Shakespeare’s Sonnets in the 21st Century

Shakespeare’s plays enjoy a strong presence in film and popular culture, but the Sonnets have remained relatively less accessible. Don Paterson, twice winner of the T. S. Eliot prize for poetry, drew on his working knowledge of the sonnet form as a practicing poet to write Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets, a full-length popular commentary.

Subsequently Don was asked to choose a Shakespeare sonnet to complement each of twenty-five book titles that were given away as part of World Book Night 2012, ensuring that 2.5 million sonnets reached new readers. Don also worked as consultant and contributor for Faber/Touch Press on their highly successful Shakespeare’s Sonnets iPad application, reinterpreting an historically remote and formally challenging body of poetic work for a wide non-academic audience through the new digital media.

Read Reviews in The Guardian and at Salon.