[ti:Margaret Atwood Honored with Dayton Literary Peace Prize]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]Canadian writer Margaret Atwood has won the top honor
[00:06.52]among the international Dayton Literary Peace Prizes.
[00:13.80]Officials announced Monday that Atwood would receive
[00:19.20]the 2020 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award.
[00:27.48]The award celebrates the power of literature to create peace,
[00:34.40]social justice and understanding around the world.
[00:40.36]The award is named for the former American diplomat
[00:45.20]who led the 1995 peace negotiations in Dayton, Ohio
[00:52.40]that ended the Bosnian war.
[00:56.44]Atwood's work has been in publication since the early 1960s.
[01:04.20]She produces all kinds of literature, from poetry to imaginary stories,
[01:12.28]to magazine and news reports, and lately, to social media messages.
[01:20.16]Much of her writing centers on oppression of women.
[01:26.08]Her successful 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale
[01:31.80]became a popular television series in the United States.
[01:38.08]It is the story of a future United States where men hold all political power.
[01:46.24]Women are servants to men.
[01:49.28]They are not even permitted to read.
[01:53.64]The book and its television version led to much political commentary,
[02:00.00]especially in the U.S.
[02:03.68]Some readers and watchers found the story had frightening similarities
[02:10.00]to American political happenings of the last several years.
[02:16.36]Protesters wearing clothing similar to the handmaids of the book
[02:21.72]and TV series have appeared at many political demonstrations.
[02:28.68]Sharon Rab is the founder and head of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation.
[02:37.64]She praised Atwood for popular success with writing
[02:42.44]that also educates people about social justice and environmental concerns.
[02:51.00]"Margaret Atwood continues to remind us that ‘It can't happen here'
[02:57.60]cannot be depended upon," Rab wrote in an email.
[03:03.12]Atwood thinks an American tendency to reject strong rule
[03:09.32]is the country's best defense against the kind of oppressive future
[03:15.28]she imagined in The Handmaid'sTale.
[03:19.12]"I would bet on American orneriness and refusal to line up,"
[03:25.60]she told The Associated Press.
[03:29.04]Atwood also says she likes the television show.
[03:34.76]"It's well done," said Atwood.
[03:38.40]The first season of the show followed the storyline of the book to its end.
[03:45.84]The next two seasons were new storylines.
[03:50.96]In 2019, Atwood released a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale called The Testaments.
[04:00.28]She won a Booker Prize for the work.
[04:04.88]She also won a Booker Prize for her novel The Blind Assassin.
[04:11.20]Atwood will receive $10,000 in prize money
[04:16.44]as part of the Holbrooke lifetime achievement award.
[04:22.24]The awards ceremony was planned for October,
[04:26.44]but will be held in the spring of 2021 because of the coronavirus.
[04:33.80]Atwood will be joined by the winners
[04:37.04]for the Dayton prizes in fiction and nonfiction.
[04:41.60]They will be announced next month.
[04:45.28]I'm Susan Shand. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM