Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the second of three children[5] of Carl Edmund Atwood, an entomologist,[6] and Margaret Dorothy (née Killam), a former dietitian and nutritionist from Woodville, Nova Scotia.[7] Because of her father's research in forest entomology, Atwood spent much of her childhood in the backwoods of northern Quebec,[8] and traveling back and forth between Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie and Toronto.
She did not attend school full-time until she was 12 years old. She became a voracious reader of literature, Dell pocketbook mysteries, Grimms' Fairy Tales, Canadian animal stories, and comic books. She attended Leaside High School in Leaside, Toronto, and graduated in 1957.[9] Atwood began writing plays and poems at the age of 6.[10]
As a child, she also participated in the Brownie program of Girl Guides of Canada. Atwood has written about her experiences in Girl Guides in several of her publications.[11]
Atwood realized she wanted to write professionally when she was 16.[12] In 1957, she began studying at Victoria College in the University of Toronto, where she published poems and articles in Acta Victoriana, the college literary journal, and participated in the sophomore theatrical tradition of The Bob Comedy Revue.[13] Her professors included Jay Macpherson and Northrop Frye. She graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts in English (honours) and minors in philosophy and French.[9]: 54
In 1961, Atwood began graduate studies at Radcliffe College of Harvard University, with a Woodrow Wilson fellowship.[14] She obtained a master's degree (MA) from Radcliffe in 1962 and pursued doctoral studies for two years, but did not finish her dissertation, The English Metaphysical Romance.[15]
