{"id":259,"date":"2026-07-27T21:49:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T21:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/?p=259"},"modified":"2026-07-27T22:08:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T22:08:00","slug":"raves-from-the-booklife-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/27\/raves-from-the-booklife-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"Raves from The BookLife Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The Very Last Production of King Lear<\/em> is in competition for <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4xbLZCt\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-200 \" src=\"http:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/VLPKingLearCover220w-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Very Last Production of King Lear, book cover image\" width=\"192\" height=\"297\" srcset=\"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/VLPKingLearCover220w-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/VLPKingLearCover220w.jpg 220w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 192px) 100vw, 192px\" \/><\/a><em>The BookLife Prize<\/em>, an <span class=\"kY2IgmnCmOGjharHErah N56cWZpP8cNJu1dqgCxB\">annual writing competition sponsored by <em>BookLife<\/em> and <em>Publishers Weekly<\/em>. It&#8217;s already received a rave review from the judges.\u00a0<\/span>In celebration, my publisher dropped the Kindle price to $2.99 through 8\/3\/26 to entice you to read it and review it on <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4xbLZCt\">Amazon<\/a>. Here&#8217;s what <em>BookLife<\/em> said:<\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;Engling taps into the particulars of theater life in this third series offering, entwining a production of <em>King Lear<\/em> at Chicago\u2019s Goodman Theater, directed by Dwayne Finnegan, whose company has also produced <em>Romeo and Juliet<\/em> and <em>Titus Andronicus<\/em> (each featured in prior series installments). Dwayne\u2014whose wife is a teacher\u2014is understandably elated at the opportunity, as he needs the money and yearns for the fame. His cast forms an eclectic, lively background to watch his drama unfold.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;This installment feels fresh and fun, even without having read the first two books, and Engling\u2019s skill at lacing Dwayne\u2019s personal life, the cast\u2019s eccentricities, and a massive theater production into one storyline is impressive.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;The characters are dynamic and illustrate the complexities of organizing a performance with many moving parts. Dwayne is facing very real problems: money is tight for him and his wife thanks to fertility treatments, designer Ingrid has grand plans that quickly backfire, and an actor formerly associated with Dwayne\u2019s company\u2014who ran off with his money before <em>Titus Andronicus<\/em>\u2014is back and looking for new work.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u2014<em>The BookLife Prize<\/em><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4xbLZCt\">Buy it now.<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Very Last Production of King Lear is in competition for The BookLife Prize, an annual writing competition sponsored by BookLife and Publishers Weekly. It&#8217;s already received a rave review from the judges.\u00a0In celebration, my publisher dropped the Kindle price to $2.99 through 8\/3\/26 to entice you to read it and review it on Amazon. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/27\/raves-from-the-booklife-prize\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Raves from The BookLife Prize&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267,"href":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardengling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}