threats from her dystopian books like The Handmaid’s Tale can be seen in our world today and how we can combat these threats. The author was also asked what advice she would give to young writers. When asked this last question, Atwood vouched for improving posture and eating fewer cookies, which earned a laugh from the audience. In addition, she said, “At 19, you don’t know anything.” This was a reassuring statement for me, considering I am a 19-year-old who can feel like I don’t have it all figured out. As Atwood said, I do not know anything and I am not supposed to, which was refreshing to hear. All in all, despite taking in Atwood’s words of wisdom from the basement of Croads, the lecture was an incredibly special experience. Just to be in the presence, albeit a digital one, of such a literary genius was an opportunity that does not come by every day. As I write this, a new copy of The Handmaid’s Tale sits on my desk in my dorm, waiting to be read. Now, after listening to the perspective of Margaret Atwood, I am eager to start the classic and delve into the world of Gilead.