An Early Playwright

Ann Hollinshead Hurley’63, Editor
E. Polwhele: The Faithful Virgins
Iter Press
93 pages, $43.95

E. Polwhele (c.1651–c.1691) was one of the first women to write for the stage in Restoration London. Ann Hollinshead Hurley ’63, professor of English emerita at Wagner College, introduces the first printed edition of Polwhele’s first play, The Faithful Virgins, which until now had existed only in an unsigned manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. The modern-spelling edition discusses the play in terms of radical changes in English stage practices following the restoration of the monarchy after England’s civil war.

Alone on the Road

Beth Santos ’08
Wander Woman: How to Reclaim Your Space, Find Your Voice, and Travel the World, Solo
Balance
304 pages, $19.99

This inspiring overview of the adventure and self-discovery of solo travel is much more than a how-to guide for women traveling alone. It also explores how to think about travel and the impact it has on the places we visit as well as on ourselves. Beth Santos ’08, the founder of Wanderful, a global women’s travel community, explores the skills and mindset that will enable solo travelers to take on the world, one (sustainable, safe) trip at a time.

Her Final Battle?

Susan Elia MacNeal ’91
The Last Hope: A Maggie Hope Mystery
Bantam
304 pages, $29.00

The 11-book series by Susan Elia MacNeal ’91 about Winston Churchill’s secretary-turned-spy comes to a close with this volume. British Intelligence has ordered Maggie to assassinate Werner Heisenberg, the physicist developing a potentially world-ending fission bomb for Nazi Germany. As London reels under the Blitz, Maggie travels to Madrid, where she teams up with fashion designer—and possible double agent—Coco Chanel to try to bring Heisenberg down. Will she succeed? No spoilers here. You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Family History Reconsidered

Liane Strauss ’84
The Flaws in the Story
Marsh Hawk Press
108 pages, $18.00

Liane Strauss ’84 is a poet born in Queens, N.Y. She is the daughter of a Ukrainian-Belorussian mother born and raised in Cairo and an Austro-German father born in Frankfurt, Germany, but raised mostly in Washington Heights, N.Y. Drawing on her own lineage for her fourth book, she presents a linked set of poems exploring identity and loss. Poet Mary Jo Bang, who selected this volume for the 2023 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize, calls it “unputdownable, as in ‘so gripping as to be read right through at one sitting.’”