Margaret Eleanor Atwood, born on November 18, 1939, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is a literary force, renowned as a poet, novelist, essayist, literary critic, inventor, and environmental activist. Residing still in Canada, Atwood’s name is synonymous with thought-provoking and often groundbreaking work in various genres, including historical and science fiction, as well as television scriptwriting.
At the age of sixteen, Atwood realized her ambition to write professionally, a dream that took her to Victoria College at the University of Toronto in 1957. Here, her early poems and articles found a home in the college’s literary journal, Acta Victoriana. Her academic prowess led her to Harvard’s Radcliffe College, fueled by winning the E.J. Pratt Medal for her poetry collection “Double Persephone.” At Harvard, she earned her Master’s Degree in 1962, setting the stage for a career that would see her author over sixty-five books, ranging from fiction and non-fiction to children’s literature and critical essays, reaching audiences in over 35 countries.
With a staggering tally of more than 55 awards, Atwood’s accolades include the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Prince of Asturias Award, the Booker Prize, and the Governor General’s Award (twice). In 1987, the American Humanist Association named her Humanist of the Year, recognizing her profound contribution to literature and humanist thought. Her induction into the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2001 was a public acknowledgment of her cultural impact. As a dedicated supporter of the writing community, Atwood also founded the Writers’ Trust of Canada.
Atwood’s inventive spirit extends beyond literature. In 2004, while promoting her novel “Oryx and Crake” in Denver, she conceptualized the LongPen, a remote robotic writing technology. This led to the founding of Unotchit Inc., later renamed Syngrafii Inc., a company that expanded to offer a variety of remote writing applications, testament to Atwood’s innovative and forward-thinking nature.
In her science fiction work, Atwood has made a significant impact, notably with “The Handmaid’s Tale” (1985), which earned the first Arthur C. Clarke Award and was adapted into a critically acclaimed television series. Her “MaddAddam Trilogy,” starting with “Oryx and Crake,” paints a dystopian vision of a post-apocalyptic world, marked by her unique blend of speculative storytelling. Despite the dystopian elements common to science fiction, Atwood prefers to classify her work as speculative fiction, grounding her narratives in the realm of the possible and the immediate.
Throughout her illustrious career, Margaret Atwood has remained a vibrant, critical voice in literature, continually challenging readers to engage with pressing social issues. Her work, blending razor-sharp wit with profound insight, continues to resonate with readers and critics alike, solidifying her status as one of the most influential writers of our time.
Publication Order of The Handmaid’s Tale Books
The Handmaid’s Tale
(1986)
The Testaments
(2019)
Publication Order of Angel Catbird Graphic Novels
Angel Catbird, Volume 1
(2016)
Angel Catbird, Volume 2: To Castle Catula
(2017)
Angel Catbird, Volume 3: The Catbird Roars
(2017)
Publication Order of Canongate’s The Myths Books
A Short History of Myth(By: Karen Armstrong)
(2004)
Lion’s Honey: The Myth of Samson(By: David Grossman)
(2005)
The Penelopiad
(2005)
Weight(By: Jeanette Winterson)
(2005)
The Helmet of Horror(By: Victor Pelevin)
(2005)
Where Three Roads Meet(By: Salley Vickers)
(2005)
Binu and the Great Wall(By: Su Tong)
(2006)
Baba Yaga Laid an Egg(By: Dubravka Ugrešić)
(2007)
The Goddess Chronicle(By: Natsuo Kirino)
(2013)
Publication Order of Hogarth Shakespeare Books
The Gap of Time(By: Jeanette Winterson)
(2015)
Shylock is My Name(By: Howard Jacobson)
(2016)
Vinegar Girl(By: Anne Tyler)
(2016)
Hag-Seed
(2016)
New Boy(By: Tracy Chevalier)
(2017)
Dunbar(By: Edward St. Aubyn)
(2017)
Macbeth(By: Jo Nesbø)
(2018)
Publication Order of MaddAddam Books
by
Oryx and Crake
(2003)
The Year of the Flood
(2009)
MaddAddam
(2013)
Publication Order of Collections
The Circle Game
(1964)
