"The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality." - James Baldwin

A must-read about the cuts to the NEH and their impact on the study of the ancient world. open.substack.com/pub/pastsimp...

I received the amazing news this morning that I have been named a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow. I am still in disbelief, since it felt like even applying was an act of unwarranted audacity. (1/3) #guggfellows2025

KEY PASSAGES TALK: TRANSLATING OVID’S METAMORPHOSES Join us for a talk by Stephanie McCarter about her tactics for interpreting and rendering Ovid’s themes of sexual violence, gender, sexuality, and the body into English verse. 4/17, 4 PM | 6020 HSSB Learn more: bit.ly/McCarter-IHC

Pour one out tonight not only for the thousands of fantastic scholars whose NEH grants were wrongly terminated, but also for all of the junior scholars who have never—and now may never in their lifetimes—receive federal support for their research

I absolutely loved my visit to Pomona College the past couple of days, and I am so happy to see this article. In one of these quotes I am myself quoting Patricia Salzman-Mitchell’s wonderful book “A Web of Fantasies.” I am really indebted to her formulation of the female gaze in Ovid.

Zoom in on Monday, March 31 if you'd like to hear me discuss translating Latin poetry (including Horace, Ovid, and Catullus)!

I am so impressed by my Catullus students' creative translations this semester--and am wowed by how many worked in formal meter. A quick glance tells me there's part of Catullus 63 in the form of a sestina, part of 64 in alexandrines, and both Catullus 16 and 50 in iambic pentameter.

I'm thrilled this news is out! The Committee for the Translations of Classical Authors hopes this award will demonstrate that translation matters (and should count!) in Classics. Inaugural judges are Sarah Ruden, Deborah Roberts, and Adrienne Rose. Please share! classicalstudies.org/awards-and-f...

The SCS is pleased to announce the new annual Award for Outstanding Literary Translation! The award will honor up to two books each year by SCS members that translate primary texts in Ancient Greek or Latin. Letters of nomination may be submitted by anyone! classicalstudies.org/awards-and-f...

It was lovely to do this interview with the wonderful Parnassus Books about *Women in Power.* If you find yourself in Nashville anytime soon, definitely visit Parnassus!

It's great to have "Women in Power" featured in Publishers Weekly. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

This was such a group effort, with a beautiful translation of Ovid's Heroides 7 by @ezd.bsky.social and fabulous contributions by my brilliant former student Paige Graf and my generous colleagues Chris McDonough and Daniel Holmes.

Publication Day! Ovid's Dido, a joy to do! @stephaniemccarter.bsky.social, editor & translator is extraordinary! Greco-Roman stories about women in power (Amazons, Dido, Boudicca, Cleopatra and many more), in new and existing translations. Find it! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/667325...

Publication day! I assembled my favorite Greco-Roman stories about women in power (Amazons, Dido, Boudicca, Cleopatra and many more), in both new and existing translations. You can find it (and see the TOC) here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/667325...

This book has become one of my favorites. It’s a beautiful illustration of how books (and the libraries and databanks that house them!) bind us to each other through time—and translation is a key part of that process. Here’s a favorite passage:

✨Special Episode – Ovid’s Metamorphoses with Professor Stephanie McCarter✨ Join us as we interview Professor Stephanie McCarter, the author of a ground-breaking new translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. partialhistorians.com/2024/06/06/s...

I love my new book cover, a scratchboard illustration by Greek-American artist Evangelia Philippidis, depicting Amanirenas (left, in red), Dido (center, in blue, holding a calla lily), and Boudicca (right, in green, holding a sword), with Aristophanes' Assemblywomen in background. Out in September!

Calling all Ovidians! Don't forget that the new journal Ovidius is accepting submissions on any aspect of Ovid and the afterlives of his work, including academic articles, translations, and original creative works! ovidiusjournal.org/ojs/index.ph...

I still have my slide to prove it!

Happy to be giving the Morse Lecture this week at the University of Bristol's Institute of Greece, Rome, and the Classical Tradition. In-person and online! www.tickettailor.com/events/thein...

Living and working on a campus in rural Tennessee has its challenges, but there are so many days, like today, when it's just gloriously beautiful. (Pic taken today on my walk to the post office, which is in the basement of the building shown.)

