Poets & Writers Theater

The Handmaid’s Tale, a television series adapted from Margaret Atwood’s classic dystopian novel published in 1985, returns for a second season. Atwood, who was a cowriter on the first season, has also collaborated extensively with series creator Bruce Miller on the storylines for this season.

Howards End, the 1910 novel by E. M. Forster about social class divisions between three English families, has been adapted into a four-part television miniseries for BBC One and Starz. Directed by Hettie Macdonald and written by Kenneth Lonergan, the series stars Hayley Atwell, Philippa Coulthard, and Matthew Macfadyen.

Sweetbitter (Knopf, 2016), Stephanie Danler’s debut novel about a young woman’s coming-of-age experience working at an exclusive restaurant in New York City, has been adapted into a television series. The series stars Daniyar, Eden Epstein, Caitlin FitzGerald, Evan Jonigkeit, and Ella Purnell.

The Alienist (Random House, 1994), Caleb Carr’s historical suspense novel, has been adapted into a television series. The series stars Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning, and follows an investigative duo using innovative forensic science techniques to solve a serial murder crime in nineteenth-century New York City.

Edward St. Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels, which were published between 1992 and 2011 by Picador and follow the saga of a dysfunctional upper-class English family, have been adapted into a five-part television miniseries with each episode based on a different novel in the series. Directed by Edward Berger, the series stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Holliday Grainger, and Jessica Raine.

Louisa May Alcott’s classic 1869 novel Little Women has been adapted into a new television miniseries for BBC One and Masterpiece on PBS. Directed by Vanessa Caswill, the series stars Dylan Baker, Annes Elwy, Willa Fitzgerald, Angela Lansbury, Maya Thurman-Hawke, and Emily Watson.

Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams is a British anthology television series based on the science fiction author’s short stories. Each episode has a different director and cast of actors including Steve Buscemi, Vera Farmiga, Terrence Howard, Greg Kinnear, Janelle Monáe, and Anna Paquin.

Alias Grace (Anchor Books, 1996), Margaret Atwood’s fictional account of Grace Marks, an Irish Canadian maid who was convicted of murdering her employer and his mistress in 1843, has been adapted into a television series. Directed by Mary Harron and written by Sarah Polley, the series stars Sarah Gadon, Edward Holcroft, and Zachary Levi.

Middlemarch: The Series is a web series adaptation of George Eliot’s 1871 novel Middlemarch, written and directed by Rebecca Shoptaw, an undergraduate film student at Yale. Spanning seventy short episodes, the series is set in a contemporary fictional college in Connecticut and incorporates LGBTQ themes.

“I think there was a huge priority in terms of the writing for me to create the intimacies of these friendships and to show real friendships between women...” Fatimah Asghar, whose debut poetry collection, Today We’re American, is forthcoming from One World/Random House, talks with director Sam Bailey about the motivations behind their web series Brown Girls, which the cocreators will be adapting for HBO.

“War is coming.” Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods (William Morrow, 2001) has been adapted into a television series starring Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday and Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon. Gaiman serves as an executive producer for the series developed by Bryan Fuller and Michael Green.

Thirteen Reasons Why (Razorbill, 2007), Jay Asher’s best-selling young adult novel about a teenager piecing together the story and circumstances behind the suicide of a classmate, has been adapted into a television series.

“He basically married the heroine of his stories.” In this Amazon original series based on Therese Anne Fowler’s historical novel Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald (St. Martin’s Press, 2013), David Hoflin and Christina Ricci star as F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

“But ordinary is just what you're used to.” Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale (McClelland and Stewart, 1985) has been adapted into a television series, directed by Mike Barker and Reed Morano. The series is cowritten by Atwood, and stars Alexis Bledel, O. T. Fagbenle, Joseph Fiennes, and Elisabeth Moss.

Liane Moriarty’s best-selling novel Big Little Lies (Penguin Books, 2014) has been adapted into a television miniseries, created by David E. Kelley and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. The dark comedy tells the story of a murder involving three mothers of young children, and stars Nicole Kidman, Zoë Kravitz, Alexander Skarsgård, Reese Witherspoon, and Shailene Woodley.