Scholars and Poets Talk About Queens

Scholars and Poets Talk About Queens is a lively and erudite collection, unusual in an especially appealing way. This collection of essays shows how queens were represented in the Middle Ages and Renaissance through primary accounts, chronicles, and literary representations. The book also contains modern poetry and short plays about these same queens, allowing readers to understand and appreciate them both intellectually and emotionally. Contributors study a wide range of queens including such famous and fascinating women as Queen Elizabeth I, Cleopatra, Hecuba, the Empress Matilda, Mary Stuart, Margaret of Anjou, Catherine of Aragon, and the pirate queen Grace O'Malley. By pairing scholarly essays with contemporary poems about them, the collection demonstrates the continued relevance and immediacy of these powerful and fascinating women.

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-Nuñez, 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).

Hecuba
Marguerite Tassi, Tears for Hecuba: Empathy and Maternal Bereavement in Golding's Translation of Ovid Metamorphosis
Marguerite Tassi, Hecuba's Dream
Darla Biefieldt, Hecuba Laments

Cleopatra
Andrea Nichols, 'I was not I?' Tracing the Representations of Cleopatra in English Drama
Erika Stevens, Grand Unified Theory

Boudicca
Katarzyna Lecky, How the Iceni Became British: Holinshed's Boudicca and the Rhetoric of Naturalization
M. Wells, The Queen Iceni Seeks Andraste
Carole Levin, The Heart and Stomach of a Queen

The Empress Matilda
Charles Beem, The Virtuous Virago: The Empress Matilda and the Politics of Womanhood in Twelfth Century England
Dennis Henry, Maud and Ellie Play Chess

Queen Margaret
Carole Levin, Queen Margaret in Shakespeare and Chronicles: She-Wolf or Heroic Spirit
Regina Buccola, After Lives

Catherine of Aragon
Theresa Earenfight, Regarding Catherine of Aragon
Christine Stewart-Nuñez, Of Books and Bijou: The Poet's Letter to Katherine
Christine Stewart-Nuñez, Granadas: Katherine to Her Daughter

Mary Stuart
Alyson Alvarez, The Widow of Scots; Examining Mary Stuart in her Widowhoods
Mary Ruth Donnelly, Mary Queen of Scots in Hell

Elizabeth I
Paul Strauss, The Virgin Queen as Nurse of the Church: Manipulating an Image of Elizabeth I in Court Sermons
Sonja Drimmer, Questionable Contexts: A Pedigree Book and Queen Elizabeth's Teeth
Amber Harris Leichner, For My Eyes, Part 1
Amber Harris Leichner, For My Eyes, Part 2
Regina Buccola, The First of That Name

Grace O'Malley
Brandie Siegfried, Notorious Irish Queen: Gráinne Ní Mháille, Graven Memory, and the Making of Legend
Heidi Czerwiec, Grace: O'Malley meets the English Queen

Gifts and Poison, Whispers and Letters
Catherine Medici, More Than a Wife and Mother: Jane Dudley, the Woman Who Bequeathed a Parrot and Served Five Queens.
Jo Carney, Poisoning Queens in Early Modern England
Megan Gannon, On the Revolutions of Space
Grace Bauer, The Kingdom if I can