This merry mash-up of Shakespeare and Hollywood’s television industry tells the story of Ken Harrison, 36, a VP of comedy development at a Big Three network. He’s right in the middle of TV’s most desirable demographic (men 18-49). But when misfortune enters stage left Ken’s comfortable world is suddenly fraught with shadows and uncertainty. Ousted from the network’s comedy department, Ken finds solace in his unread, undergrad’s copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare—and discovers Shakespeare’s mysterious Dark Lady of the Sonnets, a 16th-century enigma whose identity has baffled scholars for centuries.

The sly and cynical Dark Lady of Hollywood was a recent finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition. Haithman, a 1979 graduate of U-M’s Honors College (psychology/English), won a Hopwood Award during her time at Michigan.