Alice Hoffman

Although Alice Hoffman's work lived principally between bound pages, she also contributed to the cinematic world. The prolific novelist had many of her works translated to film, imbuing the late 1990s and early 2000s with fantasy, mystery, and no small sum of romance. Responsible for films like "The River King" (2005) and "Aquamarine" (2006), Hoffman cemented herself as a constant source of trans-media entertainment. Alice Hoffman was born in New York, New York. She pursued an academic career rooted in her love for writing, attending Adelphi University for undergraduate studies, followed by a year at Stanford University Creative Writing Center, from which she graduated in 1974. Her foray into publishing came quickly, as Hoffman's first book, Property Of, hit shelves in 1977; she had written the dramatic novel, which chronicled the complicated love affair between a young woman and a member of an abusive street gang, at age 21 during her studies at Stanford. The next five years would see her write and publish three more novels before taking an isolated stab at screenwriting in 1983: Hoffman penned the script for a small-town romance film called "Independence Day" (1983), which was brought to film under the direction of Robert Mandel, who'd go on to helm "School Ties" (1992) and "The Substitute" (1996). As Hoffman continued to write, her works began to attract Hollywood's eye. In 1995, Hoffman wrote the fantastical book Practical Magic, which would become a feature film in 1998, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, as well as a TV movie in 2004. Her next novel, Here on Earth (written in 1997), may not have won a cinematic reimagining, but still won acclaim thanks to its induction into Oprah Winfrey's exclusive literary society, Oprah's Book Club. Halfway through the 2000s, Hoffman saw a renewed relationship with the screen. By 2006, she had written over 20 novels, and allowed for two of her more recent entries to undertake big screen adaptation. Hoffman's 2000 book The River King became a film in 2005, with Edward Burns and Jennifer Ehle headlining the mystery story. "Aquamarine" (2006), which drew from Hoffman's 2001 novel, starred young Emma Roberts, Sara Paxton, and Joanna Levesque. Hoffman's 2011 novel The Dovekeepers earned especial praise from the likes of Toni Morrison. It was adapted into a four-part miniseries for CS in the spring of 2015.