Madeline Miller

Miller holds a master's degree in Classics from Brown University and taught Latin, Greek, and Shakespeare to high school students for over a decade while spending ten years writing her debut novel; she also studied dramaturgy at the Yale School of Drama, focusing on adapting classical texts for the stage.

The Song of Achilles (2011) retells the Iliad from the perspective of Patroclus, the exiled prince raised alongside Achilles who becomes his closest companion and lover; it won the Orange Prize in 2012, making Miller only the fourth debut novelist to do so.

Her second novel, Circe, a retelling of the Odyssey's sorceress, was also Women's Prize-shortlisted and became an even bigger bestseller; she lives outside Philadelphia.