I'm glad to see this review I wrote of Emily Wilson's Iliad translation out now, via the Penn Gazette. I had so much fun writing this (and could have written several thousand words more)! thepenngazette.com/shattering-v...

Great new resource for anyone working on gender in the Greco-Roman world: eugesta-recherche.univ-lille.fr/projets/euge...

New book proofs! I'm so excited about this volume, which brings together many tales about mythological and historical women who ruled. Some are from existing translations, but most are newly done. (I loved translating the Assemblywomen in its entirety -- and lots more!)

Latin poetry people, I have found it very helpful, while my students are trying to work out the rhythm of dactylic hexameter, to put up lines of Longfellow alongside lines in Latin with the same scansion.

Since I love birding, I've decided to play my students the songs of each bird in the Eclogues so they will understand why Vergil uses certain adjectives to describe them. Up first, the palumbes/wood pigeon, which Vergil calls "rauca," hoarse. It's perfect: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common...

It's been a terrible 1.5 weeks of snow and ice in Tennessee, but I a glad I was able to venture out to deliver Sewanee's Winter Convocation address, launching a new tradition of the address being given by a faculty member. If you are interested, you can read it here: new.sewanee.edu/news/winter-...

Now up on the blog: In Memoriam - Sharon James.

Super excited to share the launch of this project (I contributed one translation!)! LESBIANTIQUITY is here and will be updating weekly through 2024!  Go to www.lesbiantiquity.lgbt to read the first issue, and to subscribe to hear when a new issue comes out!

Reminder--if you work on the intersection of translation and creative adaptation, please submit an abstract for the SCS Committee on Translations panel, "Translation and Creative Adaptation." Deadline is in one month. Here's the call: classicalstudies.org/annual-meeti...

VERY EXCITED to teach the first session today of my new class, "Marcus Tullius Tiro: The Life of a Roman Slave". Follow along in the thread below (and over the course of the semester) as I share thoughts and insights.

Happy to kick off the new year by posting this conversation I had with the brilliant poet Bianca Stone for her podcast Ode and Psyche. Wishing everyone happy transformations in 2024. podcast.ruthstonehouse.org/podcast/how-...

My dear friend and mentor, Sharon James, died unexpectedly a few days ago. She was a fierce intellect, a force of nature, and a big ol' crusty marshmallow. A few of her students wrote an obituary — goodbye, Marylou, and thanks for everything: classics.unc.edu/2023/12/31/i...

Shocking and heartbreaking news. What a monumental loss.

Hello world! We've joined BlueSky now and we'd love to make some new friends over here, especially as it's almost time for the annual AIASCS meeting and we have loads of related updates to share!

Excellent reading for today. And, as always with Nina MacLaughlin, lots of wonderful classical references.

Exciting new translation of the Metaphorphoses into Portuguese by Rodrigo Gonçalves! www.google.com/books/editio...

My cat Loki is excited that these Ovid paperbacks finally arrived!

Very excited to read this when it comes out in February!

Looking forward to being a part of this on Saturday!

The book review is such a tricky genre. Do grad programs ever train students in this? There's no genre better suited to bringing academic work to public attention, but it's so hard to do it well. It'd be fun to put together a course on public writing, partly focused on the art of the book review!

It's an amazing thing to learn that someone whose work you hold in the highest regard has praised your own. A world of thanks, @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social. From www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

ccasouth.org hosts 3 great speakers in a virtual fall conference day on Dec 2 9:30-11:30 US Pacific Time. Register! Join us! @stephaniemccarter.bsky.social on Translating Ovid, Greg Woolf on Migration & Mobility in Rome and Partial Historians on Underrated Kings of Rome! See our site 4 details.

OMG! Ann Patchett just plugged my book in a video for her bookstore (Parnassus Books). I now want to post this screenshot everywhere! I just finished “The Dutch House” (which I loved) two nights ago, so this is especially exciting at the moment.

I'm teaching a course next semester on pastoral (primarily reading Vergil's Eclogues in Latin but considering the tradition in general). Who are some modern and contemporary poets influenced by pastoral? I have some ideas already, but I'd love more!

Glad to see my review of Mary Beard's latest book, "Emperor of Rome," out in The Washington Post today. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/1...