Mini: Interview with Ana Davis on My Keen Knife, a Young Adult Dark Fantasy Retelling of Macbeth
Release Date: 10/22/2025
Mini: Shakespeare in the Borderlands with Dr. Katherine Gillen and Ruben Ramirez of Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. Each year, in recognition of the National Day of Mourning/Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, we examine how British colonialism is irrevocably intertwined with Shakespeare. Over the past four years, we explored this topic through close reading of Jyotsna Singh's Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory. After completing our episodes on Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory, we wanted to turn to highlighting and amplifying the work of artists, activists, and...
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The Tempest: Wrap-Up
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we conclude our exploration of The Tempest by examining three distinct interpretations of Shakespeare’s final solo play. We begin with Julie Taymor’s 2010 film adaptation, featuring Helen Mirren as Prospera, and reflect on the criticism of it we read about in our episode, The Tempest: Patriarchy, Gender, and Power in Shakespeare’s Play. We then turn to The Globe’s 2013 stage production, directed by Jeremy Herrin, to discuss how its traditional staging...
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Mini: Interview with Ana Davis on My Keen Knife, a Young Adult Dark Fantasy Retelling of Macbeth
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we sit down with Ana Davis to discuss her debut novel, My Keen Knife. Set in a Portugal-inspired country, My Keen Knife follows three teenagers as they strive to achieve their foretold fates. We discuss Ana's inspirations for My Keen Knife, her writing process, and how her background in International Affairs influenced the world of her novel. We also discuss how Shakespeare's Macbeth weaves throughout the plot and the Macbeth Easter eggs she's hidden...
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The Tempest: Grimoires, Alchemy, and the Making of Prospero’s Art
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we begin by exploring how Prospero’s magic in The Tempest reflects early modern grimoire traditions—a form of ritual magic rooted in books, incantations, and precise ceremonial practice, especailly as compared to the types of magic we discussed in our Macbeth episodes. We examine how Shakespeare's depiction of Prospero's art, Prospero's relationship with Ariel, and the creation and disappearance of the masque parallel descriptions of grimoire magical...
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Mini: Shakespeare for Young Audiences with ML Roberts, Sean Patrick Nill, and Elyse Sharp of B Street Theatre’s NEVER FEAR, SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this mini-episode, we sit down with actor ML Roberts and co-playwrights Sean Patrick Nill and Elyse Sharp to talk about NEVER FEAR, SHAKESPEARE—a brand new Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) play premiering at Sacramento’s B Street Theatre. B Street is well known for its Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) programming, which brings high-quality, professional productions to children, families, and schools, making theatre accessible to the next generation. We dive into B...
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The Tempest: Caliban’s Legacy of Race, Class, and Colonialism
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. This episode explores Caliban’s role in The Tempest and the ways his character has been shaped by and interpreted through race, class, and colonialism. We begin with a close look at “the pinch” and unpack how Shakespeare’s audience would have understood its connections to resource scarcity and punishment. We then chart Caliban’s performance history from the 19th century to the early 1980s, revealing how shifting portrayals reflected cultural attitudes. We end...
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Mini: Court Masques and How They Shaped Shakespeare’s Plays
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this mini-episode, we explore the world of the Court Masque, a form of entertainment that flourished in the Tudor and Stuart courts. From its roots in medieval pageantry and music to its height as a vehicle for royal celebration and political display of wealth, the masque became a defining cultural event during Shakespeare's time. While Shakespeare never wrote a Court Masque, we will explore how Ben Jonson’s Hymenaei may have influenced Shakespeare's choices for...
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The Tempest: Patriarchy, Gender, and Power in Shakespeare’s Play
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we explore how The Tempest reflects—and at times challenges—patriarchal power structures in Shakespeare’s world and in its performance history. First, we examine how Prospero’s control over Miranda, Ariel, and Caliban reflects early modern ideas and debates about gender, political authority, and service. Then, we look at how changing the gender of Prospero reshapes the play’s dynamics, how productions across stage and screen have used gender...
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Mini: Making Shakespeare Accessible with Mike and Steph Crugnola of Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this mini episode, we’re joined by Mike and Steph Crugnola of Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project to talk about their mission to make Shakespeare more accessible—for both audiences and artists. We dive into the company’s flexible and innovative production models—including one rehearsal performances, collaborative directing, site-specific stagings, and immersive experiences—and how these approaches open up new ways of engaging with Shakespeare’s work. Steph and Mike...
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The Tempest: Travel Narratives, Cultural Encounters, and Shakespeare’s Inspirations
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. Did Shakespeare write The Tempest in response to a shipwreck, or was something bigger at play? In this episode, we explore the early modern travel narratives that many scholars believe inspired Shakespeare’s final solo play. We begin with lesser-known travel accounts that focus on cultural encounters in Russia, Southwest Asia, Central America, and India—narratives that shaped how early modern England imagined the world beyond Europe. Then we turn to one of the most...
info_outlineWant to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.
In this episode, we sit down with Ana Davis to discuss her debut novel, My Keen Knife. Set in a Portugal-inspired country, My Keen Knife follows three teenagers as they strive to achieve their foretold fates.
We discuss Ana's inspirations for My Keen Knife, her writing process, and how her background in International Affairs influenced the world of her novel. We also discuss how Shakespeare's Macbeth weaves throughout the plot and the Macbeth Easter eggs she's hidden for Shakespeare fans like us.
My Keen Knife is out now at a bookseller near you! Support Shakespeare Anyone? by purchasing your copy through this link.
About My Keen Knife
Fair is foul and foul is fair in a country ravaged by the lies of its monarchy. To claim the crown, Adelina, Seba, and Jasibin must learn to be a little wicked…even if it means betraying each other.
All hail Malves, who shall wear crowns.
On the night of her brother’s murder, Adelina Malves holds him as he dies, inheriting both his title and the prophecy that spelled out his doom. If she’s to avenge him and avoid a similar death, she must claim the crown of Jumaral by ruthlessly cutting down every family member ahead of her in the line of succession and uncover the secret that got her brother killed.
Hail! Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
Ghost-whispering Jasibin holds the key to Adelina’s plan to contact her dead brother—if only his strange magic wasn’t killing him slowly. To fulfill his own prophecy and protect his brother Seba, he must discover the source of his magic before he’s lost to the land of the dead.
All hail, Sebastião, that shall be king hereafter.
Seba is desperate for a way out of Jumaral and the substantial financial debt his dead mother left him. When a witch sees the riches of a king in his future, Adelina’s offer of coin in exchange for help feels like fate, pulling Seba into a fake dating plot with Adelina that hides their sinister plans.
In this stunning, innovative retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth set in a Portugal-inspired country, three teenagers will stop at nothing to fulfill their destinies.
About Ana Davis
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
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Works referenced:
Davis, Ana. My Keen Knife. Turner Publishing Company, 2025.