Iconic Canadian author Margaret Atwood is more than a beloved novelist, poet, and essayist. She’s also a feminist, environmental activist, and innovator—in 2004, she invented a remote robotic writing device called the LongPen. Atwood’s works reflect her inventiveness and passions. Her writing deals with themes of feminism and gender identity, art and expression, animal rights, political activism, and environmentalism. Atwood examines these themes across many genres, including nonfiction, poetry, dystopian fiction, science fiction, and retellings of mythology.
Margaret Atwood has been incredibly prolific and influential since her first publication, the poetry book Double Persephone, released in 1961. In a career that has spanned more than 60 years, Atwood has published more than 60 works, including novels, short story collections, poetry, nonfiction, children’s books, and graphic novels. In other words, there are plenty of Atwood’s works to read and listen to. But if you're seeking new authors whose work will resonate with fans of The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake, and The Blind Assassin, here are a dozen well worth checking out. The 15 authors we've spotlighted explore similar themes to Margaret Atwood's favorites.
Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro is a Nobel Prize-winning British novelist, screenwriter, and short story author whose works explore issues of identity, regret, and nostalgia. Like Atwood, Ishiguro's writing spans many genres, but one genre he often returns to is literary sci-fi, as he did in his most recent novel, Klara and the Sun.
Why Atwood fans will like Ishiguro: Both Atwood and Ishiguro use the literary science fiction genre to explore more conceptual themes of identity and human connection.
Must listen: You can’t go wrong with Never Let Me Go, Margaret Atwood's pick for her favorite Ishiguro novel. In a recent piece for The Guardian, Atwood described Never Let Me Go as "a brilliantly executed book by a master craftsman who has chosen a difficult subject: ourselves, seen through a glass, darkly.”
Octavia E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler’s works are often compared to Margaret Atwood's and vice versa, to the point where many have wondered if Butler and Atwood have influenced each other. Winner of Hugo and Nebula awards and a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, Butler aimed to write science fiction stories that explore issues of race and class with strong women at their center.
Why Atwood fans will like Butler: If you love Atwood’s sci-fi and speculative fiction stories because they often focus on issues of feminism and social justice, then you’ll be pleased to see the same strengths in Butler’s storytelling.
Must listen: Fans of Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy will also enjoy Butler’s dystopian series Earthseed, beginning with Parable of the Sower.
Yoko Ogawa
For another prolific author like Margaret Atwood who writes across eclectic genres, try Yoko Ogawa. Ogawa is a Japanese writer who has published more than 50 works of fiction and nonfiction since 1988.
Why Atwood fans will like Ogawa: Like Atwood's fiction, Yoko Ogawa’s novels feature interesting and complicated female characters reckoning with their identity and self-expression.
Must listen: For an unsettling dystopian story like the ones Atwood writes so well, give Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police a listen.
Naomi Alderman
Naomi Alderman is a British novelist who is also a feminist and women’s right activist. Like Atwood, Alderman’s activism has greatly influenced her work. What's more, Naomi Alderman was selected as a protégée by Margaret Atwood under the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative program in 2012.
Why Atwood fans will like Alderman: As Margaret Atwood’s mentee, Naomi Alderman unsurprisingly exhibits touches of the Canadian author’s style in her own writing. In fact, Alderman’s work has even been described as “Atwoodian.”
Must listen: You’ll want to listen to Alderman’s The Power, a dystopian novel that looks at what happens when gender roles are reversed after young women across the globe are given a formidable power. Alderman dedicated this novel to her mentor, Margaret Atwood.
Sophie Mackintosh
Sophie Mackintosh is a British novelist and short story writer who was nominated for the 2018 Man Booker Prize for her debut novel, The Water Cure. Although a relatively new author, Mackintosh has already established a strong narrative voice.
Why Atwood fans will like Mackintosh: Similar to Atwood’s works, Mackintosh’s novels use apocalyptic and dystopian story lines to explore the real struggles that women face.
Must listen: If you love The Handmaid's Tale, check out Mackintosh’s acclaimed feminist dystopian novel, Blue Ticket.
Madeline Miller
American novelist Madeline Miller kept her day job as a Latin and Greek teacher while she worked on her first novel, The Song of Achilles, which took 10 years to write. The amount of research and time Miller invested in her publishing debut certainly paid off: The Song of Achilles went on to win the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her second novel was released in 2018, and between the two novels, Miller has already developed quite a devoted following.
Why Atwood fans will like Miller: Miller is known for her stunning and thought-provoking stories that reimagine mythology through a feminist lens. For Atwood fans who especially love her works like The Penelopiad, Madeline Miller is the obvious next step.
Must listen: Miller’s sophomore novel Circe, a story told from the perspective of the enchantress in Homer’s Odyssey, is not to be missed.
Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng is an American novelist and short story writer of Chinese heritage whose works draw on her own experiences of racism. Raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, she studied English and American Literature at Harvard University and earned her Master of Fine Arts in writing from the University of Michigan. Among prestigious honors, she won a Pushcart Prize in 2012 and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020.
Why Atwood fans will like Ng: Celeste Ng’s thoughtful, intimate stories about family secrets, societal expectations, and entrenched biases will appeal to those drawn to Atwood's brilliant explorations of complex personal relationships within rigid societies.
Must listen: Set in a dystopian near-future America, Our Missing Hearts explores censorship, prejudice, resistance, and the power of women—recurring themes in Atwood’s novels.
