Kay Daly
Kay Daly is a writer, novelist, book and theater reviewer, teacher, and public humanities advocate. Since earning her Ph.D. in English Literature from Northwestern University, she has written for a variety of publications and organizations including The Chicago Review of Books, TimeOut Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, WNET New York Public Media, The Library of Virginia’s blog UnCommonwealth, Dramatics Magazine, and Centerstage Chicago. She also teaches adult enrichment courses focusing on arts and humanities at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Her debut novel Wilton House, based on the life of 17th-century writer Lady Mary Wroth, will be published by Regal House Publishing in 2027.
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Oct. 4, 2026
The Alchemist as a Plague Comedy: A Conversation with Kay Daly
Episode 235: Last time I took a first look at ‘The Alchemist’ where Ben Jonson mixed farcical comedy with satire and more serious commentary on the society of the 1610s. The play is notable, among other things, for having the time of plague as it’s setting. It is, I think, the only play from that time to do this. And that was the jumping off point for my conversation with Kay Daly who makes a welcome return to the podcast after having previously discussed Shakespeare’s and Jonson’s world v...
Guest: Kay Daly
64
July 13, 2025
Shakespeare’s World View: A Conversation with Kay Daly
Episode 177: For today’s guest episode it is a warm welcome for Kay Daly to the podcast. In our conversation Kay took the opportunity to give an overview of Shakespeare’s world view as seen through his earlier plays and particularly the comedies. As you will hear we strayed a little into some later plays, but Kay’s thoughts seemed particularly useful at this point as we are about to move away from the earliest plays and move onto new and very different experiments in comedy. I hope you enjoy ...
Guest: Kay Daly