Jodi Picoult has made a name for herself...plus a book giveaway

Credit: Tim Llewellyn

Introduction by Melissa Amster

I have been a fan of Jodi Picoult ever since I read The Pact twenty years ago. Since then, I have devoured everything she has written, with the exception of Plain Truth since I saw it as a movie on Lifetime. In 2012, I got to meet Jodi in person at one of her book signings and she was so funny and down-to-earth. It just made me love her that much more! Unfortunately, the timing doesn't work out to meet her in person again this year when she's in my neck of the woods. However, getting to do an interview with her at CLC totally makes up for it! I absolutely loved her answers to my questions and I know you will too. It means so much to me that she took the time to give such well thought-out responses.

Jodi's latest novel, By Any Other Name, is one of my top picks for 2024. I just loved everything about it and I can't stop recommending it! It's different from anything she has ever written before and I can see how much passion she put into it. Check out my review. We're celebrating the publication today and are so excited that it's finally available for everyone to read. Thanks to Random House, we have one copy for a lucky reader!

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 29 novels, including Mad Honey, Wish You Were Here, Small Great Things, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Sing You Home, House Rules, Change of Heart, and My Sister's Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page.

Picoult’s books have been translated into thirty-four languages in thirty-five countries. Four novels – The Pact, Plain Truth, The Tenth Circle, and Salem Falls - have been made into television movies. My Sister’s Keeper was a film released from New Line Cinema. Mad Honey is currently in development for a series/film. Small Great Things and Wish You Were Here have been optioned for motion picture adaptation. Picoult is the co-librettist for the stage musical adaptation of her two Young Adult novels, Between The Lines and Off The Page, co-written with her daughter Samantha Van Leer, which premiered Off-Broadway in Summer 2021 and is currently licensed through Music Theatre International. She is also the co-librettist of the musical BREATHE, which was inducted into the Library of Congress's Performing Arts COVID-19 Response Collection; of the musical adaptation of THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak, which will debut in the West End in London in the fall of 2025; and the musical adaptation of AUSTENLAND, currently in development. (Bio adapted from Jodi's website.)

Visit Jodi online:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * TikTok

Synopsis:
Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten. (Courtesy of Amazon.)

“You’ll fall in love with Emilia Bassano, the unforgettable heroine based on a real woman that Picoult brings vividly to life in her brilliantly researched new novel.”
—Kristin Hannah, author of The Women

“Her best one yet. Jodi Picoult has combined her trademark research with an astonishing and heart-rending story, embedded in truth, and turned it into a gripping novel.”
—Jojo Moyes, author of Someone Else's Shoes

What were the biggest rewards and challenges with writing By Any Other Name?
The biggest reward was taking a hypothesis (Shakespeare didn’t write all his plays, but maybe a little known woman named Emilia Bassano wrote some of them) and finding so many connections between Emilia Bassano’s life and the plays that it seemed less like coincidence and more like evidence. For example, take Othello.  In the play, Iago gives a speech: “What shall I say? Where’s satisfaction?/ It is impossible you should see this,/ Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, /As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross/As ignorance made drunk. But yet I say,/If imputation and strong circumstances/Which lead directly to the Door of Truth,/Will give you satisfaction, you may have’t.” (Othello, 3.3.404-11)  Lots of weird metaphors there, right?  Well, in the little Italian town of Bassano del Grappa – where Emilia’s family emigrated from -- a fresco was painted in the main square above a salt shop. At the top was a bunch of animals including a goat, a sheep, and a monkey…and a woman representing Truth.  Also in that village square? Two apothecary shops. One was called The Moor. The other was run by a man named Giovanno Otello.

Moreover, between the first publication of the play in the first quarto and its inclusion in the First Folio, about 160 new lines were added.  This, in itself, is not unusual.  However, these new lines were added after Shakespeare was dead. So we know he didn’t write them. Who did? Well, of those new lines, the vast majority were penned for the character of Desdemona’s servant, Emilia – including a long speech considered the first feminist soliloquy in literature. Whether or not you believe Emilia wrote any of the plays, in 1611 she was the first published female poet in England – a remarkable achievement, when she was in her forties. But writers do not appear out of nowhere – what if she was writing all along, and using someone else’s name?  What if that name was William Shakespeare?   

The biggest challenge with writing the book was that it required me to take academic knowledge and use it to create a world — Elizabethan England, namely.  In a way, it was like writing fantasy, because I had to write it in a way that allows readers to see and smell and feel completely immersed.  I had to research details like whether common folks had windows in their homes, or just shutters; what was served at Queen Elizabeth I’s feasts; what herbs were used for birth control and abortifacients.  

What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?

That one of my books has helped someone through a difficult time.  I’ve had suicidal teens tell me that my books convinced them to tell an adult how they were feeling; I’ve had parents of trans kids use my books to build bridges with judgmental relatives; I’ve had gay readers use my books to come out to their families. 

What is one thing you would tell the debut novelist version of yourself?
Write what you need to write, not what you think is marketable.  It’s advice I’d give debut novelists today, too.

What is your favorite "Shakespeare" play? 
It’s one that usually makes people roll their eyes – Romeo and Juliet.  I have a personal attachment to it, because it was the first play I read, and the first play I taught as an educator…and truth be told, I love my husband dearly but I’m still waiting for the guy who automatically speaks in a sonnet with me the moment we meet!

If your life was a TV series, which celebrity would you want to narrate it? 
Wow…this is hard one!  I have to pick Meryl Streep, don’t I?  What CAN’T she do?  

If we were to visit you right now, what are some places you would take us to see?
I’d take you into Hanover, the town where I live, and we’d have lunch at Lou’s - a diner that’s been around for 75 years.  I’d swing you by my house to play ball with Stanley — the puppy that’s just turned one.  Then we would hike up to a piece of property we own that has views of NH's White Mountains AND the VT’s Green Mountains, collapse into Adirondack chairs, and I’d pop open a bottle of rosé.  

Thanks to Jodi for visiting with us and to Random House for coordinating the interview and sharing her book with our readers.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends August 25th at midnight EST.

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.

Listen to this book on Speechify!