Canadian novelist, essayist and poet Margaret Atwood has been awarded the top German literary prize for her “political intuition and clairvoyance when it comes to dangerous underlying trends and currents,” the German Publishers & Booksellers Association announced today.
The 77-year-old author, whose works have been translated into some 30 languages, will be presented the 25,000-euro ($37,000 Cdn) Peace Prize of the German Book Trade on October 15, 2017 at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
“As one of the most important storytellers of our era, Atwood fearlessly probes shifting patterns of thought and behavior in both her utopian and dystopian works,” the Board of Trustees of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade said in a statement.
“Humanity, justice and tolerance are the unvarying characteristics of Atwood’s work. With an alert eye and a profound knowledge of humankind, she observes the world around her and articulates her verdicts and concerns for our fate in an equally eloquent and vivid literary manner.”
The author of more than 40 books of fiction, poetry and critical essays, Atwood has already won numerous international prizes, including the Man Booker Prize in 2000 and this year’s Franz Kafka Prize.
Atwood is best known for novels including the dystopian feminist classic “The Handmaid’s Tale,” now a major TV series, and “The Blind Assassin,” for which she won the Booker.
Atwood was born on November 18, 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario and Quebec, and in Toronto. From 1957 to 1962, Margaret Atwood studied English and literature at universities in Toronto and Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1964, she began working as a professor of literature at various universities.
Her latest book of short stories is Stone Mattress: Nine Tales (2014). Her MaddAddam trilogy – the Giller and Booker prize-nominated Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013) – is currently being adapted for HBO.
Atwood is also active beyond her creative work. She is a well-known environmental activist and since May 2017, together with Salman Rushdie, she has also headed up a PEN International campaign to help writers suffering persecution and censorship.
She lives in Toronto with her husband, the writer Graeme Gibson.
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