Shakespeare for the World and Galaxy

[keyan_bowes]

So I just read about the World Shakespeare Festival, to be held next year in the Globe Theater on the banks of the Thames in London. They’re staging all of Shakespeare’s plays, each one in a different language. (India’s doing Much Ado About Nothing, with actress Meera Syal as Beatrice.)

How it resonated with me! Some years ago, I wrote a short story, The Intragalactic Shakespeare Festival, based on the premise that Shakespeare’s works couldn’t be confined to one planet. And that such a festival would be intensely competitive… I took the story to Clarion with me.  It had been out on submission a couple of times, but boomeranged each time. I was on the verge of trunking it, wondering who if anyone would be interested in Fantastic Shakespeare in Space.

ellen_kushner and deliasherman, it turns out. They critiqued the story and encouraged me to keep sending it out. They were convinced there was a market out there.

They were right. In mid-2009, it sold to a new anthology, Art from Art, edited by Stephen Soucy.

Well, the book came out recently, in hardcover, softcover, and now in a Kindle edition. It's gorgeous. The book is a compendium of 38 stories inspired by art, whether painting or music or drama and poetry. It includes original art created for each story.

The illustration for mine is awesome: A Shakespeare constellation.

(Stephen Soucy will be at the West Hollywood Bookfair on Sunday October 2, 2011. Stop by and take a look, if you’re visiting.)

(And I need to figure out if there's any way for me to get to London next year...)

Comments

[deliasherman.livejournal.com]

Oh, goodie! I'm so glad, because I loved that story. Actors! Shakespeare! Intergalactic Intrigue! What's not to like?

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks so much, Delia! - Keyan