Tana Wojczuk is a contributing editor at Guernica and teaches writing at New York University. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Tin House, The Believer, Bomb, Narrative, Vice, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the Gulf Coast Nonfiction Prize judged by David Shields, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation fellow, Tin House Summer Writers Workshop poetry fellow, and research fellow in the New York University Global Scholars program. She received her MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. A Boulder native, she currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her first book, Lady Romeo: The Radical, Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America's First Celebrity was a finalist for the Marfield Prize National Award for Arts Writing, Publishing Triangle award, and a LAMBDA Literary Award.
“A lively, illuminating new biography… Wojczuk reveals the
force and vitality of this woman, on the stage and
off.” —THE BOSTON GLOBE
“[A] galloping, atmospheric account of a remarkable woman: the
first real American celebrity… It’s a thrill and an inspiration to
come to understand Cushman’s bold aplomb in the pages of Lady
Romeo.” —CHICAGO REVIEW OF BOOKS
“Lady Romeo is a brisk read, packed with cinematic details and
a smattering of Easter eggs sure to delight even the most
hardboiled history buff.” —AUTOSTRADDLE
“[A] brisk, vibrant biography… Wojczuk, a critic and editor, deftly
conjures Cushman's milieu, her impact and, in vividly rendered
moments rich with scenic detail, that most elusive of qualities:
her presence. Cushman's life astonishes… Wojczuk's telling fizzes
like champagne uncorked… This effervescent theater biography
summons up a lost American age and a majestic queer radical.”
—SHELF AWARENESS
“Queer history stories can be worthy, but too scholarly, even
snooze-inducing. Or they can grab you by the lapels and jolt you
awake like a double shot of espresso. Lady Romeo: The Radical and
Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America’s First
Celebrity by Tana Wojczuk will keep you up at night. Turning
the page – hungering for more. . . Wojczuk, brings Cushman, who
lived from 1816 to 1876 and was as famous as Alcott, Ralph Waldo
Emerson or Charles Dickens, vividly to life. As you read, you
forget that you live in the 21st century.” —THE WASHINGTON
BLADE
"The name Charlotte Cushman may not mean much today, but in the
mid-1800s she was a prominent stage actress who specialized in
Shakespearean roles from Lady Macbeth to Romeo (her sister played
Juliet). Cushman was also openly gay and her radical lifestyle and
many same-sex relationships were the stuff of scandal. Wojcuzk's
carefully researched biography, which draws heavily on Cushman's
letters, paints a fascinating portrait of a true
trailblazer." —NEWSDAY
“In Lady Romeo, Wojczuk writes in a novelistic style
imbued with a flair for the dramatic that captures Cushman and the
impact she had on her era and on other people. It’s a page-turner .
. . a provocative, fun and easy read . . . . you’ll have to
gift Lady Romeo to a friend. Wojczuk’s biography is
highly recommended for both its historical content in exploring
Cushman’s role as the first celebrity and an openly queer figure as
well as for its entertainment value in bringing that time and
Cushman’s complex persona believably and readably to
life.” —PHILADELPHIA GAY NEWS
“She left Louisa May Alcott stage-struck. She shocked Elizabeth
Barrett Browning. She failed to impress Queen
Victoria. She charmed Abraham Lincoln. And she made Henry
James feel he had heard Shakespeare as he never would
again. Once the empress of the stage, the indomitable
nineteenth-century superstar Charlotte Cushman has been lost to
us.Tana Wojczuk resurrects her here, charisma and originality
intact. A brisk, beautifully crafted life of a pioneering
actor who—on and off the stage—indeed seems to have been, as
Wojczuk puts it, ‘a better man than most men.’” —STACY SCHIFF,
author of The Witches
“I’ve been waiting for a very long time for such an illuminating
appraisal of Charlotte Cushman, a major and undervalued figure in
nineteenth-century America. What Tana Wojczuk accomplishes here is
thrilling. This is a timely book and will be valued by anyone
interested in the life and times of a defining figure in American
culture.” —JAMES SHAPIRO, author of Shakespeare in a Divided
America
“Lady Romeo is a magnificent portrait of Charlotte Cushman, a woman
whose name I had never known and now will never forget. Tana
Wojczuk tells the story of this remarkable life in a sensuous,
smart, and very real way that had me uttering ‘Wow’ out loud every
page I turned. By the end, I was deeply in love with Charlotte, and
I know that readers will be, too.” —MOLLY SCHIOT, author of Game
Changers and creator of @TheUnsungHeroines
“Tana Wojczuk’s method in Lady Romeo is simple and dazzling.
Chapter by chapter, she paints the past with words, and the reader
is effortlessly drawn into a forgotten world.” —JONATHAN LETHEM
“Charlotte Cushman did not thrill just audiences. She thrilled her
very surroundings. The wood of the theater’s seats and bannisters
grew more solemn and still, the moonlight on the facade grew more
silvery and remote, when she held forth as Lady Macbeth. Tana
Wojczuk’s entertaining book tells the story of a great American
actress.” —ALEXANDER NEMEROV, author of Acting in the Night:
Macbeth and the Places of the Civil War
"In this engaging and entertaining biography, Wojczuk packs the
narrative with well-chosen, vibrant details of Cushman’s life as
she traveled and worked at a variety of theaters... Wojczuk
successfully reinvigorates this significant 19th-century
artist. An animated, refreshingly vivid biography of a woman
who made the stage her home." —KIRKUS REVIEWS (Starred)
"A brisk and vivid biography of actor Charlotte Cushman
(1816–1876), who captivated audiences while breaking 19th-century
America’s strict gender rules... Wojczuk enriches her portrait with
lively theater gossip and detailed discussions of 19th-century
class, social, and gender codes. This enthralling history restores
Cushman to her rightful place in the spotlight." —PUBLISHERS
WEEKLY
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