Margaret Atwood`s profile.

Margaret Atwood`s profile.

Birth name: Margaret Eleanor Atwood

Nickname (name change) : Margaret Atwood Occupation: Author, activist, poet, feminist, critic, social campaigner Birth date: November 18, 1939 Birth place: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Nationality: Canadian Spouse/Partner: Jim Polk (divorced), then Graeme Gibson (partner) Child: Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson Popular work ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (1983) This novel is about a dystopia influenced by George Orwell`s classic ‘1984’. The story is set in a futuristic USA in the Republic of Gilead, a state ruled by religious fundamentalists. All the freedom women have gained are revoked and language is forbidden to all but the male élite. The narrator, Offered, is a ‘handmaid’ - valued for her ovaries. She is one of the few women whose reproductive systems have survived the chemical pollution and radiation from power plants. The book was filmed in 1990 by Volker Schlöndorff from a screenplay by Harold Pinter. In the film the protagonist becomes an active revolutionary who finally cuts the throat of her owner. However, in Atwood`s book, the events are seen through the eyes of the main character, whose weapons are irony and keen observation - she keeps a secret diary. Moreover, Atwood often uses a first-person narrator, whose perspective is limited. Offered says at one place in the book, “I try not to think too much. Like other things now, thought must be rationed. There`s a lot that doesn`t bear thinking about. Thinking can hurt your chances, and I intend to last.” The tale is interspersed with flashbacks to her earlier life, when she had a husband, Luke, a 5-year-old daughter, and when she was allowed to read. ‘The Blind Assassin’ (2000) This book is based on true incidents, though it is represented with full imaginary freedom. Atwood won the Booker for this novel. It is about two sisters, one of whom, Laura Chase, dies in a car accident in 1945 under ambiguous circumstances. Two years later the body of Richard E Griffen, a prominent industrialist, is found dead. And in 1975 Aimee Griffen dies of a broken neck. The only person who knows the circumstances behind these deaths is Iris Chase Griffen, Laura`s elder sister, Richard`s wife, Aimee`s mother. The richly layered story then continues as a postmodern novel-within-a-novel, using an excerpt from Laura Chase`s novella, ‘The Blind Assassin’, posthumously published in 1947. It deals with an affair between a wealthy young woman and her lover, a radical on the run. Much of the action consists of a fantasy, improvised by the man, in which child carpet weavers, blinded by the work, find new work as assassins. Other works Starting at 19 with a collection of poems titled ‘Double Persephone’, Atwood has penned: Novels: The Edible Woman (1969) Surfacing (1972) Lady Oracle (1976) Life Before Man (1979, finalist for the Governor General`s Award) Bodily Harm (1981) The Handmaid`s Tale (1985, winner of the 1987 Arthur C. Clarke Award and 1985 Governor General`s Award, finalist for the 1986 Booker Prize) Cat`s Eye (1988, finalist for the 1988 Governor General`s Award and the 1989 Booker Prize) The Robber Bride (1993, finalist for the 1994 Governor General`s Award) Alias Grace (1996, winner of the 1996 Giller Prize, finalist for the 1996 Booker Prize and the 1996 Governor General`s Award) The Blind Assassin (2000, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize and finalist for the 2000 Governor General`s Award) Oryx and Crake (2003, finalist for the 2003 Booker Prize and the 2003 Governor General`s Award) The Penelopiad (2005, longlisted for the 2007 IMPAC Award) The Year of the Flood (September 2009, Oryx and Crake followup) Short stories: Dancing Girls (1977, winner of the St. Lawrence Award for Fiction and the award of The Periodical Distributors of Canada for Short Fiction) Murder in the Dark (1983) Bluebeard`s Egg (1983) Through the One-Way Mirror (1986) Wilderness Tips (1991, finalist for the Governor General`s Award) Good Bones (1992) Good Bones and Simple Murders (1994) The Labrador Fiasco (1996) The Tent (2006) Moral Disorder (2006) Poetry collections: Double Persephone (1961) The Circle Game (1964, winner of the 1966 Governor General`s Award) Expeditions (1965) Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein (1966) The Animals in That Country (1968) The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970) Procedures for Underground (1970) Power Politics (1971) You Are Happy (1974) Selected Poems (1976) Two-Headed Poems (1978) True Stories (1981) Love songs of a Terminator (1983) Interlunar (1984) Morning in the Burned House, McClelland & Stewart (1995) Eating Fire: Selected Poems, 1965-1995 (1998) The Door (2007) Non-fiction: Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (1972) Days of the Rebels 1815-1840 (1977) Second Words: Selected Critical Prose (1982) Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature (1995) Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (2002) Moving Targets: Writing with Intent, 1982-2004 (2004) Writing with Intent: Essays, Reviews, Personal Prose--1983-2005 (2005) Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (2008) Short story collections: Dancing Girls (1977, winner of the St. Lawrence Award for Fiction and the award of The Periodical Distributors of Canada for Short Fiction) Murder in the Dark (1983) Bluebeard`s Egg (1983) Through the One-Way Mirror (1986) Wilderness Tips (1991, finalist for the Governor General`s Award) Good Bones (1992) Good Bones and Simple Murders (1994) The Labrador Fiasco (1996) The Tent (2006) Moral Disorder (2006) Televised scripts: The Servant Girl (1974) Snowbird (1981) Heaven on Earth (1986) Awards 1966 Governor General`s Literary Award for Poetry (Canada) The Circle Game 1977 Canadian Booksellers Association Award Lady Oracle 1977 Toronto Book Award Lady Oracle 1978 St Lawrence Award for Fiction (Canada) Lady Oracle 1982 Arts Council of Wales International Writers Prize Bodiy Harm 1986 Governor General`s Literary Award for Fiction (Canada) The Handmaid`s Tale 1987 Arthur C Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction The Handmaid`s Tale 1987 Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) The Handmaid`s Tale 1987 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Caribbean and Canada Region, Best Book) The Handmaid`s Tale 1987 Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Fiction) The Handmaid`s Tale 1987 Ritz Hemingway Prize (France) (shortlist) The Handmaid`s Tale 1989 Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Cat`s Eye 1989 Canadian Booksellers Association Award Cat`s Eye 1989 Toronto Book Award Cat`s Eye 1993 Canadian Authors` Association Novel of the Year The Robber Bride 1994 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Caribbean and Canada Region, Best Book) The Robber Bride 1994 Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence The Robber Bride 1996 Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Alias Grace 1996 Giller Prize (Canada) Alias Grace 1997 Canadian Booksellers Association Author of the Year 1997 National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature (USA) 1997 Premio Mondello (Italy) Alias Grace 1998 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (shortlist) Alias Grace 2000 Booker Prize for Fiction The Blind Assassin 2001 Crime Writers` Association Dashiell Hammett Award The Blind Assassin 2001 Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist) The Blind Assassin 2002 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (shortlist) The Blind Assassin 2003 Man Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Oryx and Crake 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Oryx and Crake 2005 Man Booker International Prize (shortlist) 2006 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature (shortlist) The Penelopiad: the Myth of Penelope and Odysseus 2007 Man Booker International Prize (shortlist) 2008 Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature (Spain) Criticism/controversies She is perhaps best known for her novels, in which she creates strong, often enigmatic, women characters and excels in telling open-ended stories, while dissecting contemporary urban life and sexual politics. Atwood`s fiction is often symbolic. She has moved easily between satire and fantasy, and enlarged the boundaries of traditional realism. Quotes “The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them; there ought to be as many for love.” “The answers you get from literature depend upon the questions you pose.” “Fear has a smell, as Love does.” “If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia.” “A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter as fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.” “Sons branch out, but one woman leads to another.”