Politics and Prose Presents

From the most celebrated translator of our time comes a visionary exploration of how translation reshapes and enriches our understanding of the ancient world.

Drawing on twenty years of scholarship and translation experience, Emily Wilson—renowned translator of Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad—explores the difficult choices that translators must make, the pleasures of finding new solutions to old problems, and the inevitable frustrations of never fully capturing what is in the original work. Across chapters that range from the politics of Helen of Troy to the obscenities of Aristophanes, from Roman imitation of Greek models to contemporary debates over “foreignizing” and “domesticizing” translation styles, Wilson examines how modern norms of gender, sexuality, violence, humor, and power complicate our readings of ancient works, and how translation always risks denaturing what is unique and strange about the ancient world. Brilliant, erudite, and yet accessible to readers with no classics background, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea is at once an introduction to the wonders of Greek and Roman literature, a manifesto for the value of translation in a rapidly changing world, and an invitation to encounter ancient cultures anew.

"An enthralling and profoundly relevant book." —Salman Rushdie

"I adored reading these joyful, illuminating, and engrossing journeys through ancient literature." —Madeline Miller

Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been named a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a MacArthur Fellow. In addition to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, she has also published translations of Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca. She lives in Philadelphia.

Wilson is in conversation with Claire Catenaccio, a scholar of Ancient Greek literature and its rich legacy in the modern world. She is the author of Monody in Euripides: Character and the Liberation of Form in Late Greek Tragedy (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and of numerous articles about ancient epic, drama, biography, and myth. As a dramaturg and director, she has worked extensively with contemporary productions of ancient plays. She teaches as a member of the faculty of Classics at Georgetown University.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781324099406?ic_referral=SfXA6gw1K1Z660rR9kg7klSeP_fm8f4hJ0OyPP9R_iQwM6_ZZN7nyO0Xk9dFg7yNA9KlklyO5lxP9hetf-3DcWYOCRrDk_deQKOXvpFI4UFUchcCeu-t_xwGagXyuFDvL_pIw04

How Black painters use color to create meaning, provoke remembrance, stir emotion, and uplift the spirit

Color does more than capture a viewer's attention. It assaults one's equilibrium physically and psychologically. In this stunning book, Richard Powell draws on the concept of "colorstruck," a twentieth-century slang term describing prejudice toward people with darker skin complexions, to provide a new history of Black American art.

Powell charts the dynamics of paint and pigment in the works of artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Alma Thomas, Raymond Saunders, Sam Gilliam, Herv T l maque, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Nina Chanel Abney, and Henry Taylor. Using blue, green, yellow, orange, black, red, brown, and their combinations, he considers the historical and cultural contexts in which these colors unleash their visual magic and shows how the artists' vibrant palettes collide with undercurrents of race in unanticipated and thought-provoking ways. Powell shares compelling insights into the powerful chromatic forces manifested through artists' actions and viewers' reactions.

A landmark work by an acclaimed art historian, this richly illustrated book offers a dazzling look at the transformative use of color by some of today's most exciting painters, revealing how hue and pigmentation strike a chord for freedom and reclamation in life as well as art.

Published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Richard J. Powell is the John Spencer Bassett Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University. His many books include Going There: Black Visual Satire, Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, and Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson.

Powell is in conversation with Tope Folarin, a Nigerian-American writer based in Washington DC, who serves as Director of the Institute for Policy Studies and the Lannan Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing at Georgetown University. He is the recipient of the Caine Prize for African Writing, the Whiting Award for Fiction, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, among other awards. Tope serves as a board member of the Avalon Theater in Washington DC, the Pen/Faulkner Foundation, and as a member of the President’s Council of Pathfinder. In addition, he will serve as the inaugural critic-at-large for The Georgia Review in 2025.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9780691285160?ic_referral=Fwjj4aTQb5Zd7vWbbbLWNHhMB9gk9MYMbEqKoBLoaFcwM46F76ry-HUqYXkOR91-6cR98PKyjVhWVV-MZSb5u_RoLw1xXKwF_-gw-CMBK8-yd-LKzvooaLxX-nyxTnlEB3y3Ros

Following on the success of Tough Cases, called "A law buff's dream" by headbutler.com, Challenging Cases collects judges' firsthand stories of deciding cases when the world is watching

Most cases judges decide garner little public attention. But occasionally, a case is tried both in the courtroom and in the court of public opinion. In Challenging Cases, some of the country's leading jurists talk about the most high-profile cases they've handled--ones where the eyes of the world were upon them.

