On a wasted island in perpetual sun, the Father practices magic, laments his lost kingdom and commands a ragtag army of three: the passionate and damaged Daughter, the winged Spirit and an indigenous being known only as C. Behind their uniforms — white suits and full-face paper masks — the soldiers seethe with rebellion. The arrival of the Boy, a hapless prince, and the Brother, the Father's rival, unleashes desire, betrayal, insanity and revenge — all of it witnessed by an irate sea. Paper Crusade is a bold reinvention of Shakespeare's play, The Tempest. Michelle Penn's vivid imagery and startling, sensual language create an unforgettable dystopia for our own time. A visionary, intertextual journey that takes us far beyond standard retelling or response to Shakespeare. Penn brings new life to the characters here, with an incantatory power that threatens to lose us in the words and the waves but always takes us somewhere captivating and unexpected. Luke Kennard, 2022 Michelle Penn is a dual UK/US national. She grew up in the US and lived/worked in France for seven years before moving to London in 2005. Michelle plans innovative poetry/art/music events as part of Corrupted Poetry. Her book-length poem, Paper Crusade, re-imagines Shakespeare's The Tempest as a dystopia and was published by Arachne Press in 2022. Michelle Penn's debut pamphlet, Self-portrait as a diviner, failing (2018), won the Paper Swans Prize. Recent work has appeared in The Pomegranate, Under the Radar, Magma and Bad Lilies. Several of Michelle's poems have been performed as part of Arachne's Solstice Shorts Festivals, and published in their respective anthologies, Dusk; Noon Time and Tide and Words From the Brink. Michelle also has a poem in Byways
Published by: Arachne Press