Atwood, Margaret Eleanor 1939-
Canadian writer, poet and critic

Born in Ottawa, she spent her early years in northern Ontario and Quebec bush country. After graduating from the University of Toronto and Radcliffe College, she held a variety of jobs ranging from waitress and summer-camp counsellor to lecturer in English literature and writer-in-residence. Her first published work, a collection of poems entitled The Circle Game (1966), won the Governor-General's award. Since then she has published several volumes of poetry, collections of short stories - Dancing Girls (1977) and Bluebeard's Egg (1987) - and Survival (1972), an acclaimed study of Canadian literature. She is best known, however, as a novelist. The Edible Woman (1969) deals with emotional cannibalism and provoked considerable controversy within and beyond the women's movement. It was followed by Surfacing (1972), Lady Oracle (1976), Life Before Man (1979) and Bodily Harm (1982). In 1985, The Handmaid's Tale was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, as was Cat's Eye in 1989 and Alias Grace in 1996. Recent works include The Robber Bride (1993) and a collection of poems, Morning in the Burned House (1995). She has been described by one commentator as 'a staunch moralist' who insists 'that modern man must reinvent himself' and she is also a tireless campaigner for social justice.

Bibliography: J H Rosenberg, Margaret Atwood (1984); S Grace, A Violent Duality (1979)