Margaret Atwood
Author of The Handmaid's Tale
About the Author
Margaret Atwood was born on November 18, 1939 in Ottawa, Canada. She received a B.A. from Victoria College, University of Toronto in 1961 and an M.A. from Radcliff College in 1962. Her first book of verse, Double Persephone, was published in 1961 and was awarded the E. J. Pratt Medal. She has show more published numerous books of poetry, novels, story collections, critical work, juvenile work, and radio and teleplays. Her works include The Journals of Susanna Moodie, Power Politics, Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride, Morning in the Buried House, the MaddAdam trilogy, and The Heart Goes Last. She has won numerous awards including the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, the Booker Prize in 2000 for The Blind Assassin, the Giller Prize and the Premio Mondello for Alias Grace, and the Governor General's Award in 1966 for The Circle Game and in 1986 for The Handmaid's Tale, which also won the very first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987. She won the PEN Pinter prize in 2016 for her political activism. She was awarded the 2016 PEN Pinter Prize for the outstanding literary merit of her body of work. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
The Common Knowledge entries on this page refer to the Canadian poet and novelist.
Please note that there is also an author named Margaret Attwood (double "t"). Please ensure that you have your author's name spelled correctly.
Image credit: George Whiteside
Series
Works by Margaret Atwood
The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen, Volume 1: The Early Years (1993) — Editor; Introduction — 30 copies
The CanLit Foodbook: From Pen to Palate, a Collection of Tasty Literary Fare (1987) — Author; Illustrator — 28 copies
The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen, Volume 2: The Later Years (2001) — Editor; Introduction — 19 copies
People Who Make a Difference / Des gens peu ordinaires (English and French Edition) (1995) 12 copies
Moppet Shop: Positron, Episode Five 6 copies
The Robber Bride [Includes the Short Story 'I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth'] (2009) 6 copies
Margaret Atwood Presents: Stories by Canada's Best New Women Writers (2004) — Editor — 5 copies, 2 reviews
Double Persephone 5 copies
Rape Fantasies 4 copies
The Female Body 3 copies
Lusus Naturae [short story] 3 copies
The Margaret Atwood 4-Book Bundle: The Handmaid's Tale; The Blind Assassin; Alias Grace; The Robber Bride (2016) 3 copies
Quatro Contos Consonantes 3 copies
The Man from Mars 2 copies
Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein 2 copies
Margaret Atwood Reads the Animals in That Country/You Are Happy/Power Politics and Other Poems/Cassette (1993) 2 copies
"The Grave of the Famous Poet" 2 copies
Bluebeard's Egg [short story] 2 copies
Hjr̃tat stannar sist 1 copy
Jeux de pouvoir 1 copy
Scarlet Ibis 1 copy
My Evil Stepmother 1 copy
Erase Me: Positron Episode 3 1 copy
"But It Could Still" 1 copy
Simmering [short story] 1 copy
"Tree Baby" 1 copy
Burza. Czarci pomiot 1 copy
Fellélegzés Regény 1 copy
Report der Magd, Der 1 copy
"Something Has Happened " 1 copy
Liking Men [short story] 1 copy
here after 1 copy
Wdowi las 1 copy
Zbójecka narzeczona 1 copy
Proročica 1 copy
The Testaments (BBC Radio 4) 1 copy
"Landcrab I" 1 copy
"When It Happens" 1 copy
Scribbler Moon 1 copy
"The Whirlpool Rapids" 1 copy
Nightengale 1 copy
"Rat Song" 1 copy
"Landcrab II" 1 copy
Siren Song 1 copy
Uglypuss {short story} 1 copy
"Tricks with Mirrors" 1 copy
"Giving Birth" 1 copy
Surviving Progress (DVD) 1 copy
Positron 1 copy
The world as it is : In the eyes of Margaret Atwood, Wole Soyinka, Ai Weiwei (1986) — Contributor — 1 copy
Poemas tardios 1 copy
Die Kunst des Kochens und Auftragens: Gesammelte Erzählungen | Die besten Geschichten aus über sechzig Jahren (2021) 1 copy
Morte de Smudgie 1 copy
The Martians Claim Canada 1 copy
Impatient Griselda 1 copy
Associated Works
The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction (1983) — Contributor — 1,161 copies, 3 reviews
Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society (2010) — Contributor — 1,056 copies, 17 reviews
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 955 copies, 7 reviews
The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: Fifty North American American Stories Since 1970 (1999) — Contributor — 536 copies, 4 reviews
Don't Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England (1987) — Contributor — 494 copies, 4 reviews
The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (1988) — Foreword, some editions — 494 copies, 3 reviews
