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Madeline
#1 NYT Bestselling Novelist
NEA Big Read Selection
Travels from: Philadelphia, PA

“Madeline Miller is a magical combination of brilliant and generous. If you want a wildly enthusiastic audience and a gracious and thoughtful speaker, who is as friendly and approachable as she is learned, you could hardly do better than Madeline, whose scholarship and creativity are superlative.” – Sweet Briar College

Madeline Miller was born in Boston and grew up in New York City and Philadelphia. She attended Brown University, where she earned her BA and MA in Classics. She has taught and tutored Latin, Greek and Shakespeare to high school students for more than fifteen years.

She has also studied at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama, where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms.

The Song of Achilles, her first novel, was awarded the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a New York Times Bestseller. It has been translated into over twenty-five languages including Dutch, Mandarin, Japanese, Turkish, Arabic and Greek. Madeline was also shortlisted for the 2012 Stonewall Writer of the Year, and her essays have appeared in a number of publications including the GuardianWall Street Journal, Lapham’s Quarterly and NPR.org.

Her second novel, Circe, was an instant number 1 New York Times bestseller, and has been widely praised from NPR to People Magazine to the Washington post. Novelist Ann Patchett called it “An epic spanning thousands of years that’s also a keep-you-up-all-night page turner.” In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man’s world.

Madeline's Featured Titles

Galatea: A Short Story

Ecco |
Fantasy

An enchanting short story from Madeline Miller that boldly reimagines the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion, now in hardcover for the first time

**A small hardcover edition featuring a new afterword by Madeline Miller**

In ancient Greece, a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece—the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen—the gift of life. After marrying her, he expects Galatea to please him, to be obedience and humility personified. But she has desires of her own and yearns for independence.

In a desperate bid by her obsessive husband to keep her under control, Galatea is locked away under the constant supervision of doctors and nurses. But with a daughter to rescue, she is determined to break free, whatever the cost . . .

Circe

Little, Brown and Company |
Fiction
“A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess’s story,” this #1 New York Times bestseller is “both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right” (Alexandra Alter, The New York Times).

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child — not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power — the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man’s world.

#1 New York Times Bestseller — named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the Washington Post, People, Time, Amazon, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Newsweek, the A.V. Club, Christian Science Monitor, Refinery 29, Buzzfeed, Paste, Audible, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Thrillist, NYPL, Self, Real Simple, Goodreads, Boston Globe, Electric Literature, BookPage, the Guardian, Book Riot, Seattle Times, and Business Insider.

The Song of Achilles: A Novel

Ecco |
Fiction

A New York Times Bestseller

“At once a scholar’s homage to The Iliad and startlingly original work of art….A book I could not put down.” —Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House

A thrilling, profoundly moving, and utterly unique retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War from the bestselling author of Circe

A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller’s monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights—and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.

 

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Achilles in Love: Achilles and His Companion Patroclus in Ancient and Modern Times

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Excavating Troy: Homeric Myth Meets History

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Literary Witches: From Circe, to Shakespeare, Salem and Oz

The goddess Circe is infamous for turning Odysseus’ men into pigs, but is isn’t her divinity that gives her power, it’s witchcraft. Miller will talk about ancient witchcraft, what makes a witch, and the long literary history of these powerful women from ancient Rome to Shakespeare to Oz, and modern day.

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Homer's Women: Secret Stories of Women in the Iliad and the Odyssey

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Achilles Through the Ages: Rage, Glory and Grief

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Odysseus Through the Ages: The Great Homeric Chameleon

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Shakespeare's Iliad: The Brutal and Comic World of Trolius and Cressida

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Acting Shakespeare Workshop: An Introduction to Shakespeare on Stage for Small Groups

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Galatea: Reclaiming the Stories of Women in Myth

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Madeline is happy to speak on nearly any mythological topic! If you have one you'd like, let us know!

Madeline’s Upcoming Events

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Madeline’s News and Blog

Circe – Reading Guide

Honors, Awards & Recognition

#1 New York Times Bestseller
Indiebound Bestseller
International Bestseller
Goodreads Choice Awards
NEA Big Read Selection
Barnes & Noble Book Club
Amazon Bestseller
NPR’s Now Read This Selection

Best Books of the Year by NPR, the Washington Post, People, Time, Amazon, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Newsweek, the A.V. Club, Christian Science Monitor, Refinery 29, Buzzfeed, Paste, Audible, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Thrillist, NYPL, Self, Real Simple, Goodreads, Boston Globe, Electric Literature, BookPage, the Guardian, Book Riot, Seattle Times, and Business Insider.

Media Kit

By clicking the link below you will be directed to a Google Docs Folder
where you can download author photos and cover images.

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