Author Margaret Atwood’s Impressive Net Worth Is Worthy of Writing About
Margaret has over 50 published works, including poetry, essays and novels.
Published Nov. 10 2025, 1:10 p.m. ET
As the author of The Handmaid’s Tale, which is the source of Hulu’s award-winning and massively popular television series, Margaret Atwood has a career that spans decades.
Throughout her successful career, she has racked up dozens of accolades and an impressive net worth.
Let’s take a look at Atwood's financial background that has resulted in her multi-millionaire status.
What is Margaret Atwood’s net worth?
According to Marca, Margaret Atwood is worth between $20 and $25 million as of November 2025, the bulk of which is due to her highly successful literary career.
Throughout her career, Margaret has published over 50 works, including poetry, essays, and novels. However, her most notable work is The Handmaid’s Tale, which was already popular following its 1985 release and became a cultural phenomenon when it was turned into a series in April 2017.
Margaret Atwood
Author, poet, novelist
Net worth: $20 - $25 million
Margaret Atwood is a famed Canadian author, most well-known for her signature work, The Handmaid’s Tale.
Birth date: Nov. 18, 1939
Birthplace: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Birth name: Margaret Eleanor Atwood
Father: Carl Edmund Atwood, entomologist
Mother: Margaret Dorothy Atwood, dietician, nutritionist
Marriages: Jim Polk (married 1968-1973), Graeme Gibson (partner, 1973 til his death in 2019)
Children: 1, Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson (born 1976)
Education: University of Toronto, Radcliffe College
In a November 2025 interview, Atwood spoke about her decades-long career while promoting her memoir, 'Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts.'
Speaking with CBS News, the celebrated author didn’t mince words when asked her thoughts on the current state of the country.
"There are certain things totalitarian coups always do," Margaret said. "One of them is trying to control the media. But the other thing is making the judicial arm part of the executive. In other words, judges just do what the chief guy tells them to."
In response to the wide-reaching book bans throughout the nation, which include some of her works, Atwood shared that both Republicans and Democrats have been critical of her.
"I think the right thinks I'm irrelevant," she told the outlet. "The left thinks that I should have been preaching their sermon, whatever it may happen to be, and that I am therefore a traitor for not having done that which they themselves would do."
She also addressed the immense popularity of The Handmaid’s Tale, noting her belief that the political landscape of the last eight years is largely responsible.
“Yeah, it's not due to me or the excellence of the book,” Atwood stated. “It's partly in the twists and turns of history. Had it been so that none of this ever got enacted, then it would probably be sitting on a shelf somewhere, and people would be saying, ‘A jolly good yarn, but it didn't happen.’”
After writing various types of literary work, Margaret Atwood decided to release her first memoir despite previously being uninterested.
Sharing with the New York Times why she felt that now was the right time to release Book of Lives, Atwood had a frank response.
“They wore me down,” she said of her publisher’s consistent request for a memoir before offering an even more honest follow-up response. “Two words: People died,” the author continued. “There’s things you can say that you wouldn’t say when they were alive.”
“The story of your life is a story, and we’re always rewriting it, whether you’re a writer or not,” Atwood told the outlet.
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts is available for purchase now wherever books are sold.