Quick Facts

In addition to being a poet and writer, Margaret Atwood is also a teacher, an environmental activist, an inventor, a literary critic, an essayist, a teacher, a teacher, and a teacher of literature. She started creating plays and poetry at the age of six. Isn’t that fascinating? Later, she keeps writing and takes part in many writing programs, which encourages her to write more. She thus published her debut collection of poems in 1961 while still a student, earning the E.J. Pratt Medal. Since then, she has released 18 collections of poetry, 18 novels, 11 works of non-fiction, 9 anthologies of short stories, 8 picture books, 2 graphic novels, and several small press poetry and fiction editions.

Do you know that themes like gender and identity, religion and myth, the power of language, climate change, and “power politics” are all present throughout her works? She is the creator of the LongPen tool and related technologies that make remote robotic document writing possible. The following is a list of the accolades she received in her honor. You should scroll through the page below if you want to learn more about her and her writing profession.

How much is the Net worth of Margaret Atwood?

Since 1961, Margaret Atwood has worked in the literary field. She has authored and published numerous books, poems, and short stories during her career. She ought to have made a respectable sum of money from her writing career thus far. Her current estimated net worth is $30 million, according to certain web sources. Her pay and other financial information, however, have not yet been made public.

Early Years: When Margaret Atwood was born?

In 1939, Margaret Atwood’s parents gave birth to her. She is currently 82 years old. Her parents Carl Edmund Atwood and Margaret Dorothy welcomed her into the world as their second child. Her mother is a former dietician and nutritionist, while her father is an entomologist. Similar to him, she was raised in the remote parts of northern Quebec after being born in Ottawa, Ontario, and alternated between Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, and Toronto. The family’s continual relocation is a result of her father’s line of work. She is of White ethnicity and has Canadian citizenship.

She is a Christian and has a Scorpio astrological sign. Also, She started attending Leaside High School in Leaside, Toronto, when she was eight years old, and she graduated in 1957. She subsequently enrolled in Victoria College at the University of Toronto, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1961 with a concentration in philosophy, English, and French. Following that, she enrolled in Radcliffe College of Harvard University, where she earned an MA in 1962 and pursued doctoral studies for two years, however she did not complete her dissertation, The English Metaphysical Romance.

What is the Professional career of Margaret Atwood?

At the age of six, Margaret Atwood started writing plays and poems. Later, she took part in the Girl Guides of Canada’s Brownie program. In numerous of her publications, she has written about her Girl Guides-related experiences. She participated in the sophomore theatrical tradition of The Bob Comedy Revue and had poems and articles published in the collegiate literary publication Acta Victoriana during her time there. Her debut collection of poetry, Double Persephone, was released in 1961 by Hawkshead Press and was awarded the E.J. Pratt Medal. She worked as a lecturer and instructor between 1964 and 1970 at a number of universities, including the University of British Columbia, Sir George Williams University, and the University of Alberta.

She also released three further small press poetry collections from 1965 to 1968: Kaleidoscopes Baroque: a poem, Talismans for Children, Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein, and The Animals in That Country, all from the Cranbrook Academy of Art (1968). She released The Circle Game, another book of poems, in 1966 and was given the Governor General’s Award.
Also, She released The Edible Woman, her debut novel, in 1969. She was a lecturer and writer at York University and the University of Toronto from 1971 to 1973. The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970), Procedures for Underground (1970), Power Politics (1971), You Are Happy (1974), Selected Poems 1965-1975 (1976), and Two-Headed Poems were the six poetry volumes she published between 1970 and 1979. (1978). Surfacing (1972), Lady Oracle (1976), and Life Before Man (1979), which was a nominee for the Governor General’s Award, were the three novels she also released during this time.

More on Career

Her first non-fiction book, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Writing, which was published in 1972, served to establish her as a significant and developing voice in Canadian literature. Her debut collection of short stories, Dancing Girls, was released in 1977. It won both the St. Lawrence Award for Fiction and The Periodical Distributors of Canada Award for Short Fiction. With the publishing of Bodily Harm (1981) and The Handmaid’s Tale in the 1980s, her literary reputation continued to grow (1985). She was a finalist for the 1986 Booker Prize, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the 1985 Governor General’s Award, Cat’s Eye (1988), a finalist for the 1988 Governor General’s Award, and the 1989 Booker Prize.

