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Margaret Atwood: Biography, Facts and Career

Who is Margaret Atwood? An evergreen, sourced profile: biography, key facts and career.

By the Pop Culture Files editorial team4 min read✓ Fact-checked
Margaret Atwood
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Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Her best-known work is the 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Order of Canada, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award for literature, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television. Atwood's works encompass a variety of themes including gender and identity, religion and myth, the power of language, climate change, genetic engineering, and power politics. Many of her poems are inspired by myths and fairy tales which interested her from a very early age.

Atwood is a founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Writers' Trust of Canada. She is also a Senior Fellow of Massey College, Toronto. She is the inventor of the LongPen device and associated technologies that facilitate remote robotic writing of documents.

Quick facts about Margaret Atwood

  • Full name: Margaret Atwood
  • Born: 1939-11-18
  • Nationality: Canada
  • Known as: Author
  • Wikidata ID: Q183492

Profile compiled from public Wikipedia and Wikidata data. Details can change over time.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Margaret Atwood?

Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor.

What nationality is Margaret Atwood?

Margaret Atwood is Canada.

When was Margaret Atwood born?

Margaret Atwood was born on 1939-11-18.

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