Oneworld wins auction for examination of race in Shakespeare

Oneworld has won a four-way auction for an “expert, warm and inclusive” examination of race in Shakespearean literature by Farah Karim-Cooper. 

Cecilia Stein bought UK and Commonwealth rights to The Great White Bard: Shakespeare and Race, Then and Now from Charlie Brotherstone at BCM. Patrick Nolan at Viking US won North American rights. The title will be published in spring 2023 to coincide with the 400-year anniversary of Shakespeare’s first folio.

Stein commented: “Only Farah could bring this subject to life with such verve. In combining a fresh analysis of Shakespeare’s work with a radical reappraisal of Elizabethan society, she interrogates how the bard reflected and refined racial language and power dynamics that are still felt today. Like the best non-fiction, it gets you to ask yourself what else you don’t know.”

Karim-Cooper is head of higher education and research at Shakespeare’s Globe and professor of literature and Shakespeare studies at King’s College London. She said: “I’m thrilled to be working with Oneworld and to have the opportunity to show how reading Shakespeare through race and decolonisation doesn’t mean cancelling him; on the contrary, it ensures his survival.”

Michelle Terry, artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, added: “Farah knows better than anyone that Shakespeare does not need our reverence, an unconditional place in our classrooms, or our empty platitudes about his universality. He needs us to put him to work, to get under the skin of the words and dare to question what we find there. There is simply no one more ready to do this than Farah."