Scholars and Poets Talk About Queens

Scholars and Poets Talk About Queens is a lively and erudite collection, unusual in an especially appealing way: not only are there essays about a range of queens and how they were represented in the Middle Ages and Renaissance through primary accounts, chronicles, and literary representations, but the book also contains modern poetry and short plays about these same queens, allowing readers to understand and appreciate them both intellectually and emotionally. Queens include such famous and fascinating women as Hecuba, Cleopatra, the Empress Matilda, Margaret of Anjou, Catherine of Aragon, Mary Stuart, and Queen Elizabeth I, and Grace O'Malley, a pirate queen. One can find, for example, an essay on Mary Stuart's responses to her widowhoods paired with Mary's lamentation from the afterlife. After reading the analysis of the Empress Matilda's efforts to gain the throne of England, one can also see the character of the much older Matilda playing chess with her daughter-in-law Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Carole Levin is Willa Cather Professor of History and Director of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program at the University of Nebraska. Her previous books include Dreaming the English Renaissance (2008) and The Reign of Elizabeth I (2003). She co-edits the Queenship and Power series with Charles Beem.

Christine Stewart-Nunez, PhD, is Associate Professor of English at South Dakota State University and author of five poetry collections: Snow, Salt, Honey (2012); Keeping Them Alive (2011); Postcard on Parchment (2008); Unbound & Branded (2006); and The Love of Unreal Things (2005).