| ABOUT THE AUTHOR | | | BOOKS | | | EVENTS & WORKSHOPS | | | PRESS & INTERVIEWS | | | CONTACT |
Books |
|
| In the Shadow of the Globe Reader Responses Will says hi from his Globe Theatre in London -- he really enjoyed your book! – Peter Murphy, Founder of the Poetry & Prose Winter Getaway in Cape May, featured in photo. There are books that make us remember why we read, books that remind writers why we write. Michelle Cameron’s IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLOBE reminds us why we live. This book of poetry spanning the lives of Shakespeare and his companions at the Globe Theatre weaves a spell over the reader from the first line, drawing her in with its brilliance and its beauty. It is unconscionable that this book is out of print. My words are not enough, and they begin to fail me. Buy it for yourself and you will see why I am so adamant, why I love this book so much. IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLOBE brings Shakespeare’s world to life. It can be bought on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble from other sellers. If you take the time to seek this book, the rewards will be beyond anything my poor words can convey. - Christy English, Author of To Be Queen, The Queen's Pawn, Dial "L" for Loser I love your epic poem. It’s fun, insightful, imaginative. One might nitpick your chronology, but who cares? I am half-way through it, enjoying it immensely, but my heart leaped at Cuthbert’s advice to Peter Street on how to build a playhouse. How right, how accurate: a machine in which to act, not a celebration of the art of scenic design, not built in accordance with the physics of the motion picture projector, no ceremonial hall for wine-and-cheese shmoozing, no architectural monument to someone’s wealth. A machine in which to act, where the alchemy of the Playwright’s words in the actors’ bodies can be realized by the sense of the audience to create the delicate magic of theatre. You are a fine poet; furthermore, in the world of Shakespearean Your poems are such an incredible chronicle and joyous celebration of Shakespeare. – Jason Little, Director, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, New York I was inspired by your reading, but even that did not prepare me for the joy and awe I felt while reading your book. Each individual poem stands on its own, and the narrative thread that joins them adds to the poignancy of the whole. I'm impressed with your idea to explore Shakespeare's life through fiction, your use of authentic period vocabulary, and the many apt poetic forms that bring about a result more illuminating than simple prose would have been. I have been re-reading some of the poems and find more in them each time. Thank you for sharing your artistry with me. – Mira P. Peck, Boonton, NJ Michelle Cameron's In the Shadow of the Globe is vastly appealing to me as one who loves Shakespeare. However, even if I'd never heard of Shakespeare (imagine that?), I would still be drawn into the poem as it is woven with such fluid grace, humor and poignancy.– Myfanwy Collins, extracted from her blog, http://myfanwy.blogspot.com (see archives, 06/13/04 - 06/19/04) I was struck by the clarity of the many voices of the people that were represented in it. The stories of these supporting characters in Shakespeare’s life were every bit as interesting as that of Shakespeare himself. The book provided a unique window into the customs of the times." – Marian Akana, Arts Access Drama & Playwrighting Facilitor. Kudos! Just a quick note to let you how much I enjoyed Michelle Cameron's In the Shadow of the Globe. I find it a brilliant, surprising, and amazing evocation of a time none of us can truly know, but only imagine as in " . . . watering her impatience with buckets from Avon's streams," (Shakespeare on Anne Hathaway) joined by the book's broad spectrum of voices regarding theatrical productions and the lives of those who produced them. Eileen Murray's layout designs for the playbills prefacing each chapter -- "Shillings and Pence, so full of briars is this workaday world . . . " -- are a stroke of genius. A beautiful book. -- Anna Sidak, Editor of In Posse Review In the Shadow of the Globe...is brilliant and refreshingly direct, approachable. It fleshes out the lives of playwrights in the time of Elizabethan England. I am so engaged in the life of Shakespeare and those around him when reading......The language is so accessible and the dialogue so vivid....Thank you for engulfing us all with the flames of passion for Shakespearean drama and poetry with contemporary language........– Lisa Bruckman, poet You have accomplished something unique. – Walter Cummins, Editor Emeritus, The Literary Review. I just finished your book and want you to know how much I enjoyed it! It is marvelous -- so imaginative, so evocative of the times (love your use of the language of the times), the characters so compelling. I admire the flow of your words, how it's all of a tone (applause for the internal rhymes), the fine imagings, your eye for detail. Bravo! – Wanda Praisner, poet The finished product is a clear, organic whole...I was moved, delighted and thrilled reading it in its final issue. The work as a whole presents itself as a telescoping of one time through the lenses of another time, examining some very special event that has the feel of discovery about it -- very fitting for the age of Shakespeare. This very ingenious technique allows the legacy of the Bard to be both fixed in time, yet open to new interpretation. Your interpretation valorizes Shakespeare and his claims for language -- the work over the life, as Yeats would say. – Ruby Riemer, poet This is a beautiful, moving, wonderful work. Congratulations. – Laura Winter, professor, The College of Saint Elizabeth and Drew University I began the first reading with expectation of familiar territory: after all, haven't I been a known "Shakespeare buff" forever?...To my astonishment, this was an exploration of the unknown, a world unimagined. All the comfortable assumptions of dim history suddenly sharpened with life. Looking for the key, I came to realize, identify, the particular nature of it: empathy. Every character is coping with real problems, specific and painful. You've created art. – Bessie Stensky, Philadelphia What stands out is how you give voice to those old characters from Elizabeth’s time. It is a portrait of the time in verse. – William Van Buskirk, poet When I first read this manuscript, I was swept away with its unique concept. It was one of those rare moments when the mystery of inspiration loomed large. How did this wonderful, modern-day poet ever conceive of a narrative poem in this precise format? The voice, the language and the milieu are rendered wholly authentic, and given that Will Shakespeare penned a few good lines himself, this is an audacious undertaking! As I turned the pages, I melted into the rich experience of those flesh and blood people, those historical icons. Yet I never felt abandoned to a history lesson, for Michelle’s sheer imagination and poetic art brings the era to life, and indeed creates a living theatrical experience. In my studies of writing for cinema, poetry has been most closely linked with screenwriting. As I ‘watched’ the dramas unfold in In The Shadow of the Globe, I was convinced that this was true. – Beverly Jackson, Publisher, Lit Pot Press, Inc. In the Shadow of the Globe kept true to the style and language of the era. I immediately felt the need to reread it and savor the words. – Theresa Serrano, poet In the Shadow of the Globe is something remarkable – a tour-de-force. The main relationship, between Mary and Shakespeare, is meant to reveal the pain and inherently unrequited nature of love. Using Shakespeare's biography to make this point was ingenious, and all the more for being obvious on second consideration. The poetic diction struck me as having both antique and modern qualities – you kept the verbiage close enough to Renaissance styles to help your reader feel placed in that world, but the idiom, though it resembles the Jacobean in its delicacy and baroqueness, is really contemporary with us, so it was a kind of verbal sleight-of-hand, well thought through and executed. A great accomplishment of this work was to identify Shakespeare as an early champion of women's humanness and, turning that around, to create a female character that identifies Shakespeare's humanness as both strength and weakness – and to see that a female character would be best placed to do this. – Seth Riemer, Rabbi |
|
Join Michelle's Mailing List | Links | Contact |