Madeline

Miller

#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 Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Lapham’s Quarterly and NPR.org.

Her second novel, Circe, was an instant #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 |

November 8, 2022

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 . . .

Bestseller, Fantasy, Speculative & Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories

Circe

Little, Brown and Company |

April 10, 2018

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.

Bestseller, Book Club & Library Favorites, Campus Reads, Community Reads, Fiction, Gender & Sexuality, Grief & Loss

The Song of Achilles: A Novel

Ecco |

March 6, 2012

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.

Book Club & Library Favorites, Campus Reads, Community Reads, Fiction, Gender & Sexuality, LGBTQI+ Concerns & Perspectives, Military & War

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

Excavating Troy: Homeric Myth Meets History

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.

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

Achilles Through the Ages: Rage, Glory and Grief

Odysseus Through the Ages: The Great Homeric Chameleon

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

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

Galatea: Reclaiming the Stories of Women in Myth

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

“Madeline was phenomenal. She provided a concise, engaging presentation and thoughtful, in-depth answers to students’ questions. Thank you so much!” — Phillips Exeter Academy, 2024

“Madeline Miller joined us online and watched the livestream of the performances and our opening remarks and presentation before she was live in conversation with our moderator. This made our community feel like she was really celebrating with us in Santa Fe and meant to much to our performers and community to know she was participating and seeing all we have worked on in Santa Fe reading Circe and engaging with the themes of the Hero’s Journey and mythology. The Santa Fe Public Library has worked with many authors and several big time authors, and working with Madeline Miller was very unique and positive experience. Miller was responsive herself, emailing, meeting online to plan, texting on the day of event, it really showed us that she was a caring and grateful to Santa Fe for celebrating her as an author and the wonderful book Circe. We haven’t experienced someone of Miller’s status communicate with our team directly, join us in our celebration and thank us in the way she did when opening the discussion with her. Miller is unique in many ways, incredibly talented, incredibly intelligent and sincerely kind hearted. It was such an honor to get to celebrate with the author who has brought our community together through the power of a great book, Circe.” — Santa Fe Public Library, 2024

“Madeline was tremendously generous in answering questions from students and other participants, offering thorough and thoughtful answers and providing more resources in a follow-up email.” — Eastern Connecticut Big Read, 2024

“Madeline is one of the most engaging, charismatic, and down-to-earth authors to chat with! I could have talked with her for several more hours!” — Library Speakers Consortium, 2024

“Madeline Miller is a wonderful presenter! She is friendly and easy-going. She is easy to talk to and makes everyone feel welcome. Her breath and depth of knowledge joined with her passion for the subject make her a riveting speaker. She is the teacher you wish you had in high school and college.” — Parsippany-Troy Hill Library, 2022

“I am still glowing after Madeline Miller last night. She is an incredible storyteller in person, as well as on the page.” — Hope College, 2022

“I thought Madeline Miller was phenomenal last night. Really engaging and such great answers to some really good questions. You could see both the teacher and theater background!” — Big Read Attendee

“Madeline Miller’s keynote Big Read presentation on CIRCE was fantastic. I learned so much about her perspectives on Greek mythology and her believable biases about Odysseus and her wonderful recognition of Circe as a benevolent magician, witch, and artist. Her responses to audience questions were delightful.” — Big Read Attendee

“Madeline Miller is a wonderful presenter! She is friendly and easy-going. She is easy to talk to and makes everyone feel welcome. Her breadth and depth of knowledge joined with her passion for the subject make her a riveting speaker. She is the teacher you wish you had in high school and college.” — Parsippany-Troy Hills Public Library System, 2022

“Students and faculty alike cannot stop raving about the invaluable insights they gained from Ms. Miller’s visit. She is plainly an expert in her field who possesses a wealth of knowledge that she shares accessibly and eloquently for both adolescents and adults. Additionally, Ms. Miller clearly has a gift for interacting and communicating with teenagers, intuitively grasping the heart of their inquiries and meeting them on their level in terms of understanding and experience. Even over Zoom she exudes warmth and grace. We would invite Ms. Miller to visit with us again and again without any regrets.” — Taipei American School, 2022

“I cannot speak highly enough about Madeline Miller’s virtual visit with the Tulsa City-County Library. Madeline is warm, gracious, and so smart. I left the presentation with a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the book as well as a newfound interest in the Classics. I could have listened to Madeline talk about her craft for hours! Enthusiastically recommend.” — Tulsa City-County Library

“Madeline Miller did an excellent job engaging with our community. She is a passionate and thoughtful speaker who knows how to grab the attention of her audience. As members of Nevada County, we were so happy to have her visit with us and greatly enjoyed how she answered our questions with clever and elegant responses. We would have Madeline back to our libraries and county anytime.” — Nevada One Book, 2022

“We were nervous about hosting a virtual author for our fundraising event for the first time ever in 35 years, but Madeline was delightful and approachable and so very entertaining – even through a screen! She was quick to comment on the importance of libraries, and we always love and appreciate that. Her interactions during our Question & Answer portion felt as though she was right in the room with us. Thank you to Madeline for sharing her passion with us and for giving us an entertaining and personalized talk.” — Huntsville Library Foundation, 2021

“Madeline Miller was a very gracious and affable speaker. She was kind and generous with the time and consideration she gave to every question—from the moderator as well as the audience. Ms. Miller arrived early to the call, and there were zero technical issues. We would love to one day host Madeline Miller in person.” — Edwardsville Library, 2021

