Margaret Atwood. Wikimedia Commons · see source for licensing.
Poet · Pairing X
Margaret Atwood
b. 1939 · Canadian poet, novelist, and critic
Margaret Atwood is one of the most celebrated living writers in the English language — a Canadian poet, novelist, and essayist whose work is known for its sharp intelligence, wit, and feminist edge. Though many readers first meet her through novels such as The Handmaid’s Tale, she began as a poet and has published many collections of verse.
A recurring move in her poetry is to retell old stories — myths, fairy tales, historical episodes — from the point of view of the figures those stories usually silence. “Siren Song,” from her 1974 collection You Are Happy, is a perfect example: it hands the microphone to one of Homer’s deadly Sirens and lets her expose, with dry irony, exactly how her trap works.
Atwood has won many of the world’s major literary honours, including the Booker Prize (twice), and remains an influential public voice on politics, technology, and the environment.
In this curriculum
Read her in Pairing X — Mythology Remixed →