Leah Redmond Chang: Breathing Life Into the History of Misunderstood and Forgotten Queens
Leah Redmond Chang is a former associate professor of French literature and culture at the George Washington University. Her writing draws on her extensive experience as a researcher in the archives and in rare book libraries. Her previous books include Into Print: The Invention of Female Authorship in Early Modern France, which focused on women and book culture in the sixteenth century, and (with Katherine Kong) Portraits of the Queen Mother, about the many public faces of Catherine de Medici.
She lives with her husband and three children and divides her time between Washington, DC and London UK. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Leah Redmond Chang
Shelyn Jae
In this post, Leah shares what inspired her book on three historical queens, what surprised her about her editorial team, and more.
Name: Leah Redmond Chang
Literary agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary Management
Book title: Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (US); Bloomsbury Circus (UK)
Release date: August 15, 2023 (US); released May 11, 2023 (UK)
Genre/category: Literary Nonfiction; History; Group Biography
Previous titles: Into Print: The Production of Female Authorship in Early Modern France; Portraits of the Queen Mother: Polemics, Panegyrics, Letters (co-authored with Katherine Kong)
Elevator pitch for the book: Young Queens paints an intimate portrait of three Renaissance queens: Catherine de’ Medici, her daughter Elisabeth de Valois, and her daughter-in-law Mary Queen of Scots. Following their intertwined lives from girlhood into young adulthood, the book explores how women living the orbit of power fought to survive, and lays bare the traumatic cost of being female and royal in the Renaissance.
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What prompted you to write this book?
I had two reasons.
First, as a feminist, I wanted to write a novel-like history that captured the complexity of women from the past. This was important to me because I was working against a centuries-old tendency to paint women like Catherine de’ Medici or Mary, Queen of Scots as either all ‘good’ or all ‘evil’—narrative allowed me to capture the multidimensionality and raw emotion of the characters.
Second, I had to write something about Elisabeth de Valois. She’s a forgotten queen. Even scholars and readers who know their queens don’t know a lot about her. And we have so much fascinating material about her teenaged life in Spain, on everything from her menstrual cycle to her fraught relationship with her mother, Catherine de’ Medici. Through Elisabeth, we really get a glimpse of what it was like to be a royal teenager—she is almost a royal Everywoman.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
It took me about six or seven years to go from the first idea to publication. The research was complicated, and the pandemic slowed things down. Finding ways to keep the narratives of the three women as braided as possible also took lots of focus and rewriting.
After the first draft, and some serious discussion with my editors, we decided I should cut out the fourth queen—that’s right, initially there were four women featured in the book, with Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England, as the fourth. But the story was really crowded, and the queens were fighting for space. Demoting Elizabeth Tudor to the second tier turned out to be the best idea.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I didn’t fully anticipate the energy and savvy that would come from my editorial teams at FSG and Bloomsbury. They truly love books, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with them.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
Besides the pandemic?
Actually, the pandemic led to some serendipitous discoveries. An example: Since libraries and archives were all closed, I ended up buying huge quantities of books, including a set of rare volumes from Spain. I had consulted these books previously in various libraries—I had always thought there were two volumes in the set. When I ordered them on Ebay, however, it turned out there were three volumes—and that last volume ended up containing a rich trove of primary texts that I had never seen before.
I am hardly thankful for the pandemic, but that third volume changed a lot, and I am thankful for it!
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
There is a way in which women from the past get flattened in history, almost as if they weren’t real humans with real emotions and complex lives. I wanted to offer a closer, more complete picture of these three women, one of whom is almost unknown and the others who are often misunderstood.
More importantly, I think these queens can really teach us something about women and power—how women used it, how they were abused for it.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Listen to your editors. They are a tremendous resource, and they are on your side.
While there’s no shortage of writing advice, it’s often scattered around—a piece of advice here, words of wisdom there. And in the moments when you most need writing advice, what you find might not resonate with you or speak to the issue you’re dealing with. In A Year of Writing Advice, the editors of Writer’s Digest have gathered thoughts, musings, and yes, advice from 365 authors in dozens of genres to help you on your writing journey.