As Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale builds towards its series finale, Margaret Atwood, who wrote the 1985 novel on which the popular TV drama starring Elisabeth Moss is based, will be honored by The Hollywood Reporter at its Women in Entertainment Canada event on May 29 in Toronto.
The Canadian author, poet and activist will receive the ICON Award at this year’s second annual WIE Canada gala ceremony. Atwood wrote the Handmaid’s Tale book on which the Hulu TV series, from creator Bruce Miller, is based. Her follow-up 2019 novel, The Testaments, is currently being adapted as a sequel series.
The Handmaid’s Tale explores the complicated lives of handmaids who are sex slaves forced to give birth for infertile elite couples. Cultural and political observers have noted that the themes and concepts of the Canadian-born author’s celebrated novel are eerily familiar in today’s climate that sees the Donald Trump administration making repeated strikes against the rights of women, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals and other marginalized communities.
The WIE Canada’s ICON Award was created to recognize Canadian cultural icons who have advanced greater representation of women in the media and entertainment industry and whose artistic vision has reached global audiences.
Having written around 50 books of fiction, poetry, critical essays and graphic novels, Atwood will publish her memoir, Book of Lives, later this year. She has also received awards like the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award.
WIE Canada earlier announced that Tantoo Cardinal will receive the Equity in Entertainment Award, lifestyle journalist Jeanne Beker will be given the IMPACT Award; and The Sex Lives of College Girls star Amrit Kaur will receive the Breakthrough Award at this year’s event.
The upcoming second annual WIE Canada summit will again bring together the Canadian industry across TV, film and music to celebrate and recognize the achievements of women driving the industry forward.
The event’s return follows a successful first-ever WIE Canada summit on May 30, 2024 that was attended by iconic Canadian entertainers in the TV, film and music fields like Lilly Singh, Nia Vardalos, Devery Jacobs, Kim Cattrall, Catherine Reitman and Jully Black.