The versatile author, Margaret Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor who has begun writing plays and poems at the age of 6. Isn’t it interesting? Later, she continues her writing and participates in several writing programs which inspired her to more in writing. As a result, she published her first book of poetry in 1961 while in the university which won the E.J. Pratt Medal. Since then, She has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children’s books, two graphic novels, and several small press editions of both poetry and fiction.
Do you know that her works encompass a variety of themes including gender and identity, religion and myth, the power of language, climate change, and “power politics.” She is the inventor of the LongPen device and associated technologies that facilitate remote robotic writing of documents. She was honored with several awards which are listed below. If you are interested to know more about her and her writing career, you should have a scroll through the page below.
What is Margaret Atwood famous for?
- A Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor.
- Her writing impression forced the audience to think about the connection between reality and fiction after reading her stories and poems.
When was Margaret Atwood born?
Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 to her parents. Currently, she is aged 82 years old. She was born as the second child of her parents Carl Edmund Atwood and Margaret Dorothy. Her father is an entomologist while her mother is a former dietitian and nutritionist. Similarly, she was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and later raised in the backwoods of northern Quebec, and traveling back and forth between Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie and Toronto. Because of her father’s profession, the family’s constant change of the place of living. She holds Canadian nationality and belongs to the White ethnicity. Her zodiac sign is Scorpio and follows Christianity.
For education, she attended Leaside High School in Leaside, Toronto at the age of 8 and graduated in 1957. She then enrolled at Victoria College at the University of Toronto and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English, French, and philosophy in 1961. After that, she joined Radcliffe College of Harvard University where she obtained a master’s degree (MA) in 1962 and pursued doctoral studies for two years, but did not finish her dissertation, The English Metaphysical Romance.
How did Margaret Atwood become an author?
- Margaret Atwood began writing plays and poems at the age of 6.
- Later, she participated in the Brownie program of Girl Guides of Canada. She has written about her experiences in Girl Guides in several of her publications.
- While in college, She published poems and articles in Acta Victoriana, the college literary journal, and participated in the sophomore theatrical tradition of The Bob Comedy Revue.
- In 1961, she published her first book of poetry, Double Persephone through Hawkshead Press which won the E.J. Pratt Medal.
- During 1964-70, she was worked in several universities like the University of British Columbia, Sir George Williams University, and the University of Alberta as a lecturer and instructor.
- During 1965-68, She published three other small press collections of poetry: Kaleidoscopes Baroque: a poem, Cranbrook Academy of Art (1965), Talismans for Children, Cranbrook Academy of Art (1965), Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein, Cranbrook Academy of Art (1966), and The Animals in That Country (1968).
- In 1966, she published another book of poetry, The Circle Game, and won the Governor General’s Award.
- In 1969, she published her first novel, The Edible Woman.
- During 1971-1973, she worked at York University and the University of Toronto as a lecturer and writer.
- During 1970-79, She published six collections of poetry the decade: The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970), Procedures for Underground (1970), Power Politics (1971), You Are Happy (1974), Selected Poems 1965-1975 (1976), and Two-Headed Poems (1978). She also published three novels during this time: Surfacing (1972); Lady Oracle (1976); and Life Before Man (1979), which was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award.
- In 1972, She published her first non-fiction monograph, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature which helped establish her as an important and emerging voice in Canadian literature.
- In 1977, She published her first short story collection, Dancing Girls, which was the winner of the St. Lawrence Award for Fiction and the award of The Periodical Distributors of Canada for Short Fiction.
- Her literary reputation continued to rise in the 1980s with the publication of Bodily Harm (1981) and The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). She also won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, 1985 Governor General’s Award, a finalist for the 1986 Booker Prize, Cat’s Eye (1988), a finalist for both the 1988 Governor General’s Award, and the 1989 Booker Prize.
- During the 1980s, She served as the MFA Honorary Chair at the University of Alabama in 1985, Berg Professor of English at New York University in 1986, Writer-in-Residence at Macquarie University in 1987, and Writer-in-Residence at Trinity University in 1989.
