Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Survival | 1972 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 2 | Days Of The Rebels | 1977 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 3 | Second Words | 1982 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 4 | The Canlit Foodbook | 1987 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 5 | Margaret Atwood Conversations | 1990 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 6 | Strange Things | 1995 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 7 | Two Solicitudes | 1996 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 8 | Story of a Nation | 2001 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 9 | Negotiating with the Dead / On Writers & Writing | 2002 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 10 | Curious Pursuits | 2005 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 11 | Writing With Intent | 2005 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 12 | Payback | 2007 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 13 | Glances at Germany, Poland, and the Euxine | 2009 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 14 | In Other Worlds | 2011 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 15 | Dire Cartographies | 2015 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 16 | The Burgess Shale | 2017 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 17 | Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces | 2022 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
| 18 | Book of Lives | 2025 | Margaret Atwood | Buy |
Margaret Atwood’s non-fiction writing runs parallel to her fiction career. Survival (1972) was an influential study of Canadian literature that identified recurring themes of victimhood and survival in the national literary tradition. Later non-fiction books like Payback (2007) examined the concept of debt across cultures, and In Other Worlds (2011) explored the history of speculative fiction.
Her essay collections, including Writing With Intent (2005), Burning Questions (2022), and Book of Lives (2025), gather occasional pieces, lectures, and reviews from across her career. The non-fiction shows the same intellectual range and sharp observation that characterize her novels.