Picoult also discussed his upcoming novel, By Any Other Name.
It's not her first foray into historical fiction, but this time it's a parallel story about Melina Green, a young contemporary playwright struggling to get her work recognized in New York, and her ancestor Emilia Bassano. She was the female author behind Shakespeare's works.
“I feel like this is the book I had to write my whole life,” Picoult said.
“This is a book that shows how the situation of women has changed over 400 years, and how it has not changed.”
Of course, Picoult's book is fiction, but Bassano was a real Elizabethan woman.
Picoult does a great job of persuading Hay's audience to consider the idea that Bassano wrote at least some of Shakespeare's works, citing various theories she encountered during her research., Out
What is certain is that Bassano (later known as Emilia Lanier) was one of the first female poets published in England in the early 1600s.
There is also a theory (although Picoult is not persuaded) that she is the Dark Lady who appears in the Bard's sonnets.
“I actually did a ton of research to write this book. And I'm not going to tell you what to believe. I’m just going to present you with the facts.” Picoult later added that he thought Shakespeare's plays were probably written by more than one person.