Margaret Atwood has taken aim at a book ban applied in the Canadian province of Alberta that has seen her most popular novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, removed from some shelves.
Copies of Atwood’s feminist dystopia have been pulled from certain school libraries in the district following the education ministry’s order to remove “materials containing explicit sexual content”.
The 85-year-old author has since published a short story for 17-year-olds on social media about two “very, very good children” named John and Mary who “grew up and married each other, and produced five perfect children without ever having sex” on social media.
The author’s short story comes after she condemned the provincial book ban in a separate post last week, urging people to buy copies of The Handmaid’s Tale before “they have public book burnings of it”.
She added: “Don’t read it, your hair will catch on fire!”
Schools in Alberta have until 1 October to comply with the education ministry’s order, with some already releasing a list of banned books.
Last week, The Edmonton Public School Board announced it was pulling more than 200 books from school libraries, including Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Alice Walker’s The Colour Purple and George Orwell's 1984.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith then accused Edmonton’s school board of “vicious compliance” with the new rules, citing graphic novels like Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer as the reason for the books ban.
In a statement, school board chair Julie Kusiek said Edmonton’s list meets the criteria detailed by the government and that anyone unhappy with it should contact Alberta’s education minister.
Academics and researchers who examine censorship have said the new policy specifically targets books that affirm LGBTQ+ identities, per The Guardian.
The Alberta government defines “explicit sexual content” in its policy as a “detailed and clear depiction of a sexual act”. Students from kindergarten to to grade 12 will not be able to access any material in a school library that meets this criteria.
Atwood’s best-selling 1985 novel depicts the totalitarian society of Gilead, which is ruled by a fundamentalist regime that sees certain women reduced to state property for the pure reason of birthing a child for a wealthy family.
The Handmaid’s Tale has previously been removed from school libraries in at least 10 US states, including Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming. It remains banned in 67 US school districts.
