Sweet Robin of Santa Fe

The June 2004 article in Newsweek was one of the most exciting things I'd ever read: Was Shakespeare a She? Robin P. Williams thinks that Mary Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke, is the true author of Shakespeare. With a resounding yes, my intuition told me that Shakespeare was indeed a she, as fantastical as it sounds. I was so inspired, I wrote a sonnet for Robin and sent it to her. We've since become fast friends.

My new chapbook, The Countess of Flatbroke, was deeply inspired by Robin's work on the Countess of Pembroke. Of course, inspiration and intuition are one thing - when I actually read Robin's book, Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?, I was thoroughly convinced by her painstakingly researched facts and evidence that Mary Sidney is truly the author of the works of Shakespeare. Here is more information about Robin and her book from her beautiful website. Merry will be interviewing Robin on Woman-Stirred Radio - more details below.

Robin P. Williams is the author of dozens of best-selling and award-winning books about design, typography, the web, and the Macintosh computer. In Sweet Swan of Avon, she turns to a project that has been on her mind for thirty years.

An Independent Scholar, Robin has studied Shakespeare at St. John's College in Santa Fe and Oxford University in England. She teaches Shakespeare for adults at the local college, and guides two play readings a month at The Mermaid Tavern. She runs ten-week guided discussions of selected plays for advanced readers, called The Understanders. For three years she has been a featured speaker at the Authorship Conference at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.

In Sweet Swan of Avon, Robin Williams’ premise is that a woman may have written the works attributed to William Shakespeare. She bases her argument on documented evidence regarding Mary Sidney, a woman who developed the most important literary circle in English history, whose mission in life was to create great works in the English language, and who was unable to put her name on work written for the public theater. This book does not attempt to prove that Mary Sidney Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke, wrote the plays and sonnets attributed to William Shakespeare. Instead, Robin Williams’ intent is to provide enough documented evidence to open the inquiry into this intriguing—and entirely plausible—possibility.

Please join Merry Gangemi on Woman-Stirred Radio, this Thursday, August 3rd at 4:30 pm (EST) for what is sure to be a fascinating dialogue with Robin P. Williams, live from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Tune in at 4pm for some great music! Interview begins at 4:30. Woman-Stirred Radio WGDR 91.1 fm (Goddard College, Vermont), and streaming online by clicking "Listen Live" at www.wgdr.org.

Woman-Stirred Radio is generously supported by The Samara Foundation of Vermont.

Sweet Swan of Avon is published by Wilton Circle Press, 2006.