Esteemed Facts About Margaret Atwood
“Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I’m a realist.”—Margaret Atwood
One of the most prolific and well-known Canadian novelists of all time, Margaret Atwood is also a poet, essayist, literary critic, and environmental activist. She’s written dozens of books in the fiction and non-fiction categories and has racked up an impressive collection of prestigious awards. Her words have inspired films and television series, including The Handmaid’s Tale, which is currently captivating audiences on Hulu. Of course, it’s all well and good to heap further praise on Atwood, but we at Factinate strive to follow up our hype with lists of great tidbits. So without further ado, here is our list of 43 facts about Margaret Atwood!
Margaret Atwood Facts
1. That One Epiphany
Atwood’s first ever poem was written in when she was in high school. In 1956, she got the inspiration for her poem while walking across a football field.
After going home and putting the poem to paper, she realized in that instant that she was a writer and that writing was the only thing she wanted to do with the rest of her life.
2. Who Did This Artwork?
Before her interest in literature developed, however, Atwood’s passion lay in the art of painting. Even when she’d embraced her writing career, she put this passion towards personally designing the Canadian covers for most of her poetry books.
3. Stealthy
In between writing poetry and novels, Atwood spent part of the 1970s moonlighting as a comics artist as well! She wrote a comic strip titled Kanadian Kulture Komics under the pseudonym Bart Gerrard. It was published by This Magazine.
