Emily Wilson is department chair and professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, holding the College for Women Class of 1963 Term Professor in the Humanities. Her verse translation of the The Odyssey, published in 2017, is the first English rendering of the poem by a woman. Her translation of The Iliad was named one of The New York Times‘ 100 Notable Books of 2023, among many others. Her latest book is Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature, coming out in September.

Wilson grew up in Oxford, United Kingdom, and studied classics at Balliol College and English literature at Corpus Christi College. She has a doctorate degree in classics and comparative literature from Yale University. In 2006, she was named a fellow of the American Academy in Rome in Renaissance and early modern studies. She has also been named a MacArthur Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow.

She lives in Philadelphia with her family and pets.

selected bibliography

Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea (2026)

The Illiad (2023)

The Odyssey by Homer (2017)

The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca (2014)

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online resources

Emily Wilson’s website
“A complicated man, outlined clearly in Wilson’s new Odyssey,” NPR author interview, December 24, 2017
“The first woman to translate the Odyssey into English,” The New York Times Magazine, November 2, 2017

Video: ASU Humanities Institute Distinguished Lecture by Wilson