Atwood makes USA Today list of influencers in 2017 entertainment

TORONTO – Canadian literary star Margaret Atwood has made USA Today’s list of 10 people who “made the biggest impact in entertainment this year.”

The publication calls the acclaimed Toronto writer an “author of a movement” for her 1985 dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which spawned this year’s hit TV adaptation.

The eight-time Emmy Award-winning drama, about a society that treats women as property of the state, “became one of the most celebrated and important TV series of 2017,” said USA Today.

Atwood made a brief cameo and was a consulting producer on the series, which is filming its second season in Toronto and screened on Hulu in the U.S. and CraveTV and Bravo in Canada.

USA Today also noted this year’s second TV adaptation of an Atwood work, “Alias Grace,” which screened on CBC-TV and Netflix.

The publication called it a “captivating, mystic examination of gendered violence” that “was as powerful as ‘Handmaid’s.’”