The International Library

The International Library: Emily Wilson on The Iliad

Wednesday, 1:30 pm EDT October 18, 2023

The Center for Fiction
& Livestreamed

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Make a lunch date to join us in celebrating a brand new translation of Homer’s The Iliad from one of the most celebrated literary translators of our time, Emily Wilson. This much-anticipated follow-up to her translation of The Odyssey sets a new standard for the ancient text, with captivating, vivid language and rich accompanying materials. Wilson will discuss adapting classical work for modern readers and engaging with one of antiquity’s most complex and exciting works from a fresh perspective.

This event is a hybrid event. Wilson will appear in person at The Center for Fiction in Brooklyn (1:30pm ET). Live remote viewings will be held at the American Library in Paris in Paris (19h30 CEST) and at Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco (10:30am PT). You can also livestream this event worldwide.

In-person tickets to The Center for Fiction include an optional lunch.

  • Lunch Option A: Ham sandwich with brie, arugula, and house-made spiced honey mustard.
  • Lunch Option B: Vegan chickpea salad sandwich.

Both options are served with an apple, a bag of salted potato chips, and a soft drink of choice.

About The International Library

This event is part of The International Library, a series launched in collaboration with the American Library in Paris and the Center for the Art of Translation which will offer conversations across time, place, and language. The International Library celebrates the live diffusion of in-person conversations in the hope of connecting new audiences across land and sea for a collective, intercultural experience. These conversations will broach deeper questions about writing and translation as we learn to think critically about how stories are told, investigating the points of view, the timing of the translations, and the intended or assumed audiences as well as inspiration, philosophy, and craft.

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Featuring

  • wilsonemily_cdanielmcgarrity - Eliana Cohen-Orth

    Emily Wilson

    Emily Wilson

    Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been named a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome in Renaissance and early modern scholarship, a MacArthur Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow. In addition to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, she has also published translations of Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca. She lives in Philadelphia.


    Photo Credit: Daniel Mcgarrity

Featured Book

  1. . 
    9781324001805 (1) - Eliana Cohen-Orth

    The Iliad

    By Homer

    Published by W. W. Norton

    Translated by Emily Wilson

    PURCHASE

    The greatest literary landmark of antiquity masterfully rendered by the most celebrated translator of our time.

    When Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017—revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was “fresh, unpretentious and lean” (Madeline Miller, Washington Post)—critics lauded it as “a revelation” (Susan Chira, New York Times) and “a cultural landmark” (Charlotte Higgins, Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English. Now Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homer’s other great epic—the most revered war poem of all time.

    The Iliad roars with the clamor of arms, the bellowing boasts of victors, the fury and grief of loss, and the anguished cries of dying men. It sings, too, of the sublime magnitude of the world—the fierce beauty of nature and the gods’ grand schemes beyond the ken of mortals. In Wilson’s hands, this thrilling, magical, and often horrifying tale now gallops at a pace befitting its legendary battle scenes, in crisp but resonant language that evokes the poem’s deep pathos and reveals palpably real, even “complicated,” characters—both human and divine.

    The culmination of a decade of intense engagement with antiquity’s most surpassingly beautiful and emotionally complex poetry, Wilson’s Iliad now gives us a complete Homer for our generation.

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About this series

The International Library

Join the American Library in Paris, the Center for the Art of Translation, and The Center for Fiction for conversations across time, place, culture, and literary tradition, with live audiences in San Francisco, Brooklyn, and Paris.

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