Margaret Atwood - The Penelopiad - The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus

The Chorus of Maids is a tribute to the use of such choruses in Greek drama. The convention of burlesquing the main action was present in the satyr plays performed before serious dramas.

Very many thanks to early readers Graeme Gibson, Jess Gibson, Ramsay and Eleanor Cook, Phyllida Lloyd, Jennifer Osti-Fonseca, Surya Bhattacharya, and John Cullen; to my British agents, Vivienne Schuster and Diana McKay, and to my North American agent, Phoebe Larmore; to Louise Dennys of Knopf Canada, who edited with esprit; to Heather Sangster, queen of the semi-colons, and to Arnold Conradi, who sent thought-rays from a distance; to Sarah Cooper and Michael Bradley, for general support and having lunch; to Coleen Quinn, who keeps me in shape; to Gene Goldberg, fastest mouth on the phone; to Eileen Allen and to Melincla Dabaay; and to Arthur Gelgoot Associates. And to Jamie Byng of Canongate, who leapt out from behind a gorse bush in Scotland and talked me into it.

Nominated for the inaugural 2005 Man Booker International Prize, which recognises one writer for his or her outstanding achievement in fiction, is the author of more than thirty-five internationally acclaimed works of fiction, poetry and critical essays.

Her numerous awards include the Governor General’s Award for The Handmaid’s Tale , and the Giller Prize and Italian Premio Mondale for Alias Grace . The Handmaid’s Tale , Cat’s Eye , Alias Grace , and Oryx and Crake were all shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, which she won with The Blind Assassin . She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, has been awarded the Norwegian Order of Literary Merit and the French Chevalier clans Order des Arts et des Lettres, and is a Foreign Honorary Member for Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She lives in Toronto.