“Our event was a great success. Madeline Miller gave a riveting talk that was pitched perfectly to an audience that included students, scholars, fans, and folks who were new to the material. She was an excellent storyteller able to weave together summaries of THE ODYSSEY, information about CIRCE and her own creative process along with with fascinating contextual information about women characters in the Greek mythological universe. The lecture generated a robust and varied set of audience questions, and Miller was just as engaging in answering these questions as she had been in delivering her lecture. In the student meet-and-greet, she was gracious, thoughtful, and clearly interested. The students and professors were thrilled with the experience.” — U of Arkansas Little Rock, 2021

“Congratulations to all on another wonderful author lunch. Everything went so smoothly, and everyone sounded so polished and professional, that I thought the program could have been televised. I also thought that Harlan and Madeleine Miller were great together. I know how much work goes into making the day a success, so I want to thank you on behalf of the trustees for all of your efforts. Despite not being able to have an in-person event, it was a tremendous success.” — Ridgewood Library Luncheon, 2021

“The Massillon Museum, Massillon Public Library, and our community partners were excited and honored to welcome Madeline Miller as the keynote speaker during our 2021 NEA Big Read, which focused on Madeline’s novel Circe. We could not have been more pleased with her presentation and with our community’s response. Madeline was engaging, open, and thoughtful. She answered the multitude of questions that our viewers asked and left them wanting more. We look forward to reading whatever work she publishes next!” — Massillon Museum, 2021

“Ms. Miller is an incredible presenter, and her ability to connect with the students in this virtual setting was quite remarkable to me. My favorite part of her presentation was how she kept making connections between the classics and the students’ everyday existence. I also like how she challenges via reason and evidence those aspects of Homer that we might find troubling today. I only wish I could take her to every high school in this city.” — Chattahoochee Big Read, 2021

“As librarians, we get to meet authors fairly regularly and are able to enjoy the fact that authors tend to be wonderful, kind humans who you wish were your friends. However, Madeline was a step above the rest! She was a true kindred spirit. Madeline was kind, gracious, thoughtful, warm, and so generous with her expertise. Her subject matter, greek mythology, is quite academic yet she makes it accessible and interesting to all. Our attendees were rapt and the Q&A time was rich and fascinating. We would host Madeline again in a heartbeat!” — North Central Library

“Madeline Miller is a magical combination of brilliant and generous. Fans of her work flocked to our event with her, and they came bearing their enormous admiration of and affection for The Song of Achilles and Circe. 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

“We had a wonderful experience hosting Madeline Miller as our school’s visiting writer. As a speaker, she is engaging, personable, and articulate; it’s clear that in addition to her sheer intelligence, she knows her audience (in this case, high school students) and how to capture their attention and imagination. She was also so accommodating and kind when technical difficulties got in the way, and the entire process of arranging her virtual visit, including communications with Christie, was a positive one!” — Greenwich Academy

“Madeline Miller reached our students like no other speaker has. She is a scholar, teacher, and masterful storyteller. Even in a virtual medium, she held us thoroughly spellbound. I highly recommend her for all audiences, but especially for college and university students.” — Eckerd College

“Madeline was such fun and so happy to be visiting. Her stories of how Circe came to be had the audience laughing and asking thoughtful questions. Nearly everyone stayed to have their book sign and offer their thanks for the event. Afterward, we even had donors ask to be pointed to the donation jar. Perfect! ” — Schlow County Library

“Madeline’s visit was a HUGE SUCCESS!! She was such a major hit with absolutely everyone—undergrads, MFA students, professors, the public both young, old, and in between—everyone was enchanted and impressed and thrilled. She’s gracious, beautifully appreciative, extremely low-maintenance. Madeline is a gifted, natural speaker. Aside from an astonishing (yet unpretentious) command of the source materials for her novels, what’s more impressive is her ability to give the audience a concise yet fascinating synopsis of the tales she’s researched.” — Butler University

“Madeline spoke to an absolutely full house here at our Central Library, delivering slices of history, mythology, and plenty of humor to a room full of Circe fans. She was warm and funny, and educational. Our social media feeds have been full of gratitude for bringing her to Des Moines since the event ended.” — AViD Author Series

“Madeline Miller spoke honestly, passionately, and with humor about her path to becoming a writer. By her example, she encouraged the audience of students and faculty to see how learning and writing—even academic writing—are creative, artistic endeavors. She showed us what it means to care so much about a character (Patroclus, Circe) that you will not rest—you will even re-write or start completely over—until you bring that character to life. The students benefitted enormously from hearing of her dedication and resilience. Moreover, they were keenly interested in how her experience as a director of plays, specifically Shakespeare, guided her approach to character development. From Madeline’s keynote address to her class visits to her creative writing workshop, she was energized and engaged, listening sympathetically and offering thoughtful insights to everyone she encountered. We were so lucky to have her on campus!” — Chatham Hall

“Madeline is such a fine speaker – the audience was enchanted. She was funny and enlightening and so easy to work with throughout the entire trip. She was so humble and seemed to genuinely appreciate everything we’d done to celebrate Circe as our 2019 One Read title. She engaged with our staff prior to the event and at the conclusion of the event stayed and signed books for an hour and a half. She didn’t leave until the whole line had a chance to get their book signed. We appreciated her willingness to go this extra mile and make sure our patrons had a fantastic experience getting to meet one of their favorite authors.” — Springfield-Green One Book

Madeline’s Upcoming Events

Buy Signed Copies!

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.