The World of the Short Story: A 20th Century Collection (1986) — Contributor — 477 copies, 4 reviews
Points of View: An Anthology of Short Stories, Revised & Updated Edition (1995) — Contributor — 419 copies, 7 reviews
Cries of the Spirit: A Celebration of Women's Spirituality (2000) — Cover artist — 377 copies, 2 reviews
The Art of the Story: An International Anthology of Contemporary Short Stories (1999) — Contributor — 363 copies, 6 reviews
The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories (1986) — Contributor — 358 copies, 3 reviews
The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990 (1993) — Contributor — 325 copies, 6 reviews
Adrienne Rich's Poetry and Prose [Norton Critical Edition] (1993) — Contributor — 322 copies, 2 reviews
Lost Classics: Writers on Books Loved and Lost, Overlooked, Under-read, Unavailable, Stolen, Extinct, or Otherwise Out… (2000) — Contributor — 305 copies, 5 reviews
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales (1998) — Contributor — 303 copies, 4 reviews
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Ninth Annual Collection (1996) — Contributor — 243 copies, 3 reviews
Writers on Writing, 2: More Collected Essays from the New York Times (2003) — Contributor — 189 copies, 3 reviews
First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Writers (1994) — Contributor — 188 copies, 1 review
The Book Group Book: A Thoughtful Guide to Forming and Enjoying a Stimulating Book Discussion Group (1993) — Foreword, some editions — 166 copies, 2 reviews
The Decameron Project: 29 New Stories from the Pandemic (2020) — Contributor — 117 copies, 4 reviews
Loosed upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction (2015) — Contributor — 116 copies, 5 reviews
The Pleasure of Reading: 43 Writers on the Discovery of Reading and the Books that Inspired Them (2015) — Contributor — 90 copies, 2 reviews
Who's Writing This? Notations on the Authorial I, with Self-Portraits {not Antæus} (1995) — Contributor — 73 copies
The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales (2003) — Contributor — 65 copies, 1 review
Northern Suns : The New Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction (1999) — Contributor — 63 copies, 1 review
More Stories We Tell: The Best Contemporary Short Stories by North American Women (2004) — Contributor — 62 copies
The Case Against Free Trade: GATT, NAFTA, and the Globalization of Corporate Power (1993) — Contributor — 57 copies, 1 review
Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers (2019) — Contributor — 51 copies, 12 reviews
Orpheus and Company: Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology (1999) — Contributor — 49 copies, 1 review
New Beginnings: New Writing from Bestselling Authors Sold in Aid of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Earthquake Charities (2005) — Contributor — 47 copies
A Darker Shade: New Stories of Body Horror from Women Writers (2023) — Contributor — 39 copies, 17 reviews
High Infidelity: 24 Great Short Stories About Adultery by Some of Our Best Contemporary Authors (1997) — Contributor — 31 copies
Hello Darkness, My Old Friend: How Daring Dreams and Unyielding Friendship Turned One Man's Blindness into an… (2020) — Afterword — 31 copies, 6 reviews
Bringing Back the Birds: Exploring Migration and Preserving Birdscapes throughout the Americas (2019) — Contributor — 24 copies, 1 review
They Fought in Colour / La Guerre en couleur: A New Look at Canada's First World War Effort / Nouveau regard sur le… (2018) — Contributor — 18 copies
Possibilities of Poetry: An Anthology of American Contemporaries (1970) — Contributor — 17 copies, 1 review
The Reception of Grimms' Fairy Tales: Responses, Reactions, Revisions (1993) — Contributor — 16 copies
Antaeus No. 64/65, Spring/Autumn 1990 - Twentieth Anniversary Issue (1990) — Contributor — 12 copies
Imaginarium 4: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing (The Imaginarium Series) (2015) — Introduction — 11 copies, 1 review
Another English: Anglophone Poems from Around the World (Poets in the World) (2014) — Contributor — 10 copies
Twist and Shout: A Decade of Feminist Writing in THIS Magazine (1992) — Contributor — 6 copies, 1 review
Edexcel Poetry Anthology for Advanced subsidiary and advanced GCE examinations in English Literature (2000) — Contributor, some editions — 6 copies
Antaeus No. 73/74, Spring 1994 - Who’s Writing This: Notations on the Authorial I {magazine} (1994) — Contributor — 5 copies
