Lynne Kositsky's Blog

Roger Stritmatter and I are thrilled to announce that our book, A Movable Feast: Sources, Chronology and Design of Shakespeare’s Tempest, has been accepted by McFarland publishers.

Although some of the book’s conclusions have previously appeared in our peer-reviewed articles as reproduced on shakespearestempest.com,  the book also contains a wealth of new material supporting the theory of a play written at least by 1603 for Shrovetide performance.

Contrary to longstanding belief, the play’s New World imagery is derived not from William Strachey’s account of a 1609 shipwreck in Bermuda, but from Richard Eden’s 1555 Decades of the New World. The book will include detailed point-by-point rebuttals to two newly published critiques of our work: one by Alden Vaughan (2008) in Shakespeare Quarterly and another by Tom Reedy (2010) in Review of English Studies, showing how their misplaced confidence in traditional authority has led to misinterpretations of the evidence of the date and influence of Strachey’s manuscript.

While many books have been published in recent months advocating the “Oxfordian” theory of Shakespearean authorship, ours will be the first to directly challenge the longstanding orthodox belief that Oxford could not have been the author because he died in 1604, before the Tempest and several other plays were written. At least in the case of the Tempest, that argument is no longer credible.

My new novel about the Holocaust, A Terrible Grief, is now finished–the first draft at least–and has been sent to my agent to look at.

Roger Stritmatter and I are travelling to Ukraine towards the end of May. We’ve been asked to speak at the first  Shakespeare Authorship Conference in Ukraine. It’s at a university not too far from Odessa. We’re both presenting material about The Earl of Oxford. I’ve also been asked to speak to the students about writing and talk about my novels.  Very excited to be asked!

I’m speaking about Shakespeare’s connections To Oxford, based on 25 Curious Connections by Mark Alexander, and Roger’s presenting “Much Ado About Something: Searching for Shakespeare and the Shape of Intellectual History.”

From Linda Theil at Oberon:

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2011

Kositsky awarded $25,000 grant by Canada Council for the Arts

Shakespeare authorship researcher and novelist Lynne Kositsky has been honored by the Canada Council for the Arts with a $25,000 grant. The funds were awarded to help Kositsky finish her young-adult novel with the working title of A Scattering of Stars. Kositsky said:

Every year, in October, Canadian authors can write applications to the Canada Council for the Arts for grants to help them finish their new books. I entered last year, enclosing about 15 pages of my new young-adult novel — all I’d written of it at the time. I added some pages from one of my published novels, as allowed. There are, obviously, a limited number of grants available, and fierce competition for them. Yesterday afternoon I received a letter from the Canada Council telling me that I’d been awarded a $25,000 grant — the maximum given — to help me finish my book. The grant covers living, research, and travel expenses. It’s very welcome and I’m totally thrilled.

Kositsky has also been awarded $3000 in grants from her home province of Ontario to support her work. A Scattering of Stars is her second young-adult novel about the Holocaust. Her acclaimed novel The Thought of High Windowswas awarded the Canadian Jewish Book Award for Youth in 2006. The new novel will follow the life of a German girl who escapes the Nazis by traveling to Shanghai. The working title of the new novel is inspired by a quote from Georg Buchner, “The stars are scattered through the night like glistening teardrops; what a terrible grief must be behind the eyes that dropped them.”

Commenting on the award, Kositsky said:

The Canada Council for the Arts grant will make a tremendous difference to me. It will allow me to travel, interview survivors, and do further research. Part of it can be used for living expenses while writing. And the recognition of my work is very exciting.

Posted by Linda Theil at 12:19 PM Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz

On February 14th, Roger Stritmatter wrote on shakespearestempest.com: “We are pleased to announce that the Tempest book is completed. The working title is A Movable Feast: Sources, Chronology and Design of Shakespeare’s Tempest. Its now a manuscript in search of a publisher.”

A few days ago I found out that our Tempest Book  has now been picked up by the wonderful literary agent who usually deals with my novels. I told her it was very controversial, and she replied, “Sounds like fun.” She is signing Roger too.

After five years of work on their joint project about Shakespeare’s TheTempest,Roger Stritmatter, PhD and Lynne Kositsky have completed the manuscript of A Movable Feast: Sources, Chronology and Design of Shakespeare’s Tempest, a closer look at the sources and dating of the play…

For the rest of this article, please go to Linda Theil’s post at the Oberon Study group blog:

http://oberonshakespearestudygroup.blogspot.com/2011/01/stritmatter-kositsky-fuel-tempest.html

After sitting around idly during Christmas–or rather cooking up a storm for family and friends–I’m starting work on a new novel about a group of Jews who manage to escape Hitler’s Germany during the Holocaust. At the moment I’ve written two chapters and am slogging through more research. I love writing. Research, not so much. But it’s very important to me to get things right.