The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Atwood, Margaret Eleanor
1939–, Canadian novelist and poet. Her writing treats contemporary issues, such as feminism, sexual politics, the fate of Canada and Canadian literature, and the intrusive nature of mass society. Her best-known novel, The Handmaid’s Tale (1986), is set in a mid-21st-century American dystopia ruled by religious extremists. Atwood is a skilled and powerful storyteller whose novels have sometimes made use of such popular genres as the historical novel, detective tale, and science fiction. Among her other works are novels such as The Edible Woman (1969), Surfacing (1972), Bodily Harm (1981), The Robber Bride (1993), Alias Grace (1996), The Blind Assassin (2000; Booker Prize), Oryx and Crake (2003), and The Penelopiad (2005). Her short-story collections include Dancing Girls (1983), Bluebeard’s Eggs (1993), and Moral Disorder (2006). She has also written several volumes of poetry, including The Circle Game (1965), Power Politics (1970), and True Stories (1981), and numerous essays.
See interviews in E. G. Ingersoll, ed., Margaret Atwood: Conversations (1990) and V.-L. Beaulieu, ed., Two Solicitudes: Conversations (1998); biography by N. Cooke (1998); studies by A. E. and C. N. Davidson, ed. (1981), S. E. Grace and L. Weir (1983), F. Davey (1984), J. Mallinson (1984), J. H. Rosenberg (1984), B. H. Rigney (1987), J. McCombs, ed. (1988), K. VanSpanckeren and J. G. Castro, ed. (1988), S. Hengen (1993), E. Rao (1993), S. R. Wilson (1993), C. Nicholson, ed. (1994), C. A. Howells (1996), L. M. York, ed. (1994), K. F. Stein (1999), H. Bloom, ed. (2000), R. M. Nischik, ed. (2000), P. Cuder (2003), C. Tennant (2003), and S. R. Wilson (2003).
