Madeline Miller


Madeline Miller is an American novelist, author of The Song of Achilles and Circe. Miller spent ten years writing Song of Achilles while she worked as a Latin and Greek teacher. The novel tells the story of the love between the mythological figures Achilles and Patroclus; it won the Orange Prize for Fiction, making Miller the fourth debut novelist to win the prize. She is a 2019 recipient of the Alex Awards.

Early life

Miller was born on July 24, 1978, in Boston and grew up in New York City and Philadelphia. After graduating from Brown University with a bachelor's and master's in Classics, Miller then went on to teach Latin, Greek and Shakespeare to high school students. She also studied for a year at the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought toward a PhD and from 2009 to 2010 at the Yale School of Drama for an MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism. Miller lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts teaching and writing.
Miller told a reporter from The Guardian that she has been inspired by a lot of books, poetry and authors, including David Mitchell, Lorrie Moore, Anne Carson and Virgil.

''The Song of Achilles''

The Song of Achilles, Miller's debut novel, was released in September 2011. The book took her ten years to write. After discarding a completed manuscript five years into her writing, she started again from scratch, struggling to perfect the voice of her narrator. The Song of Achilles, set in Greece, tells the story of a love affair between Achilles and Patroclus. Miller was inspired by the account of the two men from Homer's Iliad and said she wanted to explore who Patroclus was and what he meant to Achilles. On her inspiration for the novel, Miller explained:
Miller had become transfixed by Achilles after her mother read the Iliad to her when she was younger. She also found Patroclus "tantalizing" because he is a minor character that later had a "big impact" on the outcome of the Trojan War. The writer used classical texts by Ovid, Virgil, Sophocles, Apollodorus, Euripides and Aeschylus to help with the plot, as well as accounts of Achilles' childhood friendship with Patroclus and his martial training. Miller also uses quotes from Homer in the text.
The Song of Achilles was the winner of the 17th annual Orange Prize for Fiction. Carolyn Kellogg of the Los Angeles Times wrote that it was a surprise win, with Miller being "the dark horse in this year's race". Joanna Trollope, chair of the judges, commented "This is a more than worthy winner – original, passionate, inventive and uplifting. Homer would be proud of her." The book was also shortlisted for the 2013 Chautauqua Prize.

''Circe''

Circe, Miller's second novel, was released on April 10, 2018. The book is told from the perspective of Circe, a character in the Odyssey. The summary of the novel is as follows:
Circe was ranked the second-greatest book of the 2010s in Paste. An 8-part miniseries adaptation of the book has been greenlit for HBO Max.