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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Leyland Cecco in Toronto

Margaret Atwood releases satirical short story critiquing book bans in Canada

a woman speaks with hands gestured while seated on stage
Margaret Atwood speaks in New York in 2024. Photograph: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME

Margaret Atwood has released a new short story critiquing elected officials for a wide-ranging book ban in the Canadian province of Alberta. The controversial decision to remove books purportedly containing “explicit sexual content” has seen numerous works of literature swept up in the dragnet, including Atwood’s dystopian work The Handmaid’s Tale.

In a social media post, Atwood wrote that since her famed work was no longer permissible in Alberta schools, she had written a “suitable” short work for teens, adding the work was necessary because the province’s minister of education thought students were “stupid babies”.

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