The Animals in that Country
(1968)
The Journals of Susanna Moodie(With: Charles Pachter)
(1970)
Procedures For Underground
(1970)
Power Politics
(1971)
You Are Happy
(1974)
Selected Poems
(1976)
Dancing Girls and Other Stories
(1977)
Two-Headed Poems
(1978)
True Stories
(1981)
Bluebeard’s Egg
(1983)
Murder in the Dark
(1983)
Interlunar
(1984)
Selected Poems II
(1986)
Wilderness Tips
(1991)
Good Bones
(1992)
Poems 1976-1986
(1992)
Polarities. Selected Stories
(1994)
Bones & Murder
(1994)
Morning in the Burned House
(1995)
Eating Fire
(1998)
Moving Targets
(2004)
The Tent
(2006)
Moral Disorder and Other Stories
(2006)
The Door
(2007)
The Illustrated Journals of Susanna Moodie
(2014)
Margaret Atwood’s Poetry(With: SparkNotes)
(2014)
Stone Mattress
(2014)
Freedom
(2018)
Dearly
(2020)
Old Babes in the Wood
(2023)
Publication Order of Graphic Novels
The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel
(2019)
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
Survival
(1972)
Days Of The Rebels
(1977)
Second Words
(1982)
The Canlit Foodbook
(1987)
Margaret Atwood Conversations
(1990)
Strange Things
(1995)
Two Solicitudes
(1996)
Story of a Nation
(2001)
Negotiating with the Dead / On Writers & Writing
(2002)
Curious Pursuits
(2005)
Writing With Intent
(2005)
Payback
(2007)
Glances at Germany, Poland, and the Euxine
(2009)
In Other Worlds
(2011)
Dire Cartographies
(2015)
The Burgess Shale
(2017)
Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces
(2022)
Publication Order of Picture Books
Anna’s Pet
(1980)
Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut
(1995)
Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes
(2003)
Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda
(2004)
Wandering Wenda and Widow Wallop’s Wunderground Washery
(2011)
A Trio of Tolerable Tales
(2017)
Publication Order of Short Stories Books
Moral Disorder
(2014)
The Bad News
(2018)
War Bears
(2019)
Two Scorched Men
(2021)
My Evil Mother
(2022)
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
The Edible Woman
(1969)
Surfacing
(1972)
Lady Oracle
(1976)
Up in the Tree
(1978)
Life Before Man
(1979)
Bodily Harm
(1981)
Cat’s Eye
(1988)
For the Birds
(1990)
The Robber Bride
(1993)
Alias Grace
(1996)
The Labrador Fiasco
(1996)
The Blind Assassin(By: Michael O’Brien)
(2000)
Bottle
(2004)
The Heart Goes Last
(2015)
Publication Order of Anthologies
Points of View
(1956)
Women Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews
(1989)
The Best American Short Stories 1989
(1989)
The Faber Book of Contemporary Canadian Short Stories
(1990)
Colors of a New Day
(1990)
Cries of the Spirit: A Celebration of Women’s Spirituality
(1991)
The Short Story: 30 Masterpieces
(1992)
Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories
(1992)
Ploughshares Winter 1993-94
(1993)
Minding the Body
(1994)
First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Writers
(1994)
The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women
(1995)
Ten
(1996)
Sunrise to Sunset
(1997)
Wild Women
(1997)
Mistresses of the Dark
(1998)
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
(1998)
The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction
(1999)
Turn of the Story: Canadian Short Fiction on the Eve of the Millennium
(1999)
Ovid Metamorphosed
(2000)
When The Wild Comes Leaping Up
(2002)
The Common Sky: Canadian Writers Against the War
(2003)
The Eloquent Short Story: An Anthology of Narrative Styles
(2004)
More Stories We Tell
(2004)
The Virago Book of the Joy of Shopping
(2007)
The Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories
(2007)
The Scotiabank Giller Prize 15 Years: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Canadian Fiction.
(2008)
Sisters
(2009)
FIRST WORDS: Earliest Writing from Favorite Contemporary Authors
(2009)
Crimespotting
(2009)
Half-Minute Horrors
(2009)
The Secret History of Science Fiction
(2009)
I’m With the Bears
(2011)
Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury
(2012)
The World Split Open
(2014)
Imaginarium 4
(2014)
Loosed Upon the World
(2015)
The Secret Loves of Geek Girls
(2015)
First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner
(2016)
Freeman’s Power
(2018)
Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers
