Margaret Atwood
A Princess of Letters Goes to Cuba

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, traveled to Cuba in February to present a volume of 67 of her short stories, a reminiscence revealing her in all her literary royalty and splendour.

Entitled The Resplendent Quetzal and Other Stories, published by the Cuban publishing house Arte y Literatura, the 200 page volume was presented during Havana′s 19th International Book Fair 2010; inciting the reader, in the arms of an intelligence whose nerves and muscles are almost palpable, to become an unapologetic traveler into Atwood′s work.

"It′s a compilation I made just for Cuba" said Atwood during an encounter with the public at Morro- Cabaña Park, the outdoor space bordered by trees and the sea across Havana harbour from the city, and Havana′s venue for the Book Fair.

"I prepared it like a box of small, different chocolates, with the exception of a first long story. There are science fiction stories, short stories, monologues, poetry, all in the spectrum from 1977 to 2006."

The book is all that she is, revealing her powerful talent, her wit, her sometimes sarcastic, sharp, stabbing humour. Her irreverent irony, sometimes bitter but also compassionate, and her control of language as if each story brought along the exact words needed. Those and no others: precise, polished, lucid and organic.

It is not a secret that she writes by hand "because I sense how the writing flows from the brain and pours down in a very natural way onto the pen and paper". She later transcribes. She is not methodical, but is a compulsive workaholic, she confesses.