Book of Lives, Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood’s dedication to truth-telling feels much needed in today’s era of censorship and attacks on human and environmental rights. Her body of work is an example of how to use high-intelligence in the service of critical thinking, how to speak out against tyranny in creative ways, and and how writing can be an act of resistance. Atwood’s 2025 memoir Book of Lives contains a description of being at an author event where a male audience member told Atwood that her 1984 book The Handmaid’s Tale is autobiographical. She insisted that it isn’t; she didn’t actually live through a totalitarian regime where she was forced to have babies for elite religious leaders; yet on the level that everything a writer creates passes through their own mind, all writing is autobiographical, she admits. In addition to sharing personal details about her entire life and ancestry in Book of Lives , Atwood reveals the inspiration for many of her bo...
