Emily Wilson for Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea

'Joyful, illuminating and engaging' MADELINE MILLER

Emily Wilson is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad were critically acclaimed across the globe, and she is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, the New York Times, the New Statesman and the Nation.

She joins us in November for her new book Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea, an illuminating reflection on the power of language to evolve our understanding of the past.

How do we give old words new voices? What must a translator lose - and what might she gain - when she moves between languages, bringing ancient stories to modern life?

Emily Wilson has spent a lifetime wrestling with these questions: here, she invites us to consider the meaning and messages of translators from antiquity to today - and gives a wholly fresh insight into her own work on Homer.

From shifting depictions of Helen of Troy to Cardi B and Athenian comedy, Han Kang's novels and Rome's love of Greek culture, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea is a playful and fascinating voyage into the promise, possibility and constant renewal of classical literature.

'A masterclass in translation' BLAKE MORRISON, Guardian