- In the 1990s, Her reputation as a writer continued to grow with the publication of the novels The Robber Bride (1993) which reached finalist for the 1994 Governor General’s Award and was shortlisted for the James Tiptree Jr. Award, and Alias Grace (1996) which won the 1996 Giller Prize, a finalist for the 1996 Booker Prize, a finalist for the 1996 Governor General’s Award, and shortlisted for the 1997 Orange Prize for Fiction.
- In 2000, she published her tenth novel, The Blind Assassin which won both the Booker Prize and the Hammett Prize.
- In 2001, She was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.
- She followed this success with the publication of Oryx and Crake in 2003, the first novel in a series that also includes The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013), which would collectively come to be known as the MaddAddam Trilogy.
- In 2005, She published the novella The Penelopiad as part of the Canongate Myth Series. Later, The Penelopiad was given a theatrical production in 2007.
- In 2008, She published Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, a collection of five lectures delivered as part of the Massey Lectures. The book was released in anticipation of the lectures, which were also recorded and broadcast on CBC Radio One’s Ideas.
- She was appointed Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature at Somerset House in London, England in 2010.
- In 2016, She published the novel Hag-Seed, a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
- The same year, She began writing the superhero comic book series Angel Catbird, with co-creator and illustrator Johnnie Christmas.
- In 2019, She published The Testaments, a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. The book was announced as the joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize.
- In 2020, She published Dearly, a collection of poems exploring absences and endings, aging and retrospection, and gifts and renewals.
Margaret Atwood Awards and Achivements
Margaret Atwood holds numerous honorary degrees from various institutions and won some reputed awards during her career which are listed below:
- Governor General’s Award (1966; 1985)
- Companion of the Order of Canada (1981)
- Guggenheim fellowship (1981)
- Los Angeles Times Fiction Award (1986)
- American Humanist Association Humanist of the Year (1987)
- Nebula Award (1986) and Prometheus Award (1987), nominations, both science fiction awards.
- Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction (1987)
- Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1988)
- Canadian Booksellers Association Author of the Year (1989)
- Outstanding Canadian Award – Armenian Community Centre of Toronto (1989)
- Order of Ontario (1990)
- Trillium Book Award (1991; 1993; 1995)
- Government of France’s Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1994)
- Helmerich Award (1999), by the Tulsa Library Trust.
- Booker Prize (2000; 2019)
- Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement (2007)
- Prince of Asturias Award for Literature (2008)
- Fellow Royal Society of Literature (2010)
- Nelly Sachs Prize, Germany (2010)
- Dan David Prize, Israel (2010)
- Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Canada (2012)
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize “Innovator’s Award” (2012)
- Gold medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2015)
- Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings, Macedonia (2016)
- Franz Kafka Prize, Czech Republic (2017)
- Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Germany (2017)
- Companion of Honor (2019)
- Joint winner of the Booker Prize (2019)
- Dayton Literary Peace Prize (2020)
- British Academy President’s Medal (2020)
- Emerson-Thoreau Medal (2020)
- Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Who is Margaret Atwood married to?
Margaret Atwood was happily married to Jim Polk in 1968. However, the marriage lasted for only five years and eventually got divorced in 1973. She then has a romantic relationship with a novelist, Graeme Gibson. Together, the couple blessed a daughter named Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson in 1976. Sadly, the couple had a blissful life together until her partner died in 2019. Currently, she lives in Toronto with her daughter.
Margaret Atwood Net Worth
Margaret Atwood has been engaged in the literature industry since 1961. During her career, she has written and published many novels, poems, and short stories. Thus, she should have earned an impressive amount of money from her writing career to date. Based on some online sites, her current estimated net worth is said to be $30 million. However, her salary and other financial details are yet to be disclosed.
How tall is Margaret Atwood?
Margaret Atwood has a height of 5 feet 7 inches and she weighs around 65 Kg. She has a pair of beautiful greyish-green eyes and her hair color is grey. Further, her other body information is yet to be disclosed. In the case of disclosure, we will let you know.
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