Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood has long championed reading as an act of resistance. She has used her voice and platform to campaign for a juster, fairer world and promote free speech. This has never felt more necessary, more urgent and more welcome. From The Handmaid’s Tale to The Blind Assassin to Oryx and Crake to The Testaments, Atwood is both a beacon and a bulwark, one of our finest examples of what a writer can be and what writing can do.

Atwood has been a published author since 1966, writing poetry collections first in her native Canada, and her second novel, Surfacing in 1972. Since then she has written 17 novels, as well as 19 books of poetry, 11 nonfiction works, nine short story collections, eight children’s books and three graphic novels. What's remarkable is that after this 60-year-long career in books, her latest, Book of Lives A Memoir of Sorts, may just be her most anticipated publication yet. 

For Atwood has never been more now. In an era marked by the rollback of women’s rights, the global rise of populism, the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and escalating climate crisis, as well as increasing threats to diversity, freedom of thought, and expression, Atwood’s voice resonates with a clarity and urgency that is profound and timely. From The Handmaid’s Tale to The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake to The Testaments, her immense body of work offers not only a powerful counter to societal challenges, but also a lens through which we can better understand them.

The book as a warning, the author as the hope.