she's margaret atwood this is overheard. (inspiring music) (applause) - [evan] let's be honest is this about the ability to learn or about the experience of not having to talk at all. how have you avoided what has befallen other nations in africa-- you say that he had made his own bed, but you caused him to sleep in it. you saw a problem and over time took it on-- (laughter) let's start with the sizzle before we get to the steak. are you going to run for president? i think i just got an f from you actually. (applause) margaret atwood welcome. - thank you. - very nice to have you here. - lovely to be here. - so interested in this new book, congratulations on it. may i say nobody does dystopian like you do dystopian. (laughs) - is that a compliment? - oh my god it's the biggest compliment in the world. i mean the world that you've created in this book will come back to the handmaid's tale at some point here soon reminiscent to my mind of the dystopia in that book. but i love the plot of this story, i love the characters and i

this year's recipient is margaret atwood. [applause] >> we honor the significant and sustained accomplishments for her work as an essayist and critic to more than 40 books for her influence on writers, editors, publishers and citizens across canada and the globe to imagine and create and write a world where human beings survive in surviving against the forces of history and culture and censorship or political assault, brutality, social disorder, surviving attacks on women's rights, human rights as well as environmental degradation and writing about surviving through literature with dignity and decency. for all this and more, she needs no introduction but you're going to get one anyway. to introduce margaret atwood i'm going to call to the stage cb, the literary agent since 1963 whose career began here in the city at the agency which was the first literary agency in the united to establish an 1880s. she later joined the john cushman agency curtis brown and in 1971 she opened the agency in greenwich village and 1975 moved to ve

she's margaret atwood this is overheard. (inspiring music) (applause) - [evan] let's be honest is this about the ability to learn or about the experience of not having to talk at all. how have you avoided what has befallen other nations in africa-- you say that he had made his own bed, but you caused him to sleep in it. you saw a problem and over time took it on-- (laughter) let's start with the sizzle before we get to the steak. are you going to run for president?

this year's recipient for lifetime achievement and literary culture is margaret atwood. [applause]. tonight we honor her significant and sustained accomplishments. for her work as a novelist and a poet in a critic to the tally of more than 40 books for the influence on writers editors across canada and the globe to imagine and create into right in a world where human beings endure and survive for her writing about surviving against the forces of history and culture for her writing about surviving against personal and political assaults. for her writing about surviving attacks on civil rights women rights human rights as well as environmental degradation. and for her writing about surviving through literature with dignity and decency. for all of this and more she needs no introduction. but margaret, you're to get one anyway. they had been a literary agent since 1963. her career began here in the city with the agency which was the first literary agency in the united states. established in the 1880s. she later joined john cushman which was the american branch of curtis brown. in 1971 s