Born in Ottawa, Atwood spent her formative years in Toronto. After graduating from the University of Toronto’s Victoria College in 1961, she moved to Boston and attended graduate school at Harvard, where she earned her master’s in 1963. Atwood’s professional career began the following year as an English instructor at the University of British Columbia, an experience that cured her of any interest in a full-time teaching career. That same year, Atwood experienced her first brush with literary fame when her second collection of poetry, The Circle Game, gained widespread critical acclaim.
Her first novel, The Edible Woman, appeared in 1969 and was immediately embraced by followers and supporters of the burgeoning feminist movement. Her second novel, Surfacing, followed in 1972 and remains a staple of Canadian literature courses.
Throughout the following decade, Atwood delivered six additional volumes of poetry, three short-story collections, and three more novels: Lady Oracle, Life Before Man, and Bodily Harm. All were national bestsellers.
In 1985, she published The Handmaid’s Tale, the dazzling, futuristic story of a negative utopia that elevated Atwood from national treasure to international sensation. Each of her subsequent books, including the novels Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, and Alias Grace, have earned international acclaim and expanded her worldwide popularity.
In addition to her induction as the first novelist and poet on Canada’s Walk of Fame, Unquestionably one of the finest novelists, poets and storytellers this country has produced, Atwood is typically Canadian in her modesty. When asked to explain how she resists the temptation to become a literary snob, Atwood replied: “I think we could probably rephrase the question: ‘How do you maintain a sense of proportion?’ or ‘How do you keep values straight?’ In that case, I can say that it certainly helps to be Canadian; we don’t put up with people who get too high and mighty. Start flinging it about and we get out our pins! I think it’s always a mistake to believe your own billboards.”
