Jodi Picoult Hated theMy Sisters' KeeperFilm Version, So She's Taking Matters Into Her Own Hands (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jodi Picoult and the cover of ‘My Sister’s Keeper’.Photo:Tim Llewellyn; Atria Books

Tim Llewellyn; Atria Books

Jodi Picoulthas become a household name after three decades and 29 books spanning such topics as abortion, racism, school shootings and now, whether a woman could have written Shakespeare’s plays for him.

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She took inspiration for Melina’s modern-day storyline from her own experiences taking her work from the page onto a stage or screen, not all of which have been positive. All of the negative feedback Melina receives on her own work, Picoult has also received “to my face.”

“It kind of goes back to when I had a really terrible experience turningMy Sister’s Keeperinto a film,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s print issue. “It took me a long time to kind of wrap my head around the fact that they didn’t ruin my book. My book is still there. And anyone who reads my book is still getting the story that I intended.”

Recently, Picoult has taken the page-to-screen translation into her own hands, having co-written the libretto for the off-Broadway version ofBetween the Lines, the book she wrote with her daughter, Samantha van Leer.

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And after focusing on fiction for so long, the author likens writing for the stage to a marathon runner taking up swimming.

“I love it because writing for theater has really invigorated my writing again for novels,” she says. “Writing for theater is so collaborative. I love the idea of creating with multiple brains. It’s really fun. It’s really challenging. And when I’m writing a novel, it’s just, ‘Where’s everybody? [Who] can I bounce this off of?’ "

“I think that in many ways, I’ve achieved a certain level in publishing, and [in theater], I’m down under the ground level,” she continues, laughing. “Nobody cares about what I’ve achieved… So I’m I’m gonna keep at it. I’m gonna keep at it. I know that the material that we are writing is beautiful and important and necessary in the same ways that I believe in my novels. And it deserves to be heard. It deserves to have its audience, and it will one day.”

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source: people.com