Ling Ma
Ling Ma was born in Sanming, China, and grew up in Utah, Nebraska, and Kansas. Her debut novel, the post-apocalyptic Severance, received the Kirkus Prize. While Ma’s novel imagines a world much different than the worlds imagined in Atwood’s apocalyptic and dystopian novels, both authors explore politically charged themes. Additionally, Ling Ma’s work examines feelings of otherness and a search for identity.
Why Atwood fans will like Ma: Ma’s writing examines what happens when injustices in the world are swept under the rug and allowed to continue until it is far too late to stop them, much like what happens in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
Must listen: Ling Ma’s Severance is a dystopian novel with inventiveness and political drive that are certain to resonate with Atwood fans.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin was an American author who, like Margaret Atwood, wrote across many genres, including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She is best known for her speculative fiction that explores themes from politics, gender identity, and race to sexuality and coming of age.
Why Atwood fans will like Le Guin: Ursula K. Le Guin is beloved for her feminist science fiction and fantasy stories. So, if what you most admire about Atwood is her feminist speculative fiction, you will definitely appreciate Le Guin.
Must listen: When Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness first came out in 1969, it was considered groundbreaking for the way the story handled gender identity and sexuality. The novel absolutely holds up to this day. If you’re looking to dive deeper into feminist speculative fiction, including Atwood's works, listen to this one.
Marge Piercy
Marge Piercy is an American writer, feminist, and activist for anti-war and environmental causes. Born in Detroit in 1936, she was raised by her Jewish mother and maternal grandmother, became the first in her family to attend college, and earned an MA from Northwestern University. While living in Chicago, she got involved in the civil rights movement and set out to write fiction that focused on politics and working-class people.
Why Atwood fans will like Piercy: Similar to Atwood, Piercy combines realistic characters with speculative scenarios and social commentary. She often writes about politics, gender, feminism, and progressive ideas.
Must listen: Woman on the Edge of Time tells the story of a woman with a mystical gift who has been unjustly locked up in a mental institution with no hope of release. While a feminist classic in its own right, this dystopian fiction is often compared to The Handmaid’s Tale.
Paolo Bacigalupi
American author Paolo Bacigalupi is another Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy who’s worth checking out if you love Margaret Atwood. Like Atwood, Bacigalupi is an environmental activist, and his interest in environmentalism, like the effects of bioengineering and the depletion of fossil fuels, shows up in his novels.
Why Atwood fans will like Bacigalupi: If you’re looking for more novels that explore environmentalist themes through speculative fiction like Atwood does in so many of her stories, then give Bacigalupi’s writing a listen.
Must listen: The Windup Girl is a post-apocalyptic novel that explores the effects of bioengineering. It’s the perfect listen for fans of Atwood who were interested in the environmentalism in Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy.
Pat Barker
Pat Barker is an English novelist whose fiction explores themes of memory, trauma, and survival. Like Atwood, some of Barker’s works reimagine myths and classic stories with a more sympathetic eye towards the female characters.
Why Atwood fans will like Barker: Barker is another novelist like Atwood who writes stunning and moving novels in the speculative fiction tradition that explore feminist issues.
Must listen: Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls does for The Iliad what Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad did for The Odyssey.
N.K. Jemisin
N.K. Jemisin is an American science fiction and fantasy author whose novels often confront themes of discrimination and oppression. With her Broken Earth trilogy, Jemisin became the first author ever to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel three years in a row. She was also a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant in 2020.
Why Atwood fans will like Jemisin: Margaret Atwood herself has called N.K. Jemisin “lavishly talented.” And it’s easy to understand why Atwood would so admire Jemisin: both authors are activists, both through their written words and in the real world.
Must listen: Jemisin’s Broken Earth series has a lot of plot points and themes that will connect with Atwood fans, specifically its focus on the effects of climate change and social injustice. Start with the first book, The Fifth Season.
Angela Carter
Angela Carter was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist. After winning the Somerset Maugham Award, the feminist author used the proceeds to leave her husband and relocate to Tokyo, Japan. She later lived in the United States and Australia, often as a writer-in-residence at universities. She died from lung cancer at age 51. At the time of her death in 1992, Carter had started work on a sequel to Jane Eyre, based on the later life of Jane’s stepdaughter, Adèle Varens.
Why Atwood fans will like Carter: Fans of Atwood’s highly imaginative yet hard-hitting storytelling will appreciate Carter’s signature blend of magical realism and feminist themes.
Must listen: Carter’s gift for reimagining classic fairy tales and folklore through a feminist lens shines in The Bloody Chamber, a collection of surreal and subversively dark stories that feature twists on familiar characters, such as Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, and Puss in Boots. British actors Richard Armitage and Emilia Fox take turns performing.
Natalie Haynes
Natalie Haynes is an English writer and literary scholar who studied the classics at Cambridge University. She’s also a journalist, a broadcaster, and a standup comedian. And she brings all of these multifaceted sides of herself into her novels. Like Margaret Atwood, she’s written in a variety of genres, including essays, nonfiction, children’s stories, and, of course, speculative fiction.
Why Atwood fans will like Haynes: If you enjoy Atwood’s feminist retellings of mythology, then you’ll love what Natalie Haynes does with the classics in her novels.
Must listen: Hayne’s third novel, A Thousand Ships is a retelling of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective. We can’t help but think Margaret Atwood would approve.
