For a year, Atwood taught writing and literature at the University of British Columbia, publishing a second volume of poetry, The Circle Game (1966), and returned to Harvard from 1965-67 on a Canada Council grant, but gave up on completing a Ph.D. and abandoned a thesis on fantasy/adventure literature. In 1967, buoyed by the Governor-General's Award and first place in the Centennial Commission Poetry Competition, she chose stability over bohemianism, married James Polk, and returned to teaching, this time at Sir George Williams University in Montreal, then for two years at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. In 1970, she took a break from her schedule of writing and teaching by touring England, France, and Italy.
Deemed a major poet by the late 1960s, Atwood returned to Toronto in 1971 to serve as York University's writer-in-residence and editor for House of Anansi Press. Her marriage to Polk ended in 1973, when she settled on an Alliston, Ontario, farm with novelist and colleague Graeme Gibson, about whom she reveals little more than that he possesses a solid ego. Atwood's literary models — all male — include Jean-Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Franz Kafka, Eugene Ionesco, and Robert Graves. She also profited from the influence of critic Northrop Frye and poet Jay MacPherson, a strong female role model and friend.
