The novel The Handmaid’s Tale won the Governor General’s Award in 1985.
More precisely, Margaret Atwood’s novel received the Governor General’s Award for English-language fiction, one of Canada’s major literary honors. The award recognized the novel’s original publication and its contribution to Canadian literature, before the book became an international bestseller and a major screen franchise.
The Handmaid’s Tale was published in 1985 and follows Offred, a fertile woman forced into reproductive servitude by the theocratic Republic of Gilead. Its dystopian setting, political themes, biblical language, and exploration of power and bodily autonomy made it both a literary success and a subject of continuing debate.
Readers sometimes confuse this award with the Booker Prize, for which the novel was nominated in 1986, or with the Arthur C. Clarke Award, which it won in 1987. Those are separate honors. The Governor General’s Award belongs to the book’s publication year: 1985.