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Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is a Canadian novelist, poet and essayist known for The Handmaid’s Tale. She published the memoir Book of Lives in 2025.
Personality
Atwood's public writing combines close observation with invented social worlds. Novels, poems and essays explore power, identity and the effects of decisions on other people. Her work also includes humor and changes of viewpoint, rather than presenting one fixed kind of narrator. These qualities belong to the books themselves. The broad range of subjects and forms gives a more concrete description than assigning a personality to the author.
Under pressure
Atwood has repeatedly described speculative writing as grounded in things people have already done or could plausibly do. The Handmaid's Tale drew its imagined society from historical precedents rather than an entirely detached future. She has continued working across fiction and nonfiction, including essays and a memoir. That approach documents the research and formal choices behind the writing, without treating a fictional character's experience as the author's own temperament.
The arc
Born in Ottawa, Atwood spent part of her childhood in Canadian forests and later studied at the University of Toronto and Radcliffe. Poetry and early novels led to a large body of work including The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye and The Blind Assassin. The Testaments followed in 2019. She remains an active Canadian writer; her memoir Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts was published in 2025.
Legacy
Atwood's writing has reached audiences through books and screen adaptations, with The Handmaid's Tale especially prominent in public discussion. The Blind Assassin and The Testaments received Booker Prizes. Her poetry, criticism and nonfiction also form substantial parts of the career. The 2025 memoir gives readers another way into that history, connecting the circumstances of her life with the creation of books rather than replacing the books with a single label.
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