In an ambitious project, bestselling novelists will retell William Shakespeare's plays, bringing them alive for a contemporary readership in a prose form.
Hogarth, Random House's transatlantic fiction imprint, announced The Hogarth Shakespeare project in which bestselling novelists Anne Tyler and Jeanette Winterson will re-imagine Shakespeare for a 21st century audience.
Tyler and Winterson are the first authors commissioned by Hogarth to write prose 'retellings' of Shakespeare's plays for the modern reader. These new versions will be true to the spirit of the original dramas and their popular appeal, while giving authors an exciting opportunity to reinvent these seminal works of English literature, Random House said in a statement.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Tyler has selected Shakespeare's comedy, "The Taming of the Shrew".
She says, "I don't know which I'm looking forward to more: delving into the mysteries of shrewish Kate or finding out what all the other writers do with their Shakespeare characters.'
BAFTA Award-winner Winterson has chosen Shakespeare's late play, "The Winter's Tale".
"All of us have talismanic texts that we have carried around and that carry us around. I have worked with The Winter's Tale in many disguises for many years. This is a brilliant opportunity to work with it in its own right. And I love cover versions," she says.
The Hogarth Shakespeare programme will launch in 2016, coinciding with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Hogarth is currently in discussion with a number of writers, with further announcements expected soon.
Clara Farmer, publishing director, Chatto & Windus and Hogarth, says, "The opportunity to ask our best living writers to reinterpret Shakespeare's many worlds has proved irresistible. The time is ripe for a dedicated series of stand-alone retellings that will form a covetable library and a celebration of Shakespeare for years to come.
