Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

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Atwood in 2022
BornMargaret Eleanor Atwood
(1939-11-18) November 18, 1939
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Education
Period1961–present
Genre
Notable works
  • Surfacing (1972)
  • The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
  • Cat's Eye (1988)
  • Alias Grace (1996)
  • The Blind Assassin (2000)
  • Oryx and Crake (2003)
  • The Testaments (2019)
Spouse
Jim Polk
(m. 1968; div. 1973)
PartnerGraeme Gibson (1973–2019; his death)
Children1
Signature
Website
margaretatwood.ca

Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Her best-known work is the 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General's Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award for literature, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards.[2] A number of her works have been adapted for film and television.

Atwood's works encompass a variety of themes including gender and identity, religion and myth, the power of language, climate change, and power politics.[3] Many of her poems are inspired by myths and fairy tales which interested her from a very early age.[4]

Atwood is a founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Writers' Trust of Canada. She is also a Senior Fellow of Massey College, Toronto. She is the inventor of the LongPen device and associated technologies that facilitate remote robotic writing of documents.[5][6][7][8][9][10]

  1. ^ "Margaret Atwood". Front Row. July 24, 2007. BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on October 30, 2014. Retrieved January 18, 2014.
  2. ^ "Awards List". margaretatwood.ca. Archived from the original on December 26, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
  3. ^ Marion, Wynne-Davies (2010). Margaret Atwood. British Council. Horndon, Tavistock, Devon: Northcote, British Council. ISBN 978-0746310366. OCLC 854569504.
  4. ^ Oates, Joyce Carol. "Margaret Atwood: Poet", The New York Times, May 21, 1978.
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