阿特伍德（Margaret Atwood），加拿大当代著名女诗人、作家，1939年11月18日生于渥太华。父亲是自然科学家，经常到森林里研究昆虫，所以童年的大量时间在阿特伍德在魁北克省北部偏远地带度过，并来往于渥太华、苏圣玛丽、多伦多。11岁才开始进全日制学校。后来进入多伦多的利赛德高级中学（Leaside High School），并于1957年毕业，然后就学于多伦多大学的维多利亚学院（Victoria University in the University of Toronto），教他的教授中有知名的学者弗莱（Northrop Frye），1961年毕业并获文学士学位。随后，在哈佛大学拉德克里夫学院（Harvard's Radcliffe College）攻读硕士学位，1962年获得硕士学位。之后仍在哈佛大学攻读博士学位，中途辍学。1965年任教于英国哥伦比亚大学（University of British Columbia），1967至1968年在蒙特利尔的圣乔治威廉姆斯大学（Sir George Williams University），1969年至1979年在艾尔贝塔大学（the University of Alberta），1971至1972年在多伦多的约克大学（York University），以及纽约大学（New York University）。
著有诗集《Double Persephone》(1961)、《圆圈游戏》（The Circle Game，1964）、《探险队》（Expeditions ，1965）、《为弗兰肯斯坦博士所做的演讲》（Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein，1966）、《那个国家的动物》（The Animals in That Country，1968）、《苏珊娜·莫黛日志》（The Journals of Susanna Moodie，1970）、《地铁的手续》（Procedures for Underground，1970）、《强权政治》（Power Politics，1971）、《你是快乐的》（You Are Happy，1974）、《诗选》（Selected Poems，1976）、《双题诗》（Two-Headed Poems，1978）、《真实故事》（True Stories，1981）、《临终者的情歌》（Love songs of a Terminator，1983）、《Interlunar》(1984)、《焚毁房屋里的早晨》（Morning in the Burned House，1996）、《吃火：诗选，1965—1995》（Eating Fire: Selected Poems, 1965-1995，1998）、《门》（The Door，2007）等。
著有长篇小说《可以吃的女人》（The Edible Woman，1969）、《浮升》（Surfacing，1972）、《欧蕾珂女士》（Lady Oracle，1976）、《男人之前的生活》（Life Before Man，1979）、《波迪利·哈姆》（Bodily Harm，1981）、《女仆的故事》（The Handmaid's Tale，1985）、《猫眼》（Cat's Eye，1988）、《强盗新娘》（The Robber Bride，1993）、《别名格蕾丝》（Alias Grace，1996）、《盲刺客》（The Blind Assassin、2000）、《羚羊与秧鸡》（Oryx and Crake，2003）、《The Penelopiad》（2005）、《上帝的园丁》（God's Gardeners，预计于2009年出版）等。
另有短篇小说集《跳舞的女孩》（Dancing Girls，1977）等多部。
Postcards
I'm thinking about you. What else can I say?
The palm trees on the reverse
are a delusion; so is the pink sand.
What we have are the usual
fractured coke bottles and the smell
of backed-up drains, too sweet,
like a mango on the verge
of rot, which we have also.
The air clear sweat, mosquitoes
& their tracks; birds & elusive.
Time comes in waves here, a sickness, one
day after the other rolling on;
I move up, it's called
awake, then down into the uneasy
nights but never
forward. The roosters crow
for hours before dawn, and a prodded
child howls & howls
on the pocked road to school.
In the hold with the baggage
there are two prisoners,
their heads shaved by bayonets, & ten crates
of queasy chicks. Each spring
there's race of cripples, from the store
to the church. This is the sort of junk
I carry with me; and a clipping
about democracy from the local paper.
Outside the window
they're building the damn hotel,
nail by nail, someone's
crumbling dream. A universe that includes you
can't be all bad, but
does it? At this distance
you're a mirage, a glossy image
fixed in the posture
of the last time I saw you.
Turn you over, there's the place
for the address. Wish you were
here. Love comes
in waves like the ocean, a sickness which goes on
& on, a hollow cave
in the head, filling & pounding, a kicked ear.
You're sad because you're sad.
It's psychic. It's the age. It's chemical.
Go see a shrink or take a pill,
or hug your sadness like an eyeless doll
you need to sleep.
Well, all children are sad
but some get over it.
Count your blessings. Better than that,
buy a hat. Buy a coat or pet.
Take up dancing to forget.
Forget what?
Your sadness, your shadow,
whatever it was that was done to you
the day of the lawn party
when you came inside flushed with the sun,
your mouth sulky with sugar,
in your new dress with the ribbon
and the ice-cream smear,
and said to yourself in the bathroom,
I am not the favorite child.
My darling, when it comes
right down to it
and the light fails and the fog rolls in
and you're trapped in your overturned body
under a blanket or burning car,
and the red flame is seeping out of you
and igniting the tarmac beside you head
or else the floor, or else the pillow,
none of us is;
or else we all are.
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