Margaret Atwood
Former residence, 3800 Block, W. 11th Ave.
Plaque is on lamppost on south side of 3800 block of W. 11th Ave., at west end of the block.
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Photo credit: Jean Malek
"And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light."
From The Handmaid’s Tale
One of Canada’s foremost authors, Margaret Atwood, lived near here in 1964-1965 while working as a lecturer at UBC. “It was a wonderful breakthrough year for me,” she has recalled. “In it, I finished writing The Circle Game and wrote all of the draft of The Edible Woman… The people who gave me the most support were [writer] Jane Rule and [English professor] Helen Sonthoff… I loved the entire year and the only reason I didn’t stay was that I felt I had to go back and complete the work for my Ph.D. or I would always be an academic floorscrubber.” Margaret Atwood returned to Ontario and has since published more than forty books.
