Award-winning author Margaret Atwood lectures on her book “Oryx and Crake” through the Common Reading Program.
Award-winning author Margaret Atwood visited St. Cloud State in November 2015 to give a public lecture for students and the community to a packed Ritsche Auditorium on her novel “Oryx and Crake” — the 2015 Common Reading Program book for first-year students.
Each new first-year student is given a copy of the Common Reading Program book to read during their first semester at St. Cloud State. The program gives the students a common academic experience that integrates both curricular and co-curricular activities throughout the year.
The program introduces students to collegiate life, cultivates a sense of community on campus and gets students involved with faculty, their fellow students and campus activities.
Atwood is a winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. She has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize five times, winning in 2000 for her historical novel “The Blind Assassin.” Atwood, 76, earned the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987 for “The Handmaid’s Tale”.
Her visit was made possible by gifts from alumni and friends to the St. Cloud State University Foundation in support of the Miller Learning Resources Center. Additional sponsors included the Common Reading Program and the University Program Board.
