Maria Vetrano’s novel puts Queen Elizabeth I on the campaign trail.
Maria Vetrano ’86 was heartbroken by Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 presidential election. She wondered, “If Clinton — one of the most prepared candidates in history — can’t get elected, what woman could?” It would have to be someone larger than life. Someone like Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603), the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and whose reign is celebrated as a golden age. In her debut novel, Queen Bess: A Tudor Comes to Save America (Regalo Press, 2024), Vetrano imagines a world where Elizabeth travels to the year 2028 to run against a tyrannical U.S. president.
Vetrano has always been drawn to strong women leaders. As a girl in upstate New York, she scoured the school library for books about powerful women but found very few. “The contributions of women were nearly invisible,” says Vetrano. That’s why, when she stumbled upon the Masterpiece Theatre miniseries Elizabeth R, she became captivated by the queen, a savvy politician who brought religious stability to England and fostered the arts while evading numerous assassination attempts.
Vetrano studied English literature at Colgate, where she also played rugby and ice hockey and wrote for the Maroon. After graduation, she moved to Boston and took her first job selling textbooks to professors, where she honed her ability to explain unfamiliar content — a skill that serves her well today in her consultancy work translating technical material for semiconductor companies. She’s made the Boston area her home and now lives in Woburn with her wife of 34 years. Nearby lives her 24-year-old daughter, with whom she created an entire storybook world at bedtime. “We were way into backstories,” she says. Together, they crafted a cast of characters who went on adventures that Vetrano plans to write as a series of children’s books titled Tails of Big Cat Mountain.
I got to sit in the same throne that Elizabeth sat in when she was 25 years old and received her first parliament.
But first, the novel. Vetrano embarked on extensive research, diving into dozens of biographies and interviewing historians to learn about daily life in Elizabethan England — what people ate, how often they bathed, and what they did for entertainment. She and her wife, whose family lives in England, visited historic sites featured in the book, including Hatfield Palace, Elizabeth’s childhood home, and Westminster Abbey, where her body is interred. “I got to sit in the same throne that Elizabeth sat in when she was 25 years old and received her first parliament,” Vetrano says. “I pretty much cried.”
Drawing on her PR and marketing expertise, Vetrano is busy promoting a new client: herself. Her greatest promotional asset, she says, is the rich iconography associated with Queen Elizabeth, like her iconic ruffled collar, elaborate gowns, and distinctive crown. She commissioned her friend Marie Ahearn ’85 to envision a modern-day Elizabeth and used this imagery along with a Tudor rose– inspired logo for her website and a range of merchandise, including sweatshirts, hats, stickers, and totes. Elizabeth even has a voice on Facebook under the name “Elizabeth Rex,” where she posts as herself. (“Sleep wast fleeting last night after bearing witness to the #presidentialdebate.”)
For the October 2024 book launch, Vetrano organized a season of campaigning and events while outlining two more books about Queen Bess. She hopes to see the series adapted into a miniseries, which she’s already cast in her head (Tilda Swinton as Queen Bess!). While awaiting her first reviews, she sent a copy of the book and a selection of swag to the one critic whose opinion matters most: Hillary Clinton. In return, she received a signed note of thanks from the former first lady. “Hopefully, she likes it,” Vetrano says.
What’s on Elizabeth’s Playlist
Accomplished on both lute and virginal (a type of harpsichord), Elizabeth enjoyed playing and listening to music. In the modern day of Queen Bess, she’s reveling in the ability to stream any song at will and has created a playlist full of powerful women like Taylor Swift, Whitney Houston, Lady Gaga, and Lizzo.
Listen to Elizabeth’s playlist on Spotify at spoti.fi/3zEmDoH or Apple Music at bit.ly/3XLg4bT.