Emily Wilson for Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea

Emily Wilson is coming to The Citadel (York City Church) on Wednesday 25 November, as part of the Topping & Company Booksellers events programme. She's a Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and you'll likely know her from her translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad, both of which got critical acclaim across the globe. She also writes regularly for the London Review of Books, the New York Times, the New Statesman and the Nation.

The talk is about her book, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea, a reflection on how language reshapes our understanding of the past and on the work of translators from antiquity to today. It's a wide-ranging look at the craft, taking readers from depictions of Helen of Troy and Athenian comedy through to Han Kang's novels and Cardi B. Madeline Miller called it 'joyful, illuminating and engaging', and Blake Morrison described it in The Guardian as 'a masterclass in translation'.

If you've ever wondered how a translator decides which word to use when moving a story from one language to another, or how the way we translate the classics changes how we see the ancient world, that's exactly the kind of thing she'll be talking about. It's a chance to hear from someone who spends her days working at the intersection of the ancient and the contemporary.

It's on Wednesday 25 November at The Citadel (York City Church), Gillygate, York YO31 7EA. The talk starts at 7pm, with doors opening at 6.30pm, so there's plenty of time to get settled before she begins.