Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Into the woods: Margaret Atwood reveals her Future Library book, Scribbler Moon
We follow Atwood through a wet forest in Norway as she hands over the manuscript for a book that won’t be read for 100 years. Plus: David Mitchell is named as the project’s next writer
Margaret Atwood and artist Katie Paterson in Oslo’s Nordmarka forest. Photograph: Giorgia Polizzi
Sodden with rain and standing amid the calf-high shoots of 1,000 newly planted pine trees in Oslo’s Nordmarka forest, Margaret Atwood is revealing the title of her latest work. “It’s Scribbler Moon,” she says. “And that’s the only part of it you will know for 100 years.” The Booker prize-winning Canadian novelist is here to deliver the manuscript she has worked on in total secrecy over the past year. The young trees surrounding her will grow to make the paper her work will be printed on in a century’s time. Over the next 100 years, 99 more authors – one a year – will contribute a text to the Future Library, as Scottish conceptual artist Katie Paterson has called her project. Britain’s David Mitchell has just been announced as 2015’s writer. In 2114, the 1,000 trees planted last summer in the Nordmarka will be cut down and all the texts made public. “There’s something magical about it,” says Atwood. “It’s like Sleeping Beauty. The texts are going to slumber for 100 years and then they’ll wake up, come to life again. It’s a fairytale length of time. She slept for 100 years.”
Margaret Atwood holding the manuscript for Scribbler Moon, which no one will read until 2114. Photograph: Kristin von Hirsch More
No comments:
Post a Comment