Margaret Atwood

In 1968, she married Jim Polk but the marriage lasted for only five years. They got divorced in 1973.

Afterwards, she got involved in a relationship with a fellow novelist, Graeme Gibson and their daughter, Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson, was born in 1976. She currently lives with Graeme Gibson and their daughter in Canada.

At present, there is a Margaret Atwood Society, a Margaret Atwood Newsletter, and an ever-increasing number of scholars studying and teaching her work around the globe.

She was born on 18 November, 1939 in Ottawa, Canada to Margaret Dorothy, a former dietician and nutritionist and Carl Edmund Atwood, an entomologist.

As an entomologist, her father used to work mostly in the forest and therefore she spent most of her childhood in the backwoods of Quebec. Writing was one of her many interests, away from school.

She went to a regular full-time school only after eighth grade and at the age of 16, she decided to pursue the career of a professional writer.

She completed her schooling in 1957 from Leaside High School, Toronto. In 1961, she graduated with ‘Bachelor of Arts in English’ degree from Victoria College in the University of Toronto. During her graduation, she published her poems and articles in Acta Victoriana, the college literary journal.

In 1961, she privately printed a book of poems, ‘Double Persephone’, and became the winner of E.J.Pratt medal.

Her first major work was a book of poetry, ’The Circle Game’ published in 1964 which was highly praised worldwide and honored in Canada. After that, she never looked back and went on to write numerous novels, short stories, poems, children books, screenplays and e-books.

Her 1969 feminist novel, ‘The Edible Women’ was another masterpiece about a woman who cannot eat and feels that she is being eaten.

Her 1972 novel, ‘Surfacing’, is about a daughter’s search for her missing father and is considered one of the best novels of her career.

She wrote ‘Life Before Man’ in 1979, a novel with three principal characters with each of them having their own perspective on events occurring in each chapter. The book was positively reviewed by the New York Times.

She also edited many books, including ‘The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English’ in 1983 and ‘The Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English’ in 1986, with Robert Weaver.

She invented ‘LongPen’, concept of remote robotic writing technology and is currently the Chairman and CEO of Syngrafii Corporation, holder of various patents to LongPen technology.

Her 1986 novel, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ was an extraordinary piece of literary work on science fiction which received many accolades. She regarded it as speculative fiction instead of science fiction, the difference being that speculative fiction could happen.

Her principal work of literary criticism, ‘Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature’, is still considered the standard introduction for Canadian studies programs internationally.

Her 2000 novel, ‘The Blind Assassin’, a work of historical fiction with the major events of Canadian history forming an important backdrop won her the ‘Booker Prize’.