Live Author Talk with Jodi Picoult H’10

In 1581, Emilia Bassano—like most young women of her day—is allowed no voice of her own. But as the Lord Chamberlain’s mistress, she has access to all theater in England and finds a way to bring her work to the stage secretly. And yet, creating some of the world’s greatest dramatic masterpieces comes at great cost: by paying a man for the use of his name, she will write her own out of history.

In the present, playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. Although the challenges are different four hundred years later, the playing field is still not level for women in theater. Would Melina—like Emilia—be willing to forfeit her credit as author, just for a chance to see her work performed?

Told in intertwining narratives, this sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire asks what price each woman is willing to pay to see their work live on—even if it means they will be forgotten.

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-nine novels, including most recently the #1 bestseller By Any Other Name. Her landmark novel 19 Minutes was recently deemed the most banned book in the Unites States in a recent report conducted by PEN America.

Picoult’s books have been translated into forty languages. Her two YA novels Between the Lines and Off the Page, co-written with her daughter Samantha Van Leer, have been adapted by the authors into a musical entitled Between the Lines. She is also the co-librettist of the musical, Breathe, and a musical adaptation of The Book Thief, based on the international bestselling novel by Markus Zusak, which premiered in the UK in September 2022. Her co-adaptation of the musical Austenland is currently in development.

Picoult is the recipient of many awards, including the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction, the Alex Awards from the YALSA, a lifetime achievement award for mainstream fiction from the Romance Writers of America, the NH Literary Award for Outstanding Literary Merit and esteemed Sarah Josepha Hale Award. She was the recipient of the 2024 Free Speech Defender Robie Harris Author Award from the National Coalition Against Censorship. She holds honorary doctor of letters degrees from Dartmouth College and the University of New Haven. She is a patron of the Carole Shields Prize for Fiction which is awarded to female fiction writers. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for PEN America.

Picoult lives in New Hampshire with her husband. They have three children and two grandchildren.

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