Skye Allen's Blog, page 5

Inside Storytime

I’m reading at Inside Storytime on Thursday, August 17 from 7-9 in the enigmatic basement room of the Armory Club in San Francisco, with Sean Craven and others.

Inside Storytime has a theme for every reading. This time it’s “redirections.” Where will we end up?

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What happens in Hamlet

It’s daunting, it’s endless, and there’s basically nobody to like in it, but it’s full of the most beautiful words ever written. For the July edition of What Happens in Shakespeare, let’s tackle Hamlet.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company tweeted: “Hamlet avenges his father, and it only takes four hours.”

What happens in Hamlet

Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark. His uncle Claudius murdered Hamlet’s father, married Hamlet’s mother, and is now the King.

When the play begins, Hamlet sees his father’s...

What happens in Julius Caesar

This month’s edition of What Happens in Shakespeare is about Julius Caesar.

Ellen Kushner, who knows a thing or two about Shakespeare and about censorship, recently tweeted that wearing her Shakespeare in the Park sweatshirt is suddenly a statement-making act. It’s old news by now that sponsors of the Public Theater’s production of Julius Caesar pulled out because the theater’s Caesar resembled Donald Trump. Far-right protestors have interrupted subsequent performances.

But the play is not a...

What happens in Romeo & Juliet

For this month’s installment of What Happens in Shakespeare, I wanted to do Romeo and Juliet. If you listen to pretty much any English ballad, or any song Shakespeare wrote for a play, you’d know that May is the real month for lovers (not February, although there’s a character inspired by St. Valentine who is crucial to the plot).

The Reduced Shakespeare Company tweeted: “ ‘A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life’ (Prologue). Teen marriages never last.”

What happens in Romeo and Juliet...

My schedule at BayCon 2017

BayCon 2017 is Friday, May 26 through Monday, May 29 at the San Mateo Marriott. I’ll be on some very cool panels this year:

Saturday, May 27

Social Justice Dystopia
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
Tyranny, censorship, loss of rights, and how to fight back
Anne Killpack (M), Jennifer Nestojko, Skye Allen, Eric “In the Elevator” Zuckerman

Sunday, May 28

Women’s utopias or queer utopias
Sunday 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
There are a goodly handful of these in the canon.
Meg Elison (M), Heather Rose Jones, Skye Allen

“D...

What happens in All’s Well That Ends Well

I’m launching a brand-new feature on the blog, What happens in Shakespeare — short summaries of Shakespeare plays for readers who just want the facts. I’ll kick things off with the surprisingly cynical and misleadlingly named All’s Well That Ends Well.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company tweeted: “All Is NOT Well That Ends Well, and this play doesn’t. MORAL: Do it with the lights on.”

All’s Well That Ends Well

Helena is a medical professional with terrible taste in men. She is in love with a weal...

What happens in Shakespeare

To celebrate my favorite author’s birthday, I’m launching a new feature on the blog: What happens in Shakespeare. 

I got the idea while my wife and I were watching the TV series Slings and Arrows (which is brilliant and hilarious and you need to go watch it now. NOW! GO!). The first season centers around a production of Hamlet. Nadja asked me what happens in Hamlet. I tried to recount the story, but realized right away that while it’s all clear in my head, it’s a pretty complicated plot once...

I’m a Goldie Award Finalist!

The Songbird Thief is a finalist for the 2017 Golden Crown Literary Society Award for Young Adult Fiction. The Goldies are presented each year to recognize excellence in lesbian literature.

Please help me find my jaw; I seem to have dropped it.

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BayCon 2017

I’m super flattered to have been asked back to BayCon this year for a panel or two. The theme is Dystopia/Utopia. That’s timely. And it will be so cool to breathe the same air as Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt, hosts of the podcast that has gotten me through many a workday, Sword and Laser. 

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Perfectly Queer 3/22

I got all overeager and announced that I would be reading at an event I am not, in fact, reading at. Oh, my errant enthusiasms.

So I am NOT reading on Monday, March 13 at Dog Eared Books in San Francisco on the Perfectly Queer event, but I will be there to listen because Ellen Klages! And the other readers, M. Christian and Vylar Kaftan, look splendid.

And I AM reading on Wednesday, March 22 at Nomadic Press Uptown in Oakland. I adore Nomadic Press and I could not be more excited to meet Kwan...