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Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor "Peggy" Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a novelist, poet, literary critic, one of the world's best-selling authors, and a pioneer of Canadian women's writing. She was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and attended school at Victoria College in Toronto. After living in various places in North America and around the world, she returned to Toronto, where she currently lives. She is married to the novelist Graeme Gibson; her daughter, Jess Atwood Gibson (b. 1976) is a graduate student in art history at Yale University.

Her writing often focuses on Feminist issues and concerns, which are often examined through multiple genres such as science fiction, the Gothic novel, comedy, and the ghost story. Some critics say her first novel, The Edible Woman, which examined female dissatisfaction, predates issues of second-wave feminism. She is also known for her deep interest in Canada and Canadian fiction, a theme that shows up both in the settings and atmosphere of her fiction and in her non-fiction and edited work. She has also been associated with Canadian nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s.

Though she is widely known for her fiction, she has also continually published poetry. Often her poems are epigrams. Techniques she has drawn on include internal rhyme, extended metaphor, as well as alliteration or assonance that is split up and put in separate lines to produce an echo effect. She is considered a key figure in Canadian poetry, especially as one of Toronto's new voices in the 1960s, along with Gwendolyn MacEwen, Dennis Lee and Michael Ondaatje.

She is perhaps best known for her tale of a future dystopia in the science fiction novel The Handmaid's Tale (made into a movie), her Booker Prize-winning novel The Blind Assassin, as well as many other stories.

In 1973 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted in 1981 to Companion.

Two of Atwood's novels have been chosen for CBC Radio's Canada Reads competition: The Handmaid's Tale, championed by former Prime Minister Kim Campbell in 2002 and Oryx and Crake, championed by Toronto City Councillor Olivia Chow in 2005. In addition, the French translation of The Handmaid's Tale, La servante écarlate, was included in the French version of the competition, Le combat des livres, in 2004.

Complete Bibliography

Novels

The Edible Woman (1969)

Surfacing (1972)

Lady Oracle (1976)

Life before Man (1979)

Bodily Harm (1981)

Unearthing Suite (1983)

The Handmaid's Tale (1985) - winner of the 1987 Arthur C. Clarke Award

Cat's Eye (1989)

The Robber Bride (1993)

Alias Grace (1996) - winner of the 1996 Giller Prize

The Blind Assassin (2000) - winner of the 2000 Booker Prize and the 2000 Governor General's Award

Oryx and Crake (2003)

Poetry collections

Double Persephone (1961)

The Circle Game (1964)

Expeditions (1965)

Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein (1966)

The Animals in That Country (1968)

The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970)

Procedures for Underground (1970)

Power Politics (1971)

You Are Happy (1974)

Selected Poems (1976)

Two-Headed Poems (1978)

True Stories (1981)

Morning in the Burned House (1996)

Eating Fire: Selected Poems, 1965-1995 (1998)

Short fiction collections

Dancing Girls (1977)

Murder in the Dark (1983)

Bluebeard's Egg (1983)

Wilderness Tips (1991)

Good Bones and Simple Murders (1994)

Anthologies edited

The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse (1982)

The Canlit Foodbook: From Pen to palate - A Collection of Tasty Literary Fare (1987)

The Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English (1988)

The Best American Short Stories 1989 (1989) (with Shannon Ravenel)

Children's books

Up in the Tree (1978)

Anna's Pet (1980)

For the Birds (book) (1990) (with Shelly Tanaka)

Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut (1995)

Non-fiction

Survival, A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (1972)

Days of the Rebels 1815-1840 (1977)

Negotiating with the Dead, A Writer on Writing (2002)

Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature (1995)

External links/references

http://www.owtoad.com/ Margaret Atwood's home page
http://www.cariboo.bc.ca/atwood/ The Margaret Atwood Society Home Page
http://www.salon.com/jan97/interview970120.html Interview with Salon Magazine

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	~~<div style="float:right; margin:0 0 1em 1em; font-style:italic; text-align:center;">~~[[image:Margaret_Atwood.jpg~~]]<br>~~Margaret Atwood~~</div>~~		[[image:Margaret_Atwood.jpg\|right\|framed\|Margaret Atwood]]
	'''Margaret Eleanor "Peggy" Atwood''' (born [[November 18]], [[1939]]) is a [[novelist]], [[poetry\|poet]], [[literary criticism\|literary critic]], one of the world's best-selling [[author]]s, and a pioneer of Canadian women's writing. She was born in [[Ottawa]], [[Ontario]], [[Canada]] and attended school at [[Victoria University in the University of Toronto\|Victoria College]] in [[Toronto]]. After living in various places in North America and around the world, she returned to Toronto, where she currently lives. She is married to the novelist [[Graeme Gibson]]; her daughter, [[Jess Atwood Gibson]] (b. [[1976]]) is a graduate student in art history at [[Yale University]].		'''Margaret Eleanor "Peggy" Atwood''' (born [[November 18]], [[1939]]) is a [[novelist]], [[poetry\|poet]], [[literary criticism\|literary critic]], one of the world's best-selling [[author]]s, and a pioneer of Canadian women's writing. She was born in [[Ottawa]], [[Ontario]], [[Canada]] and attended school at [[Victoria University in the University of Toronto\|Victoria College]] in [[Toronto]]. After living in various places in North America and around the world, she returned to Toronto, where she currently lives. She is married to the novelist [[Graeme Gibson]]; her daughter, [[Jess Atwood Gibson]] (b. [[1976]]) is a graduate student in art history at [[Yale University]].