Margaret Atwood
, b. 1939
Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on November 18, 1939. Her mother was a nutritionist and her father an entomologist. Her father’s field of research resulted in the family spending a great deal of time in the backwoods of Quebec, and Atwood did not attend school until she was eight years old. As a girl she was a prolific reader of fairy tales, comics, and mysteries, and began writing her own stories, plays and poems from the age of six. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours at Victoria College at the University of Toronto in 1961, where her professors included Jay MacPherson and Northrop Frye, and graduated with a Masters degree from Radcliffe College. She began, but did not complete, a doctorate degree, and has lectured in English at a variety of colleges and universities across Canada and the United States.
Her prolific publication record includes novels, short stories and poetry, as well as literary criticism and social commentary. Her work addresses the themes of gender, power, identity, and dystopian societies, through the lenses of speculative and feminist fiction, though she has expressed ambiguity about her work being labelled as feminist. Her first novel, The Edible Woman, was published in 1969. She has written eight children’s books, and in 2016 she published a graphic novel Angel Catbird, with Canadian artist Johnnie Christmas. Her books have won numerous literary prizes and awards. The Handmaid’s Tale, Cat’s Eye, Alias Grace and Oryx and Crake were all shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, which she won for The Blind Assassin in 2000. She lives in Toronto, and is married to the novelist Graeme Gibson, with whom she has a daughter.
Bio prepared by Miriam Riverlea, University of New England, mriverlea@gmail.com
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