Margaret Eleanor Atwood, (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist,
literary critic, essayist, and
environmental activist. She is a winner of the
Arthur C. Clarke Award and
Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, has been shortlisted for the
Booker Prize five times, winning once, and has been a finalist for the
Governor General's Award several times, winning twice. In 2001 she was inducted into
Canada's Walk of Fame. She is also a founder of the
Writers' Trust of Canada, a non-profit literary organization that seeks to encourage Canada's writing community. Among innumerable contributions to
Canadian literature, she was a founding trustee of the
Griffin Poetry Prize.