Whether the defendant was a beloved major league baseball player, a movie star, or a well-known sex-offender, or whether the topic addressed an especially contentious aspect of the culture wars, these cases played out before millions of on-lookers, adding a whole new dimension to what is already a Solomonic responsibility.

In their previous book, Tough Cases, called "an unprecedented view from the bench" by legal commentator Greta van Susteren, and "a genuine revelation" by Justin Driver in The Washington Post, Judges Canan, Mize, and Weisberg made us privy to the thought processes of judges making some of their hardest legal decisions. In Challenging Cases, over a dozen judges from courts in California, DC, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Washington State, and even Kosovo speak to the added challenge of trials involving high-profile defendants. Cases include:

• The perjury trial of Roger Clemens
• The sentencing of January 6th rioters
• The case of Dr. Larry Nassar, accused of the sexual abuse of hundreds of female athletes
• The Kosovo international war crimes trial
• The Johnny Depp trial

Providing the fodder for a whole new season of Law and Order, Challenging Cases is for every actual and armchair legal beagle in the country.

Authors appearing in this talk include: Russell Canan, Regina Chu, Charles LaVerdiere, Reggie Walton, Dean Pineles, William Downing, Darlene Soltys, Gregory Mize, Dipti Pidikiti-Smith, Ana Reyes, and Fred Weisberg.

PURCHASE BOOK:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9798893850208?ic_referral=lY2m7wBaTu8YkcuqEkTaip1JBZFs7As5KJ9x2c-11R4wM3F_y_Qgq7Gu0AH__pGwdo4WTZzhBbw7A3decKliWif8Q-Mi6Qkge5zuCM6Z0qXU7agZMxqtd_MiwHL-OCYwoPXpI0k

From the beloved creator of the wildly popular Sam O’Nella Academy YouTube channel, an irreverent and timely science fiction collection that offers a wry look at the not-so-distant future
Sam A. Miller, the creator behind Sam O'Nella Academy, has spent ten years teaching his 4.8 million subscribers about the past and the present. Here, he turns towards fiction—and the future…
A hyper advanced alien race seemingly solves all existential threats—no climate change, no nuclear weapons, no singularity crisis...and yet, in crisis we remain. Because humans are their own existential threat in the not dys- or u-topian, but simply “topian” world of this interconnected collection: In “Four Little Words” scientists discover the shocking truth about grass. In “Eggs For Roman,” a baboon with human intelligence gets cyberbullied. And in “Beat,” a young man must save his own life from the music that’s taken it hostage. 
Often funny and always profound, Still Lost bends reality just enough for it to become a mirror and takes its readers on a daring and strange ride—an ultra-timely, sardonic collection that feasts on the follies and earnest absurdities of humanity.

Sam A. Miller is an educational comedic YouTuber and Shorty Awards finalist with 4.8 million subscribers, known for his sardonic, MS-paint-illustrated videos on everything from pirates to Pliny to presidential pets. A life-long reader, this is his debut publication.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9780143139553?ic_referral=6BJ_4Aw7d2ICKK32lXY-YI8dLxctkmEo2Ri30JTIDt8wM50xsFT6zM0WUEsqZ2WBaTAJMmWSa_Dsthjt0RuNiQ0PpwTtT_jV_EWPE03hejT9KYMwr61LlhXyaRLgNtPa82x53o8

A gripping historical account about the harrowing struggles of Japanese immigrants in the US during the years leading to World War II.
In 1872, a new Japanese government’s first diplomatic delegation to the United States was greeted with rapturous welcome in San Francisco. For over ten days of lavish parties, the city’s elite admired the emissaries’ silk robes and noble bearing and began forging what they expected would be a special relationship between ascendant Pacific nations. Three decades later, a young Japanese immigrant disembarked at the very same waterfront to a different reception. “I was baptized with horse dung,” Nisuke Mitsumori recalled. “This was my very first impression of America.” Mitsumori arrived in the first angry days of America’s war on Japanese immigrants, a populist convulsion that became one of the nation’s darkest episodes of ethnic strife. In the early 1900s, Japanese immigrants faced mob violence and property destruction. Exclusionary laws restricted Japanese immigrants’ rights to own property, vote, and marry outside their race. Tensions intensified until 120,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned in camps during World War II.
The Distance Between Our Names is the story of the early battles over Japanese immigration—the less dramatic, more insidious chapter. Esteemed journalist Paul Richter researched hundreds of memoirs, public records, news reports, and oral histories to deliver an urgent account of immigration history. This highly relevant book is enlivened by intimate stories of the newcomers—high and humble—such as the children banned from public schools, farmers struggling in a system rigged against them, the women who were swindled into marriages resulting in lifetimes of hardship, immigrant leaders battling to forestall punitive laws. Taken together, The Distance Between Our Names is a stunning narrative of resilience and struggle, a gripping story of one community’s brave fight for dignity in the face of savage discrimination.

Paul Richter has written about national affairs and foreign policy for four decades. As a journalist for the Los Angeles Times, he was based in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC, and reported from sixty countries. During his years in Los Angeles he was principal author of California and the American Tax Revolt: Proposition 13 Five Years Later. His last book was The Ambassadors: America’s Diplomats on the Front Lines. The volume won the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Douglas Dillon Award for Books of Distinction on the Practice of American Diplomacy. He lives in the Washington, DC, area.

Richter is in conversation with Kathryn Tolbert, a journalist with The Washington Post for more than 25 years, as an editor, reporter, and correspondent in Tokyo. She is the author of the oral history archive at www.warbrideproject.com and was a co-director of the documentary film Fall Seven Times Get Up Eight: The Japanese War Brides.  She is currently executive director of The War Bride Experience, Inc., a nonprofit organization that has partnered with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the National Museum of American History to create the traveling exhibition “Japanese War Brides, Across a Wide Divide.”

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668031186?ic_referral=UY__guJdERTgm6Affc8lxycuvcSMqkF4ToW6l4_q6TMwM1YoRJNXrMEhO3Fw0FIUfj2PhWLyu9gJGL_t8qPuQXroPeoO-NeIE1JwAwRNv3ge-HXDx1TKlYzYLNyLOZPdXjdmxdA

How the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire exposed New York City elites and laid the foundations for modern charity

Fire in the Heart of the City details the riveting story of what happened when a tragic fire in Greenwich Village threw Adolph Ochs, the ambitious new publisher of the New York Times, and Rose Schneiderman, a defiant young labor organizer, against each other in a momentous conflict. Following the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire--the worst disaster New York City had ever experienced--a significant feud emerged between New York's wealthy elite and labor rights' activists over who should organize the city's response: a nascent charity sector led by the city's wealthiest bankers or the reform-focused unions of Lower Manhattan.

This revelatory account captures the rapid ascent of modern charity in America. David Conrad-Pérez details more than the disaster. He recreates what happened next, a watershed moment when a handful of charities on the brink of irrelevance were suddenly recast as New York's best answer to addressing the social and economic conditions responsible for the fire, a story long buried by destroyed files and hidden partnerships. Drawing on newly released archival documents, previously confidential reports, private diaries, and interviews, Conrad-Pérez uncovers the unprecedented campaign that advanced a small group of bankers and social elites and their idea for a new type of charity. The very people blamed for creating the problem became experts on the issues, saving the reputations of everyone involved--until now.

Fire in the Heart of the City is an absorbing portrait of an extraordinary moment in the formation of modern American charity, casting new light on its profoundly dangerous and misunderstood legacy.

David Conrad-Pérez is a media historian and the research director of the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University.

Conrad-Peréz is in conversation with Heather Boushey, a professor of practice at the Kleinman Center where she runs the EconClimate Lab. Boushey is one of the nation’s most influential voices on economic policy.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781479837700?ic_referral=gc3lNo_QaWiezB5-fDiIzYfkMZLtKVk9SBwo7YVPl18wM72WE1Mvt1QD9VqBxDE7V7quAYYWuvpeLpgzPoMyxr1WSh8rqpcv8ISmQZRK2qD1t10OqYmU6fJaMWpp6p5DnFdny3g

The history and meaning of one of the most controversial words in American English.

Few words in English are as charged as "nigga" and "n*gger." While the slur "n*gger" is universally recognized as offensive, fierce debates continue over the use of "nigga"--who can say it, what it means, and whether it has been reclaimed as a term of endearment among Black people. Are these two words or one word with two pronunciations, and do they have different meanings?

Wassup, My Nigga is the first book written by an African American linguist to explore the word's origin, history, and usage. Drawing on sources across time, from nineteenth-century slave narratives and ex-slave recordings to contemporary conversations on social media, the book reveals how the word's meanings vary according to context and across racial groups. It challenges myths about reclamation, explains why multiple pronunciations exist, and examines what the evidence really shows about how--and whether--meanings have changed over time.