Ein Haus mit vielen Zimmern: Autorinnen erzählen vom Schreiben (edition fünf 27) (German Edition) (2015) — Contributor — 2 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 2014 — Author "Poetry: The Loneliness of the Military Historian" — 2 copies
Telegrams from Home, Vol. 1 — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Atwood, Margaret Eleanor
- Other names
- Atwood, Peggy
- Birthdate
- 1939-11-18
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Canada
- Birthplace
- Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- Places of residence
- Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Education
- Leaside High School (1957)
University of Toronto (BA|1961)
Radcliffe College (MA|1962) - Occupations
- novelist
poet
cartoonist - Relationships
- Gibson, Graeme (partner)
- Awards and honors
- Woodrow Wilson Fellowship (1961)
Companion, Order of Canada (1981)
Guggenheim Fellowship (1981)
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1988)
Order of Ontario (1990)
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1994) (show all 24)
Peggy V. Helmerich Award (1999)
Man Booker Prize (2000, 2019)
Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement (2007)
Premio Príncipe de Asturias (2008)
Nelly Sachs Prize (2010)
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Letters (2015)
PEN Pinter prize (2016)
Franz Kafka Prize (2017)
SF Hall Of Fame (2017)
Fellow, Royal Society of Canada (1987)
Giller Prize (1996)
Hammet Prize (2000)
Fellow, Royal Society of Literature (2010)
Companion of Honour (2019)
Writer in the World (2024)
Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (2017)
PEN Center USA Literary Award (2017)
Carl Sandburg Literary Award (2017) - Disambiguation notice
- The Common Knowledge entries on this page refer to the Canadian poet and novelist.
Please note that there is also an author named Margaret Attwood (double "t"). Please ensure that you have your author's name spelled correctly.
Members
Discussions
THE TESTAMENTS: Want to talk about it? in Atwoodians (July 29)
June 2024: Margaret Atwood in Monthly Author Reads (July 19)
Found: Girls in red dresses, nuns (?) taking care of them in Name that Book (January 2023)
April 2019: Margaret Atwood in Monthly Author Reads (May 2022)
2019 Booker Prize Longlist: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood in Booker Prize (July 2019)
November Read: Margaret Atwood in Virago Modern Classics (December 2017)
May 2013: Margaret Atwood in Monthly Author Reads (April 2017)
Canadian Author Challenge — April: Margaret Atwood & Michael Crummey in 75 Books Challenge for 2016 (May 2016)
Atwood April 2015 in 75 Books Challenge for 2015 (May 2015)
"Maddaddam": What's your verdict? SPOILERS ALLOWED in Girlybooks (November 2014)
The Penelopiad: The chorus of 12 young women in One LibraryThing, One Book (June 2014)
The Penelopiad: Framing in One LibraryThing, One Book (June 2014)
The Penelopiad: First Impressions in One LibraryThing, One Book (June 2014)
The Penelopiad: Legendary heroes in One LibraryThing, One Book (June 2014)
The Penelopiad: Modernizing The Odyssey? in One LibraryThing, One Book (June 2014)
The Penelopiad: Your opinions of characters in One LibraryThing, One Book (June 2014)
The Penelopiad: Introduce Yourself in One LibraryThing, One Book (June 2014)
The Penelopiad: A satire? in One LibraryThing, One Book (June 2014)
Atwood April 2014 in 75 Books Challenge for 2014 (April 2014)
April Group Read - "Alias Grace" (SPOILERS) in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (May 2013)
Esquiress: Atwood April Showers, Thread 4 in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (May 2013)
Atwood April 2013 in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (May 2013)
April Group Read - "Alias Grace" (NO SPOILERS, PLEASE!) in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (April 2013)
THE ROBBER BRIDE - rolling book discussion - July '09 onwards... in Atwoodians (August 2012)
1001 Group Read-March: Cat's Eye in 1001 Books to read before you die (March 2012)
Oryx and Crake spoiler thread in The 12 in 12 Category Challenge (February 2012)
GROUP READ: Oryx and Crake in The 12 in 12 Category Challenge (January 2012)
Group Read: The Blind Assassin in 1001 Books to read before you die (February 2011)
Alias Grace---with potential SPOILERS in Orange January/July (January 2011)
Group Read (January): Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood (no spoilers!) in Orange January/July (January 2011)
Reviews
As in a dream it begins with normality only twisted, slowly revealing itself as nightmare. Gradually you sense a faceless horror is creeping closer until, too late, you discover you can't run because your legs won't move, paralysed with fear.
