How does one of the greatest storytellers of our time write her own life? Internationally renowned literary legend Margaret Atwood joins us with her long-awaited autobiography, Book of Lives—a must-read for fans of her deeply influential body of work, and anyone who wants to learn more about the life of this Canadian icon. This event will also include special musical guests!

Beginning with her unconventional, nomadic childhood spent mostly in the wild forest of northern Québec, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking seminal moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape, from the cruel year that spawned Cat’s Eye to the Orwellian 1980s Berlin where she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale. In pages bursting with bohemian gatherings, her magical life with the writer Graeme Gibson, and major political turning points, we meet poets, bears, and larger-than-life characters that seem to come straight from the pages of one of her own novels. She’ll share more about how her life has shaped her art, and vice versa, in this conversation with Carol Off spanning the entirety of her staggering career. 

Presented with the support of Penguin Random House Canada.

Event Participants:

Margaret Atwood

MARGARET ATWOOD is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her novels include Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid's Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was a global number one bestseller and shared the Booker Prize. Her most recent publications are the poetry collections Dearly and Paper Boat; Burning Questions, a selection of essays; and Old Babes in the Wood, a volume of short stories. Atwood is a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, and has won numerous awards including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright, and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto, Canada.

Carol Off

CAROL OFF spent almost sixteen years co-hosting the multi-award-winning CBC radio program, As It Happens. Before that, she covered news and current affairs in Canada and around the world. Her first bestselling book, The Lion, The Fox and the Eagle: A Story of Generals and Justice in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, was published in 2000. Since then, she’s written three more award-winning works of narrative non-fiction, including All We Leave Behind: A Reporter’s Journey into the Lives of Others, winner of the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.