By presenting the discussion within the context of African American English, Wassup, My Nigga sheds new light on one of the most controversial words in American English and what it reveals about language, race, and identity.

Hiram L. Smith is the Ruth Everett Sierzega Chair in Linguistics at Bucknell University. He published the first historical study of "nigga" and is the first African American linguist to write a book on the word. His research interests span African American English, Afro-Hispanic creole languages, Spanish, and Pennsylvania Dutch.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781647127398?ic_referral=YE8L0OY8ge-ixBdhFAC92vF7r_ciYBhAqa3ur99L6EQwM7x2K3KPtfqBQ6CA7a57fUfzVymvsRmeAm1QVRKiAIQTvgbIQdHEpif-yVZ3sqXlf-pHYo4Zgj1U4pF34iOPG67PTC8

For fans of Starling House and A Discovery of Witches with a Thomas Crown Affair twist: a contemporary New England coven hides the mysteries that lurk in the marshes north of Boston—and how they are connected to the largest unsolved art heist in modern history.
Once, Maeve Ryan was the strongest witch of her generation. But Maeve messed up a spell to contact the Lady of the Fens, an eerie Revenant who lures the unwary to their deaths in the brackish marshlands of the North Shore. Maeve destroyed her reputation, hurt her best friend Ash, and tainted herself with unbound, wild magic that transforms witches into insane Revenants.
With unbound power eating away at Maeve’s mind, all she wants is to get rid of her magic. Forever. But Ash’s research into how the spell went awry leads in an unexpected direction: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and a link between the Lady and a decades-old art theft worth $500 million. When Ash disappears through a stolen painting’s empty frame, Maeve has to follow.
Inside is the Other Marsh, a haunting, deadly realm where only the Lady’s rules apply. Within this half-world lie secrets about North Shore’s history, Maeve’s failure, and the fate of the masterpieces that disappeared over three decades ago. But as Maeve fights toward the truth, she risks her friendship, her coven, and her life against enemies hiding in plain sight.

K.S. Shay grew up in the part of northeastern Massachusetts where half the streets are named after people who were accused of witchcraft. She loves live music, local gossip, and getting outside. You can find her across social media @ksshaywrites and at ksshaywrites.com.

Shay is in conversation with Ioanna Papari Kosiori, a bookseller at Politics & Prose. She has received a master’s degree in Publishing from George Washington University. She’s worked as a Subsidiary Rights intern at Crown Publishing Group, and she is the recipient of a 2025 We Need Diverse Books Grant for young queer professionals in publishing. She publishes her own Substack articles and co-hosts the Novel Idea Book Club at P&P Union Market. 

PURCHASE BOOK:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781645662273?ic_referral=PsZspOfPL8pAbEFNPeqqCuU1UHjLBmWspmYgTnS4faAwM1uMUGpm_EYaJyN4b969k9dDk9PUZCFST5kLVpy4mKri7HhJsiq2HnKvv4y87MyHBEQCqTDplp4YpJBB1X8fIZRfxAA

Now with a substantive afterword covering the start of the second Trump administration 

A riveting retelling of diplomatic history with praise from Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Bertie Ahern (Ireland), Tony Blair (UK), Ehud Olmert (Israel), and more.

Inside the greatest diplomatic negotiations of the past 50 years
In one readable volume, diplomat and negotiator Stuart E. Eizenstat covers every major contemporary international agreement, from the treaty to end the Vietnam War to the Kyoto Protocols and the Iranian Nuclear Accord. Written from the perspective that only a participant in top level negotiations can bring, Eizenstat recounts the events that led up to the negotiation, the drama that took place around the table, and draws lessons from successful and unsuccessful strategies and tactics. Based on interviews with over 60 key figures in American diplomacy, including former presidents and secretaries of state, and major political figures abroad, Eizenstat provides an intimate view of diplomacy as today's history. The Art of Diplomacy will be an indispensable volume to understand American foreign policy and provide invaluable insights on the art of negotiation for anyone involved in government or business negotiations. The paperback edition adds a substantive afterword that presents the challenges and opportunities for the second Trump administration.

Stuart E. Eizenstat has served as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and Deputy Secretary of both Treasury and State. He is also the author of President Carter: The White House Years (2018), The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and Its Relationship with the United States (2012), and Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II (2003). He is an international lawyer in Washington, DC.