Not since Murakami's Wind Up Bird Chronicle have I been so utterly and compellingly simultaneously horrified and edified.
Not since Murakami's Wind Up Bird Chronicle have I been so utterly and compellingly simultaneously horrified and edified.
I believe the Covid pandemic is going to provide much fodder for literature, just as the world wars have. It makes sense since these events affected so many and changed life as we knew it.
This book is a series of interconnected stories set in an apartment block in New York City during the pandemic lockdown. I listened to the audiobook and my one regret is that there was no additional information about which author wrote which piece. In all as there was in the printed edition, 36 authors contributed to the book so, obviously, more than one person created each tale. Maybe it doesn't matter but it would just provide a finishing touch.
The residents of the Fernsby Arms gather on the roof of the building each night in order to take part in the nightly ritual of noisemaking to show appreciation for health care workers. They linger on after that outburst, all carefully social distanced, and tell stories. The building's superintendant covertly records the stories and then transcribes them into a scrapbook left behind by her predecessor. Her predecessor kept notes about all the tenants and gave them all nicknames. They are a diverse group so their stories are quite different. Many deal with death and/or ghosts as may be expected given the time they are experiencing. No one seems to have contact with anyone outside the building. The superintendant's father is in a nursing home and she hasn't been able to reach anyone there. A doctor staying in the building while she helps out in the emergency ward of a local hospital (although she's on leave right now) also can't get through. Residents, including the super, hear strange noises in an apartment that is supposed to be vacant. Occasionally, strangers show up on the roof top when the super knows the door to the outside is locked tight. It's all a little spooky but also very interesting. And the ending absolutely threw me for a loop. I didn't see that coming.
The Decameron, a similar book of stories supposedly written by a group of people who fled Florence during the Black Death, is referenced several times. Obviously, this provided a starting point for this collective of writers but they gave it a twenty-first century spin. One obvious difference is that the people in The Decameron left the city whereas these people were the ones left behind when the well-off fled the city.… (more)
This book is a series of interconnected stories set in an apartment block in New York City during the pandemic lockdown. I listened to the audiobook and my one regret is that there was no additional information about which author wrote which piece. In all as there was in the printed edition, 36 authors contributed to the book so, obviously, more than one person created each tale. Maybe it doesn't matter but it would just provide a finishing touch.
The residents of the Fernsby Arms gather on the roof of the building each night in order to take part in the nightly ritual of noisemaking to show appreciation for health care workers. They linger on after that outburst, all carefully social distanced, and tell stories. The building's superintendant covertly records the stories and then transcribes them into a scrapbook left behind by her predecessor. Her predecessor kept notes about all the tenants and gave them all nicknames. They are a diverse group so their stories are quite different. Many deal with death and/or ghosts as may be expected given the time they are experiencing. No one seems to have contact with anyone outside the building. The superintendant's father is in a nursing home and she hasn't been able to reach anyone there. A doctor staying in the building while she helps out in the emergency ward of a local hospital (although she's on leave right now) also can't get through. Residents, including the super, hear strange noises in an apartment that is supposed to be vacant. Occasionally, strangers show up on the roof top when the super knows the door to the outside is locked tight. It's all a little spooky but also very interesting. And the ending absolutely threw me for a loop. I didn't see that coming.
The Decameron, a similar book of stories supposedly written by a group of people who fled Florence during the Black Death, is referenced several times. Obviously, this provided a starting point for this collective of writers but they gave it a twenty-first century spin. One obvious difference is that the people in The Decameron left the city whereas these people were the ones left behind when the well-off fled the city.… (more)
Probably my favourite book ever, very engaging, dystopian, and clever. I read it in half a week and love how Atwood implies that these events are realistic and could happen one day. Gave me chills especially when thinking about current affairs of the day.
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Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 260
- Also by
- 159
- Members
- 179,377
- Popularity
- #27
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 5,036
- ISBNs
- 2,141
- Languages
- 36
- Favorited
- 1,141
Review Coming soon. Oh man. Oh man. Or should I say "oh woman"? I feel devastated. What a wonderful book. I started reading it years ago, but for whatever reason I never finished. Now I reread the whole thing. What an amazing narrative.