The 2025 Louisiana Book Festival will be held on Saturday, November 1.
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Mary McMyne

Home Featured Authors & Panelists Featured Participant Lineup Mary McMyne

Mary McMyne is a novelist, poet, and professor who is fascinated with the stories behind stories. She is the author of The Book of Gothel and a poetry chapbook, Wolf Skin, which won the Elgin Chapbook Award. A graduate of the New York University MFA program, she has received the Faulkner-Wisdom Prize for a Novel-in-Progress and a grant from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, among other honors. She is the poetry editor for Enchanted Living.

 

Schedule

10:00 am to 11:00 am

State Capitol, House Committee Room 1

Dark Fantasy/Horror Fiction

with Victor Dixen, Daniel Kraus, Mary McMyne, and GennaRose Nethercott

 

11:15 am to Noon

Cavalier House Books Tent

Book Signing

 

12:45 pm to 1:45 pm

State Capitol, House Committee Room 2

Coming of Age: Exploring Otherness in Fiction

with Dawn Major, Karen Spears Zacharias, Susan Beckham Zurenda, and moderator Mary McMyne

A Rose by Any Other Name

★ “A fascinating fictional exposé [with] a touch of mysticism and an LGBTQ twist."-- Booklist (starred review)
★ “A delightfully impish heroine... a tempestuous erotic connection... a captivating imagining of the life of the Dark Lady, the illusive inspiration for Shakespeare's later sonnets."-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

My name has only been whispered, heretofore…

England, 1591. Rose Rushe’s passion for life runs deep—she loves mead and music, meddles with astrology, and laughs at her mother’s warnings to guard her reputation. When Rose’s father dies and a noble accuses her and her dear friend Cecely of witchcraft, they flee to the household of respected alchemists in London. But as their bond deepens, their sanctuary begins to feel more like a cage. To escape, they turn to the occult, secretly casting charms and selling astrological advice in the hopes of building a life together. This thriving underground business leads Rose to fair young noble Henry and playwright Will Shakespeare, and so begins a brief, tempestuous, and powerful romance—one filled with secret longings and deep betrayals. 

In this world of dazzling masques and decadent feasts, where the stars decide futures, Rose will write her own fate instead. 

From the author of The Book of Gothel comes the lush, magical story behind Shakespeare's sonnets, as told by one of his most famous subjects—the incendiary and mysterious Dark Lady.