Key Facts
name of poet · Margaret Eleanor Atwood
date of birth · November 18, 1939
place of birth · Ottawa, Ontario
favored meter(s) and rhyme scheme(s) · None
favored named form(s) · Free verse
poetic and political movements to which the
poet belonged · Canadian nationalist poets of the 1960s
· Second-wave feminism
related poets · Gwendolyn McEwen, Milton Acorn, Michael Ondaatje, Jay McPherson
themes · Civilization vs. wilderness; the inevitability of death
motifs · Photographs
symbols · The snake; the moon; the female body
other relevant facts · Atwood is perhaps most famous for her novels, among
them The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Cat’s
Eye (1988),
and The Blind Assassin, which was awarded the Booker
Prize in 2000.
Two other recent novels, Alias Grace (1996)
and Oryx and Crake (2003),
have both been international bestsellers.