In the 1980s, she held the positions of Berg Professor of English at New York University in 1986, MFA Honorary Chair at the University of Alabama in 1985, Writer-in-Residence at Macquarie University in 1987, and Writer-in-Residence at Trinity University in 1989. With the publication of the books The Robber Bride (1993), which made it to the Governor General’s Award finalist round and was shortlisted for the James Tiptree Jr. Award, and Alias Grace (1996), which won the 1996 Giller Prize and was also a finalist for the Booker Prize, the Governor General’s Award, and was nominated for the 1996 Orange Prize for Fiction, Her reputation as a writer grew throughout the 1990s. Her ninth book, The Blind Assassin, which received the Booker Prize and the Hammett Prize, was published in 2000.

More on Career

She was honored with a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2001. In 2003, she released Oryx and Crake, the first book in a series that also includes The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013), which have come to be referred to as the MaddAddam Trilogy. She released The Penelopiad, a novelette, in 2005 as a part of the Canongate Myth Series. Later, in 2007, a theatrical performance of The Penelopiad was presented. She produced a series of five lectures she gave as part of the Massey Lectures in 2008 titled Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth. The talks, which were also recorded and broadcast on CBC Radio One’s Ideas, were anticipated by the publication of the book. In 2010, at Somerset House in London, England, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

She published the contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Hag-Seed, in 2016. Together with co-creator and illustrator Johnnie Christmas, she started penning the superhero comic book series Angel Catbird that same year. She released The Testaments, a follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale, in 2019. It was declared that the book has shared the 2019 Booker Prize. She released Dearly in 2020, a book of poems that examines gifts and renewals, age and reflection, and absences and ends.

Awards and Achivements

Margaret Atwood holds numerous honorary degrees from various institutions and won some reputed awards during her career which are listed below:

• Governor General’s Award (1966; 1985)
• Companion of the Order of Canada (1981)
• Guggenheim fellowship (1981)
• Los Angeles Times Fiction Award (1986)
• American Humanist Association Humanist of the Year (1987)
• Nebula Award (1986) and Prometheus Award (1987), nominations, both science fiction awards.
• Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction (1987)
• Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1988)
• Canadian Booksellers Association Author of the Year (1989)
• Outstanding Canadian Award – Armenian Community Centre of Toronto (1989)
• Order of Ontario (1990)
• Trillium Book Award (1991; 1993; 1995)
• Government of France’s Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1994)
• Helmerich Award (1999), by the Tulsa Library Trust.
• Booker Prize (2000; 2019)
• Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement (2007)
• Prince of Asturias Award for Literature (2008)
• Fellow Royal Society of Literature (2010)
• Nelly Sachs Prize, Germany (2010)
• Dan David Prize, Israel (2010)
• Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Canada (2012)
• Los Angeles Times Book Prize “Innovator’s Award” (2012)
• Gold medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2015)
• Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings, Macedonia (2016)
• Franz Kafka Prize, Czech Republic (2017)
• Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Germany (2017)
• Companion of Honor (2019)
• Joint winner of the Booker Prize (2019)
• Dayton Literary Peace Prize (2020)
• British Academy President’s Medal (2020)
• Emerson-Thoreau Medal (2020)
• Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Who is the spouse of Margaret Atwood?

In 1968, Margaret Atwood wed Jim Polk in a joyful ceremony. However, the couple were only married for five years before divorcing in 1973. Following that, she starts dating novelist Graeme Gibson. In 1976, the couple blessed Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson, a daughter. Sadly, the pair enjoyed a happy life together until his passing in 2019. Currently, she and her daughter reside in Toronto.

Body Stats: What is Margaret Atwood’s height?

The height and weight of Margaret Atwood are 5 feet 7 inches and 65 kg, respectively. She has gorgeous greyish-green eyes, and her hair is a grey tint. Her other physical characteristics are still a secret. If disclosure occurs, we’ll let you know.

 

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