Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth ­ in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.

Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson. 

Born: 18 November, 1939. Ottawa, Ontario.

Education: Victoria College, University of Toronto, B.A., 1961; Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass., A.M., 1962; Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1962-63, 1965-67.

Places of Residence: Ottawa, 1939-45; Sault Ste. Marie, 1945; Toronto, 1946-61; Boston, Mass., 1961-63; Toronto, 1963-64; Vancouver, 1964-65; Boston, Mass.1965-67; Montreal, 1967-68; Edmonton, 1968-70; England (London), France, Italy, 1970-71; Toronto, 1971-73; Alliston, Ontario, 1973-80; Toronto, 1980-83; England, Germany, 1983-84; Alabama, 1985; Toronto, 1986-91; France, 1992; Toronto, 1992-present.

Employment: Lecturer in English, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 1964-65; Instructor in English, Sir George Williams University, Montreal, 1967-68; University of Alberta, 1969-70; Assistant Professor of English, York University, Toronto, 1971-72; Writer-In-Residence, University of Toronto, 1972-73; M.F.A. Honorary Chair, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1985; Berg Chair, New York University, 1986; Writer-In-Residence, Macquarie Univ., Australia, 1987; Writer-In-Residence, Trinity Univ., San Antonio, Texas, 1989.

Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.

For information on Margaret Atwood's publications, click here.

 
 
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Twitter Margaret Margaret's Blog The Year Of The Flood



A beautiful special edition series of my books was published by my UK Publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing, to celebrate my 70th birthday this past November. The titles included in the series are: Surfacing, The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin,
and Oryx and Crake.

Aug. 13- Aug. 15: Winterset Literary Festival in Eastport, NFLD (Bonavista
Bay).

Aug. 29: Listen to The Bottom Line with David Suzuki on CBC Radio One from 11am to 1pm, in every time zone, to hear David's interview with Margaret on the relationship between life and death.

Aug. 29—Sept. 12: Adventure Canada trip to Arctic.

Sept. 20: The Year of the Flood paperback launch event - 92nd Street Y in New York.

Sept. 21: Portsmouth, New Hampshire- Writers on a New England Stage.

Sept. 23: Portland, Oregon- Portland Arts & Lectures- together in conversation with Ursula K. Le Guin.

Sept. 26-31: Keynote speaker for International PEN congress in Japan -“Literature and the Environment”.

Oct. 13: Toronto- Opening night for Ron Mann's In the Wake of the Flood at the Bell Lightbox for Planet in Focus 11th International Film & Video Festival.

Oct. 24-26: Atlanta, Georgia- Delivering the Ellman Lectures at Emory University.

Oct. 27-29: Nashville, Tennessee - Belmont University. Lecture/Reading followed by Q & A.

Nov. 17: Laurentian University for Sixth Annual Margaret Atwood Birthday Dinner.

Nov. 19: Edmonton, Alberta. Opening speaker for Parkland Institute's 2010 Annual Fall Conference at the University of Alberta.

Nov. 30: Toronto- Read for the Cure

March 7-14: Attending Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.