SHAKESPEARE’S CONSPIRATOR
How did Shakespeare write 37 plays in 23 years? Meet the woman behind the scenes.
In 1587, William Shakespeare’s first play, Henry VI, premieres at James Burbage’s theater in London. It’s a theater Emilia Bassano knows well as she’s tried without success to get Burbage to read her plays. Women in Elizabethan England can’t pursue writing as a profession, but Emilia isn’t going to let that stop her. When she shares her work and frustrations with her friend Will Shakespeare, a plan is hatched that brings her plays to the world under his name.
While Emilia’s plays bring Shakespeare fame, she seeks to find her place in the world. As mistress to the powerful Lord Chamberlain, Henry Carey, she forges relationships with members of Queen Elizabeth I’s innermost circle—and even the Queen herself. All the while keeping her many secrets close and enemies closer.
From London to Venice to Verona, Emilia brings her lived experience to the plays she writes, infusing them with the strength and fiery spirit of a woman born in the wrong time. A woman who sees the injustices that women are forced to accept even as they are ruled by a woman.
Emilia Bassano Lanyer (AKA Amelia Bassano Lanier): a Jewish woman of color, daughter of a musician in Queen Elizabeth l's court, a protofeminist playwright, and poet lost to history.
The most famous writer you’ve never heard of. Until now.
THE EDICT
How did Jews escape the Spanish Inquisition when forced to choose between country and faith?
When Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon wed in 1478, they unite their kingdoms and enact plans to transform Spain into a pure Catholic country. They establish the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition to enforce their will and expunge heresy, led by the Grand Inquisitor, Friar Tomás de Torquemada.
In 1492 comes the Alhambra Decree, declaring that all remaining Spanish Jews will be expelled from the country in a matter of months. Over a quarter million lives change overnight. Spanish Jews have two choices: become Catholic conversos or flee the country. Anyone who dares to resist will face torture and certain death. Like the fathers of Mazal and Jaco, burned at the stake.
Mazal and Jaco are two young secret Jews drawn to each other, finding hope in the darkest of times, as they plot to escape the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. Forced to make difficult decisions to survive, they become entangled in a plot to deceive the Grand Inquisitor, sow chaos, and create an opportunity to escape. In league with others, they save the lives of fellow Jews and race to flee a country in which no one can be trusted, and danger lurks everywhere. Only their wits and courage can keep them alive.
THE EDICT was a Maxy Award Finalist.
DAUGHTERS OF THE ANUSIM: A Novel of Shadowed Faith.
Across five centuries, a pair of silver candlesticks passes from mother to daughter. In 1654, as Dutch Brazil falls and the Inquisition surges back, Margalit flees Recife with them. In 2012, Malina finds the women’s names engraved inside the heirlooms and sets out to uncover the faith her family kept hidden.
Previously, LEGACY OF SECRETS.
Won Arizona Literary Award for Best Unpublished Novel.
RELEASE DATE: EARLY 2027
EMILIA’S PROMISE: The Girl Who Became Shakespeare’s Secret
After rebellious, obstinate, and sensitive seven-year-old Emilia Bassano becomes the ward of two aristocratic women following her father’s sudden death, she develops the wherewithal to write plays attributed to Shakespeare. (Prequel to Shakespeare’s Conspirator)
COMING SOON
EMILIA’S SHAKESPEARE'S: Her Quest, His Defecit:
After Emilia Bassano Lanyer hears dark secrets about her ancestry and starts composing her proto-feminist poetic volume, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, she is summoned by a retired Shakespeare to compile and edit his thirty-seven plays for posterity; and in doing so investigates, at her own peril, the Shakespeare authorship mystery.
COMING SOON
YORK, BIG MEDICINE: A Novel of Bondage, Discovery, and Grace
His name appears in the Lewis and Clark Journals. After that, history goes silent for the only enslaved man on the expedition. York, Big Medicine is what the silence is hiding. In this novel, York tells his own story.
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