Eizenstat is in conversation with Ambassador Carla A. Hills. Amb. Hills served as United States Trade Representative from 1989 to 1993.  As a member of President George H.W. Bush’s Cabinet, Carla was the President’s principal advisor on international trade policy and as the nation’s chief trade negotiator, representing American interests in multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations worldwide.  She negotiated and concluded the North American Free Trade Agreement, led the U.S. negotiations on the Uruguay Round of the World Trade Organization, and concluded a large number of trade and investment agreements with countries around the world.

Earlier, Amb. Hills served as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (the third woman to hold a Cabinet position).  She also served as the Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Before entering government, Amb. Hills co-founded and was partner in what is now the Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP law firm.  She also served as an adjunct professor at the University of California at Los Angeles Law School teaching antitrust law, and co-authored the Antitrust Adviser, which was published by McGraw-Hill. 

Over the years, she has served on the boards of a number of Fortune 500 companies.  She also serves in leadership positions with several not-for-profit organizations, including as Chair Emeritus of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and of the Inter-American Dialogue; member of the  Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Honorary Director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics; member of the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission;  and Co-Chair Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9798216277651?ic_referral=XtfNkuYodsXULairg8LOCQrLJ2ZR4kiIdmAtyah1FP0wM-dZDswvsJsNXmMXqbC1bKqK4RGtCHUM0AiCiSGiGNYZFnolpOoggIdAezrDcOa9LMmYAL5FJLJpO6Uu491QZ8t9oqU

This event will be in partnership with Byrdland Records, the sister record store to Songbyrd Music House.

POW is the fascinating memoir of a precocious English teen in the early 1980s who published a music magazine, interviewed many of the era's top artists, befriended rock stars, ran a record label, appeared on television, played in a band and found first love -- all at the same time

In this sequel to his Boy About Town (2013), Tony Fletcher's incredible adventures in the world of British post-punk make for a compelling adventure of highs (an exclusive interview with Paul McCartney, friendship with Paul Weller of the hugely successful Jam, playing to huge audiences, discovering love and sex) and lows (heartbreak, learning the financial challenges of running a label the hard way, the collapse of his band). Despite the passage of time, he summons up all the enthusiasm he felt for the music and women he loved and marvels at the incredible experiences he had as a hard-working young striver.

The generation raised on MTV, the New Musical Express and bands like Madness, Wham , the Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, Dexy's Midnight Runners and Killing Joke will love reading this inside view of a knowledgeable fan who got to know them all.

Tony Fletcher is the author of eleven books, including best-selling biographies of Keith Moon, the Smiths and R.E.M., a memoir, a novel and more. As a London teenager, he started a fanzine called Jamming! in 1977 followed by a record label of the same name. He moved to New York in the late 1980s. Fletcher has played in bands, promoted concerts, DJed, written for numerous publications, hosted podcasts and appeared on and/or produced TV and radio shows. His hobbies include running mountains, from the Catskills to the Himalayas and any points in-between. He writes twice weekly at tonyfletcher.substack.com. 

Fletcher is in conversation with Seth Lorinczi, who writes on culture and music. His work appears in such publications as The Guardian, Narratively, Maggot Brain, Fretboard Journal and Sunday Long Read (upcoming) as well as numerous print and digital anthologies; he’s also the author of Death Trip: A Post-Holocaust Psychedelic Memoir (Spiral Path Collective, 2024). As a speaker and lecturer on music (and DC punk in particular), he’s presented extensively on both coasts at such cultural and academic institutions as Yale, Berkeley, Washington DC's MLK Library and numerous other venues that clearly didn’t vet him thoroughly enough.

Byrdland is located in the Union Market District of Washington D.C. and carries over 5000 new and used vinyl records, curated to the tastes of DC music lovers. They carry the newest and best vinyl records in indie rock, pop, soul, R&B, hip hop, and jazz in addition to their robust used music section. Byrdland was named Washington D.C.’s Best Record Store by Washington City Paper in 2021.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9798999048776?ic_referral=MeWI4zzRDyQxFDY7OSz9NcqOj-hhHadDMNH0OBqRFlkwM1gjEEt8BPm4HYdrGooMXh4PpNlITYSQDIZe3HgOYpsrLmeMEEPftynAOzFPManBOdawjTRetrEjzQzjlXcjfvpAl7E