Unlike its distant rival HBO, Showtime has struggled for years to capture prestige for its original programming.

The other premium cable network recently accomplished just that with the biographical period drama Masters of Sex, based on the lives of pioneering sexologists William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Showtime is apparently hoping a similar formula will yield another critical hit.

The network is developing a series around Weeds star Mary-Louise Parker, who will play writer Mary Karr. In charge of the project are two Masters of Sex EPs, Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly, with Karr adapting her books.

The poet-essayist is the author of the best-selling memoirs The Liars’ Club, Cherry, and Lit. In her three autobiographies, Karr describes her “terrific family of liars and drunks,” growing up in [an East Texan] “town too ugly not to love,” and her battles with alcoholism.

[via Deadline]