When I was in university my roommate Catherine once lived in Margaret Atwood’s dorm at Victoria College, University of Toronto. Like many young Canadian women in the post-feminism era, we grew up on writers like Atwood who paved the way for us so we wouldn’t have to be feminists. It was so cool to be able to sit in Atwood’s room for a moment, possibly the one that had inspired her first and my favourite book, The Edible Woman.
Being Canadian and Israeli, and seeing this is a blog about Israel and Canada, I am happy to report that Atwood is expected in Israel this May to collect the Dan David Prize, a $1 million US prize booty which she’ll share with another writer, Amitav Ghosh.
Both won the prize in the category Present — in the field of “Literature — Rendition of the 20th Century.” Each year the Dan David Foundation awards 3 major $1 million prizes in Past, Present and Future categories. Housed at Tel Aviv University, the prize is actually endowed by an Israeli industrialist and philanthropist Dan David who personally, every year with his family, greets the award winners. Previous years prize winners include cellist Yo-Yo Ma, environmental activist Al Gore and Tony Blair.
I have been to the annual shindig for the last 2 years running and have even spotted some Israeli celebrities like the over-the-hill pop star Svika Pik come out for the glamour-filled night. I also got to wave at Atom Egoyan from the bleachers 2 years ago, as the Canadian filmmaker collected his prize; but I am pretty sure he didn’t see me.
It’s always a great source of pride for me to see successful Canadians come to Israel to get a little taste of this small country, vastly different from Canada. This year maybe I’ll bring my dusty copy of The Edible Woman for Atwood to sign. I hope she’ll give a talk or lecture at the university earlier or later in the week. I’d love to hear about what she is working on.
Other prize winners this year are nothing to sniff at as well; and include the President of the Republic of Italy Giorgio Napolitano, and “Father of the Internet” Leonard Kleinrock.
The laureates, including Atwood, will be expected to donate 10% of their prize money towards 20 doctoral and postdoctoral Tel Aviv University scholarships, and the rest of the money will be theirs to take home. The big awards ceremony will take place this year May 9, 2010, at Tel Aviv University in the presence of Shimon Peres, the President of the State of Israel.
To read more about the Dan David Prize see the AFTAU website.
Full disclosure: I write research news for the American Friends of TAU.
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