OMG, Shakespeare, WTH?: Bardesque Texts

by the blasphemous rogue Stephen Cramer

Print (softcover): $24.95
 

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In OMG, Shakespeare, WTH? Stephen Cramer imagines the characters from the Bard’s plays being transported to the 21st century when they have access to cell phones in addition to their traditional rapiers. He envisions, for example, Romeo texting Juliet (his #breastiebestie) just after he’s killed her cousin, Tybalt, with all the discomfort that that conversation would have entailed. But hey, Tybalt had just killed Mercutio (his #testebestie). Shakespeare’s contemporary Ben Jonson wrote that the Bard was not of an age, “but for all time.” Four hundred years later, these characters texting each other—their words replete with contemporary abbreviations and emojis—proves just that.

DRAMA / Shakespeare

ISBN: 978-1-971191-14-0 (print; softcover; perfect bound)

LCCN: 2026938437

Released May 19, 2026  |  Copyright 2026

112 pages

Author Biography

Stephen Cramer’s first book of poems, Shiva’s Drum, was selected for the National Poetry Series and published by University of Illinois Press. Bone Music, his sixth, won the Louise Bogan Award. His ninth, The Disintegration Loops, was a finalist for the Vermont Book Award. His most recent is City Full of Fireworks and Blues, from Shanti Arts. He is also the editor of Turn It Up! Music in Poetry from Jazz to Hip-Hop. Cramer’s work has appeared in journals such as The American Poetry Review, African American Review, The Yale Review, and Harvard Review. Right now he's preoccupied by a number of projects that revolve around the bard of Avon. He teaches writing and literature at the University of Vermont and lives with his wife and teenager in Burlington.

Endorsements

What does Will think about OMG, Shakespeare, WTH?

“This . . . makes me more amazed than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven figured quite o’er with burning meteors.” (from King John)

“Sweet poetry.”   (from Titus Andronicus)

“Very good, very excellent good.” (from As You Like It)

“A rare talent.” (from Love’s Labor’s Lost)

“Oh wonderful, wonderful, most wonderful, wonderful, and yet again wonderful . . . ”  (from As You Like It)

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