“What fabrications they are, mothers. Scarecrows, wax dolls for us to stick pins into, crude diagrams. We deny them an existence of their own, we make them up to suit ourselves -- our own hungers, our own wishes, our own deficiencies.”

Canadian novelist and poet of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, she is best known for her dystopian fiction, particularly *The Handmaid’s Tale*, which explores themes of oppression, resistance, and the fragility of power. Her work also spans speculative fiction, literary criticism, and environmental commentary, often blending sharp social observation with poetic precision.