William Shakespeare may well be the most widely read author of the Western world, which comes with incredible influence. His works have sparked countless adaptations, from films like Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and the Taming of the Shrew–based ’90s rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You to musicals like West Side Story and Kiss Me, Kate. He’s also the wordsmith behind a stunning number of phrases that remain in common parlance; for instance, if you ever say something is a “foregone conclusion,” you are pulling from Othello.
Four hundred years after Shakespeare shuffled off this mortal coil (we owe that one to Hamlet), the stories and themes of his brilliant and evocative comedies, tragedies, histories, and late romances still resonate deeply, but as we’ve seen time and time again, so much is gained by giving them new settings, genres, and especially points of view.
Shakespeare’s unique ability to craft characters with humor, pathos, and ambition combined with his ubiquity has given his stories a kind of power that has allowed for his work to define people for centuries. This includes both those whom he chose to portray and those he did not. Although most writers of his time were no different, to say Shakespeare did not do marginalized people any favors is an understatement; many of us still live with the effects of his caricatures and common story lines today.
As in my prior anthology, His Hideous Heart: 13 of Edgar Allan Poe’s Most Unsettling Tales Reimagined, the authors here have deconstructed and reconstructed an inarguably brilliant but very white and very straight canon. I wanted to give authors the power to revisit and give new spirit to these narratives, much in the same way that I, as a Jewish author, eagerly anticipated remaking The Merchant of Venice to give the Shylock analogue considerably more agency.
The result is a collection that explores different cultures, celebrates a variety of genders and forms of love, and addresses different kinds of emotional pain head-on.
I hope you love the result as much as I do.
—DAHLIA ADLER