Description

Gathered from Margaret Atwood’s work over the decade of 1965–1975, Selected Poems 1 is a lasting collection from one of our most celebrated contemporary writers.

Margaret Atwood’s early poetry garnered widespread critical recognition and helped establish her reputation as one of the most provocative modern literary talents. Selected Poems 1 draws from six volumes published early in Atwood’s career: The Circle Game (1966), which received the Governor General’s Award; The Animals in That Country (1968); Procedures for Underground (1970); The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970); Power Politics (1971); and You Are Happy (1974). In these early poems, Atwood considers the space between the cruelties of civilization and the wonders of nature, the dissonance of Canadian identity, and the line where beauty becomes sinister. With poems that are “glistening with terse, bright images, untentative, closing like a vise” (New York Times), this is an essential collection to be treasured for years to come.

About the Author

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the author of over fifty books, including fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning television series, her works include Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The MaddAddam Trilogy; The Heart Goes Last; Hag-Seed; The Testaments, which won the Booker Prize and was long-listed for the Giller Prize; and the poetry collection Dearly. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in Great Britain for her services to literature. She lives in Toronto.

Praise For…

“Atwood’s poems are short, glistening with terse, bright images, untentative, closing like a vise. . . . A plain, explicit poetry, perfectly sure of itself.”  — New York Times

"Atwood's powers of observation are disconcertingly acute, combining an ear for the vernacular with an eye for the jugular." — Time

"A large and remarkable writer. Her concerns are nowhere petty." — Marge Piercy