I came to William Shakespeare late in life, when pursuing a second Bachelor’s and then an MFA in literature. Multiple studies of the Bard were required at Portland’s Liberal Arts school, Marylhurst University. In those classes, I learned of the magnitude of Shakespeare’s contribution to literature–the timeless lessons on the nature of humans. Later, I…

In 2025, a spate of movies were released based on literary novels, modern and classical. There was Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (a re-imagining of Mary Shelley’s gothic work); Francois Ozon’s The Stranger (Albert Camus’ 1942 novella); Kei Ishikawa’s A Pale View of Hills (Kazuo Ishiguro);Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet (Maggie O’Farrell) and Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams (Denis…