Category: Contests

When Shakespeare Geek runs a contest, this is where it will end up. By definition most of the posts you’ll find here are going to be old, their contests long over.  But it’s fun to look back at history.

Win a Free Copy of “My Own Personal Shakespeare: Macbeth”! Enter Now!

~ duane ~ 19 Comments
My Own Personal Shakespeare : Macbeth Edition

I’m thrilled to announce an exciting giveaway contest for our latest release, My Own Personal Shakespeare: Macbeth. This edition offers a unique experience, allowing you to engage deeply with the text while adding your own personal annotations.

How to Enter:

It’s simple! To participate, all you need to do is leave a comment answering one intriguing question:

Which Shakespeare play should I write about next?

I chose Macbeth as the first volume because my daughter inspired the entire project by coming out of her first college Shakespeare class and asking, “Can I get my own copy of Macbeth? I don’t care which edition, I just want one of my own that I can write in because I have thoughts.” Thus the idea was born for an edition of Shakespeare that strips away hundreds of years of other people telling you what to think, replacing it with plenty of room for you to discover Shakespeare in your own way and at your own pace.

But what should we do next? Hamlet? Romeo and Juliet? Twelfth Night, Much Ado? You tell me!

Two Winners Will Receive Free Copies of My Own Personal Shakespeare: Macbeth

I have two copies of my book to giveaway. (Amazon’s actually very good about “author copies,” so if this contest goes well, I’ll probably do it again soon!). All you need to do is answer the question in the comments and a few other necessary rules:

  • Submit your entry by the deadline: Friday, June 28, 2024
  • Provide a valid email address so I can contact the winner.
  • Be willing to provide me with a shipping address where I can send the book, of course.
  • Shipment to the continental US only. Sorry, international audience. Shipping costs take all the fun out of it.

Look Inside!

The whole point of our new series is about making it your own. There’s plenty of whitespace on every page, and blank note pages between all the acts. Check it out!

Enter Now for Your Chance to Win

Who doesn’t love free books? Free Shakespeare books, even better! We’ve taken the first step on what’s hopefully going to be a long and fruitful journey. Now you can help us decide the next step! Enter today!

Free Sonnet Book Giveaway!

~ duane ~ 4 Comments

Good news, everybody! A few weeks ago I reviewed Shakespeare’s Sonnets,  Retold by James Anthony.  This is a neat side-by-side modern translation of all the sonnets, which seemed like it would make a nice casual reference book.  Check it out, they even made a trailer:

The good folks at Crown Publishing have provided a copy for me to give away as well!  I want to do this quick, so there’s at least a possibility that the winner will receive their book before Christmas (but I can’t promise anything).  So here’s the game:

  1. I grabbed a coworker and asked for a random number between 1 and 154.
  2. I’ve taken the final couplet from the sonnet she chose (she didn’t know she was picking a sonnet), and provided the modern translation below.
  3. Tell me which sonnet this is.
  4. Entries accepted via comments on this blog post, or on Facebook.  PLEASE NOTE THAT I WILL NEED TO CONTACT YOU TO GET YOUR ADDRESS IF YOU WIN.
  5. Winner will be chosen randomly from the correct entries.  Do not post spoilers (i.e. copying the text of the actual sonnet if you think you got it right), that will invalidate your entry and I’ll almost certainly remove those comments.
  6. Contest runs until end of day on Friday, November 30.  Like I said, short one. I want to try and turn it around quickly.

Everybody ready?  Here you go!

So learn to read the signs that love can make:
Your eyes will spot my love that’s yours to take.

Just tell me what sonnet that’s from, and make sure that I’ll be able to contact you if you win, and do it all before Saturday.  Good luck!

(P.S. – I reserve the right to correct any mistakes or clarify any ambiguities in the above, blah blah blah formal stuff….)

Free Audiobooks From The Master of Verona

~ duane ~ 9 Comments

We can say we knew him when.  Author David Blixt has been around and commenting on Shakespeare Geek almost since its inception (I found this post from April 2008 to give you an idea).  That’s a review of The Master of Verona, book one of his Star-Cross’d series.

And now he’s giving away 10 copies of the audiobook version to Shakespeare Geek readers!

Cangrande della Scala is everything a man should be. Daring. Ambitious. Charming. Brilliant. Ruthless. To the poet Dante – indeed, to the world – Cangrande is the ideal Renaissance prince.

Until Dante’s son discovers a secret that could be Cangrande’s undoing.

Suddenly thrust into the schemes and betrayals surrounding Verona’s prince, Pietro Alighieri must navigate a rivalry that severs a friendship, divides a city, and sparks a feud that will produce Shakespeare’s famous star–crossed lovers, Romeo & Juliet!
 
Based on the plays of William Shakespeare and the poetry of Dante, THE MASTER OF VERONA is a sweeping novel of Renaissance Italy. Filled with swashbuckling adventure, unrequited love, and brutal treachery, this epic journey recalls the best of Bernard Cornwell, Sharon Kay Penman, and Dorothy Dunnett.

We’re going simple with this one – just comment below if you want one! First come first served.  Make sure you give the site a valid email address so we can email you back!

BONUS!  If audiobooks aren’t your thing, the Kindle edition will be available for FREE on September 26th!

Everybody say it with me now, “Thank you, David!”

 

 

 

Giveaway! Free Copies of “If We Were Villains” by M.L. Rio

~ duane ~ 10 Comments

UPDATE:  Contest over!  Thanks to everyone for participating. Winners will be notified shortly.

We haven’t done a book giveaway in a long time, so let’s fix that right now with a good one!  Introducing If We Were Villains, by M.L. Rio:

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: If We Were Villainsconvincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

“This is a rare and extraordinary novel: a vivid rendering of the closed world of a conservatory education, a tender and harrowing exploration of friendship, and a genuinely breathtaking literary thriller. I can’t recommend this book highly enough, and can’t wait to read what M. L. Rio writes next.” —Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times bestselling author of Station Eleven
Read a full length excerpt from Scene 1 here!
Sound like your cup of tea? Or something you might enjoy reading over a cup of tea? Well we’ve got five copies to giveaway!

Rules

  1. Since the book is being released on April 11, that’s when we’ll pick our winners. Five winners will be drawn at random from eligible entries received prior to midnight on April 10, 2017.
  2. To enter, leave a comment here on the blog (not on Facebook or Twitter) answering the following question:  You’ve decided to quit your day job and become a full time villain. Which Shakespearean villain is your role model, and why?
  3. Entries must include an accurate, reachable email address, so we can contact you in case you win!
  4. Limit 1 entry per email address.
  5. Contest open to U.S. shipping addresses only.
  6. Publisher will handle  shipping books to the winners.
Any questions?  Good luck!