Lunatics, Lovers and Poets

'The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.' - William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the deaths of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes, And Other Stories and Hay Festival have selected twelve contemporary international authors to each write an original and previously unpublished story as their tribute to these giants of world literature. In order to celebrate the international influence of both writers and offer us new and intriguing perspectives on them, six English-speaking authors have taken inspiration from Cervantes and his work, while six Spanish-language authors have written stories inspired by Shakespeare. The authors are Ben Okri, Deborah Levy, Kamila Shamsie, Yuri Herrera, Marcos Giralt Torrente, Juan Gabriel Vasquez, Vicente Molina Foix, Soledad Puertolas, Hisham Matar, Nell Leyshon, Rhidian Brook and Valeria Luiselli. An introduction by Salman Rushdie explores the liberating legacy of Cervantes and Shakespeare for contemporary fiction.

'A triumph of collaboration. [Lunatics, Lovers and Poets is] much more than a celebration of contemporary and legendary writers: it's about the global reach of the English and Spanish languages. It's about the wonder of translation ... It's about collaboration ... It's also about the right to read, write and make up stories.' Miranda France, The Guardian ---------- 'A splendid homage to two visionaries.' Boyd Tonkin, i ---------- 'Shakespearean flexibility is beautifully revealed in the 12 short stories in this collection ... fiction is only half a step away from history, and the false shades into the real.' Daniel Smith, The Spectator ---------- 'Authors and translators maintain a high standard ... Outstanding.' Ruth Morse, Times Literary Supplement ---------- 'Some of the brightest lights in contemporary fiction celebrate the timelessness of Shakespeare and Cervantes ... these stories [are] fresh and exciting. Much of this comes from the diversity of writer backgrounds on show, and their style and traditions add a wealth of interpretation and perspective.' Herald Scotland ---------- 'Shakespeare and Cervantes' artistic resonance is beautifully repositioned within a modern and multi-lingual context in Lunatics, Lovers and Poets.' The Skinny ---------- 'These stories range far and wide ... a notable collection, with a welcome international focus.' Publishers Weekly ---------- 'Ingenious ... [Lunatics, Lovers and Poets] is a fascinating ides converted into a really enjoyable reading experience.' Nic Bottomley, Bath Life ---------- 'These amazing new stories are not only a tribute to Cervantes and Shakespeare from some of the best contemporary authors writing in English and Spanish, they are also a tribute to the power of translation.' Cristina Fuentes La Roche, Director, Hay Festival Americas

Daniel Hahn is an award-winning writer, editor and translator, with forty-something books to his name. Recent titles include the new Oxford Companion to Children's Literature and a translation of A General Theory of Oblivion (by Angolan novelist Jose Eduardo Agualusa). He is on the board of a number of organisations that work with literature, reading and free speech, and is currently chair of the Society of Authors. ---------- Margarita Valencia (Bogota, 1958) has devoted most of her professional life to books, as editor, teacher, literary critic, translator. Her publishing projects have included the Bogota publishing house Carlos Valencia Editores, literary collections edited for Grupo Editorial Norma, and Libro al viento, a publishing project aimed at closing the gap between the reader and the book. She has been a staff writer for several magazines (El Malpensante, Cambio, Arcadia, Guion), and the newspaper La Prensa, and her texts have been published in various anthologies. She conceived and directs the program in Book Studies in the Instituto Caro y Cuervo, and co-directs Los libros, a program that airs on National Public Radio. ---------- Sir Salman Rushdie has received many awards for his writing, including the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. In 1993 Midnight's Children was judged to be the 'Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. In June 2007 he received a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours.