Beth and Josh Hart are the new owners of Chapters on Main Bookstore & Coffee Shop in Van Buren, Ark., KNWA reported. They have purchased the store from previous owner Alison Goodwin and will take over officially on June 28.

The store, located at 816 Main St., will close temporarily on Monday, June 29, while the Harts carry out some minor renovations and repairs. Aside from a new logo, some cosmetic changes, and the addition of around 150 new titles, the Harts do not plan to make any major changes to the bookstore and coffee shop. They will host a grand reopening celebration for the business on July 4.

"The books are staying," Bath Hart said. "The coffee is staying. We're simply giving the space a little refresh while keeping the heart and soul of what makes Chapters on Main such a special place."

Beth Hart worked as a marketing professional prior to buying the bookstore, while Josh Hart worked as a call center manager. Beth Hart was a longtime customer of the bookstore, and the pair actually had their first date at Chapters on Main in July 2025.

"A year ago, almost exactly, I went on a first date with this guy and we fell in love, got married very quickly and he fell in love with the place too," Beth Hart told KNWA. "She's passionate about books and I'm passionate about her," Josh Hart added.

Original owners Debbie and Alan Foliart founded the bookstore in 2016. In January 2023, they sold Chapters on Main to Alison Goodwin. The bookstore carries new and used titles for all ages, with a selection of rare titles. The coffee shop serves coffee, tea, and other specialty drinks.

"This bookstore has always been special to me," Hart said. "I grew up coming here, and now our family has the incredible opportunity to carry its story forward. We are honored that Alison has entrusted us with something that means so much to this community."

Brewer Bookstore will host a grand reopening celebration for its café, which has been remodeled, on July 6. The official bookshop of St. Lawrence University is located at 92 Park St. in Canton, N.Y., North Country Now reported.

During the festivities, Brewer Bookstore will offer 25% off everything in store (with some exceptions), while B99.3 will be broadcasting live with a chance to win prizes from their spinning wheel. In addition, there will be café specials, along with coupons for a future order. Customers showing a social media check-in during the day get a free Pub Cookie with purchase. 

Bestselling author Kwame Alexander and Sourcebooks are launching Kwame Alexander Books, "dedicated to discovering and elevating bold voices across children's and adult publishing" through an imprint "rooted in the belief that books can help shape the next generation of thoughtful young readers and leaders through stories that center creativity and community and resilience."

Kwame Alexander (photo: Rowan Daly)

The imprint will launch in spring 2027 with a curated list of titles across picture books, middle grade, YA, and adult categories, combining Alexander's own projects with works from emerging and established authors. The imprint will also serve as a platform for discovering and mentoring new voices, with additional initiatives and partnerships to be announced.

"The world is changing rapidly. We need young people to have an imagination that can see how to shape that change for the better," said Alexander. "I want to publish books that elevate the imagination, so naturally, working with authors who have a vision for entertaining and inspiring is my modus operandi. We aren't just publishing books, we're building the next generation of life-giving creators. I know that sounds ambitious and audacious, but these times call for that, and this is a part of my calling."
 
Sourcebooks CEO and publisher Dominique Raccah commented: "I've admired Kwame and his work for many years, going back to our connection with the extraordinary Nikki Giovanni and our great kids' poetry books. There's a shared entrepreneurial spirit between us, and a drive to build something new. This imprint is exactly that. It's about publishing voices that will model for young people who they can be in this world, and the impact they can have. We both believe deeply in the life-changing power of books. I'm SO thrilled to be working with Kwame!"
 
The cornerstone of the imprint's early publishing will be The Crossover #4, a new book in Alexander's Newbery Medal-winning series, which will be published in fall 2027. More than two million copies have been sold and it has been adapted into a Disney+ series. For Alexander, returning to these characters is also an opportunity to write for both longtime fans and a new generation of readers.
 
"This has been a long time in the making, but I am having so much fun revisiting these characters, especially after such a heart-wrenching ending to the first one," he said. "What's funny to me is that the first kids who read the book are now parents, so part of my task has also been to write something that would be compelling and interesting and meaningful for them, as well as a whole new generation of kid readers. I think this is going to be really good."
 
Early projects also include a paranormal YA novel by bestselling author Lola StVil; a middle grade horror novel from Marie Arnold (The Year I Flew Away, I Rise); a YA thriller-in-verse YA from Carnegie Medal-winner Sarah Crossan; a picture book from Laura Mucha, a playful fractured fairytale that celebrates a love of reading; a middle-grade adventure inspired by Mexican folklore traditions by Laura Rocha; and Alexander's motivational primer Say Yes.
 
"Kwame brings not only extraordinary creative vision, but a real understanding of how stories connect with readers," said Jennifer Gonzalez, senior v-p, publishing director at Sourcebooks. "This imprint will publish books that spark something in the reader that wasn't there before and create lasting impact."
 
The imprint is helmed by Alexander; Elise McMullen-Ciotti, who joins Sourcebooks as editorial director and was most recently with Lee & Low; and Margaret Raymo, formerly an executive editor at Little, Brown. 

Ann Patchett, bestselling author and owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tenn., will receive the 2026 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, which honors an American literary writer whose body of work "is distinguished not only for its mastery of the art but also for its originality of thought and imagination. The award seeks to recognize strong, unique, enduring voices that, throughout long and consistently accomplished careers, have told us something about the American experience." Patchett will be honored on August 22 at a ceremony during the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

Ann Patchett

Acting Librarian of Congress Robert R. Newlen said Patchett "crafts moving, probing, tender novels. She has a talent for creating fiction that readers continually devour because she thinks deeply and writes evocatively about human connection."

Patchett commented: "The Library of Congress is one of our nation's noblest institutions, and it's full of librarians, who I consider to be the very noblest of people. I am grateful for this award and honored by the association."
 
Patchett is the author of 10 novels, as well as nonfiction and children's books. She received the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture, and was recently named this year's recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation's Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award.
 
Patchett opened Parnassus Books 15 years ago, and "has since become an advocate for independent booksellers, championing books and bookstores," the Library of Congress wrote. She was the inaugural ambassador for the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) and founded the Parnassus Books Foundation, which gives books to children in Title I schools in Nashville.

Workers at a Barnes & Noble location in South Burlington, Vt., have voted to unionize with UFCW Local 1459, and contract negotiations are underway.

Bookstore workers Laura Jaime, Willow Guppy, and Sebastian Ryder

According to a UFCW release, the booksellers' and baristas' primary concerns are better wages and benefits, as well as firm safety language and fair treatment. The B&N South Burlington workers were inspired by others in the book industry who have formed unions, including employees at a B&N in Hadley, Mass., who also unionized with UFCW Local 1459. The release noted that other retail employees in the Burlington area have also organized.

"I think there is a misconception among employers that unionizing is driven by anger and resentment on the part of workers," said Sebastian Ryder, bookseller at the South Burlington store. "Though there may be some of that, ultimately, I was grateful to serve on the organizing committee for unionizing our Barnes & Noble out of hope for the future, as well as love and respect for my co-workers, and yes, B&N itself. Love and respect are sustainable; anger and resentment, not so much."

The number of independent bookshops in the U.K. and Ireland has risen from 1,025 to 1,086 since 2025, reaching its highest level since 2012, according to Booksellers Association data released during Independent Bookshop Week. The Bookseller reported that the figures "mark a significant recovery from the sector's low point of 867 bookshops in 2016."

Specialist bookshops account for 287, or 26%, of all bookshops. Sci-fi and fantasy shops increased by six stores, year on year, while romance bookshops grew by five. There are now 52 genre specialists, making them the third-largest category behind children's (55) and Christian bookshops (57).

Bookshops incorporating cafés or bars also continued to expand, with 77 stores now operating in the category, the Bookseller noted, adding that regionally, the southwest recorded the highest number of net openings, with 15 new bookshops, ahead of London with eight.

Emma Bradshaw, BA's head of marketing and communications, said: "As we celebrated 20 years of Independent Bookshop Week, the 2026 campaign once again highlighted the remarkable role independent bookshops play as cultural spaces, creative hubs and places for communities to connect."

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This year's Frankfurt Book Fair (October 7-11) will offer children's books greater visibility in a dedicated space as part of a restructuring of the fair's halls. Under the plan, Hall 4.0 will become the central hub for children's books. All relevant publishers from the DACH---Deutschland (Germany), Austria, and Confoederatio Helvetica (Switzerland)--region will exhibit there together. "What was previously spread across a larger hall is now being brought together: with clear visibility for trade visitors and members of the public," organizers said.

A central feature of the new space is the Imagination Stage, which will offer trade programs and public events. Hall 4.0 brings together children's and young adult media alongside comics, manga, fantasy, and audio. Organizers also cited features like wide aisles, a café, and ample seating for discussions and meetings. 

"Children's and young adult books have always been strongly represented at the Frankfurter Buchmesse--now they will also be visible at a glance. In Hall 4.0, publishers, retailers and the public will find everything in one place. This changes the way we experience this sector," said Birgit Fricke, key account manager sales.

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Bookseller wedding: The staff at Griffin Books in Penarth, Wales, "brought out the full Bookseller Guard of Honour to send our lovely Lucy off to get married! Good luck Lucy and Liam--we can't wait to celebrate with you tonight! 

"P.S. Did you notice the on-brand book choices from each of the team? P.P.S. I'm resisting the urge to take a tripod to the wedding to get more content of the gorgeous bride (and groom)."

Bernard "Bernie" Flynn, longtime bookseller and co-founder of Trident Booksellers & Café in Boston, Mass., and Northern Lights, St. Johnsbury, Vt., died on June 15 after a courageous battle with cancer; he was 76. He was a beloved father, grandfather, brother, husband, and friend who was known for his generosity of spirit and ability to connect with anyone he came across in a meaningful way.

Bernie Flynn with Courtney Flynn in 2014

Bernie was always an avid reader, often describing a childhood absorbed by any and all types of books. In 1976, Bernie and his longtime friend Caroline Demaio opened a bookstore in St. Johnsbury, Vt., called Northern Lights. The store began as a simple and idealistic dream, with books being mostly donated and resold. Bernie often spoke about the slow pace of the store in the early days, recalling that a good day would be more than one sale. Over time the store grew and became a vibrant part of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom community. Bernie and Caroline ran Northern Lights together until the birth of Bernie's son prompted his desire to move to Boston in 1984.

That same year Bernie and his wife, Gail, opened Trident Booksellers and Café on Newbury Street in Boston. Bernie often told stories of the early days of running a bookstore on the "wrong end" of Newbury Street, and the many years of struggle to find the store's footing. Through tremendous hard work and tenacity, the store grew over the decades, from a 2,500-square-foot store with a small café to a two-floor, 9,000-square-foot bookstore with a full restaurant, busy events program, and most recently, a private events room. The store is now a Boston landmark, with customers ranging from decades-long regulars to tourists coming for the first time. The grassroots way that the store gained footing in Boston culture was a welcome delight to Bernie. 

The business will continue to be run by Bernie's daughter, Courtney, as well as his daughter-in-law, Kim. Running a multi-generational family business was something that Bernie took great pride in, and the family will continue to steward it through the years.

Source Booksellers, Detroit, Mich., hosted Desiree Cooper, editor of Black Summers: Growing Up in the Urban Outdoors (Wayne State University Press), in conversation with Khary Frazier, founder of Detroit Is Different, which also sponsored the event and aired the conversation on its Fathers Day podcast. Pictured: (from left) Stephanie Williams, director of Wayne State University Press; Desiree Cooper; and booksellers and owners Janet Webster Jones and Alyson Turner. The event was also a celebration of Janet's birthday.

At Lemuria Books

Amazon's (four-day) Prime Day 2026 runs through today, June 26. The June dates marked a shift from July, which had been the timing for Prime Day since it began in 2015. Indie booksellers have been honing their anti-Prime Day promotional skills for a decade now, and the results are on display this week in Anti-Prime Day social media posts, including: 

Brain Lair Books, South Bend, Ind.: "It's Anti-Prime Day! Bezos doesn't need your money. We do. Fuel readers, not billionaires. Skip Prime Days and shop Brain Lair Books!"

Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, Mass.: "10 Ways to Spend a Rainy Day at the Bookstore Instead of Scrolling Prime Day 'Deals.' Click bait title aside, June 23-26 has been deemed a pseudo holiday by an online behemoth. So as your landmark independent bookstore, we're here to remind everyone the ways shopping small has a big impact."

At Friendly City Books

Friendly City Books, Columbus, Miss.: "It's that time again, y'all! Here's your gentle request from FCB to please support local businesses.... We love being your bookstore and we want to CONTINUE being your bookstore! So... just think on it. Where you spend money matters. We hope you'll choose to support local."

Bold Coffee and Books, Portland, Ore.: "Anti-Prime Day Is Here! Support local, shop small. Support bookstores, not billionaires."

The Book Nook, Richmond, Va.: "You could buy books from Amazon. You could also buy gas station sushi. We wouldn't recommend either."

At the Spaniel's Tale

The Spaniel's Tale, Ottawa, Ont., Canada: "In the words of a wise customer: 'I'd rather eat glass than order it on Amazon.' Shop local."

Firestorm bookstore co-op, Asheville, N.C.: "Bring a book, take a book. Surveillance capitalism not required!"

Serendipity Books, Chelsea, Mich.: "WE DON'T WANNA HEAR IT! During this week's Am*zon Prime days and EVERY day thereafter, we encourage you to support independent, local bookstores and businesses. Because great value isn't only measured in speed and discounts! Every purchase at an indie bookstore like Serendipity does more than fill your shelves."

Lemuria Bookstore, Jackson, Miss.: "REAL book recommendations from REAL booksellers!! Today (and everyday) is a great reminder to support businesses that support YOU!"

At Cranford Bookstore

The Cranford Bookstore, Cranford, N.J.: "We are a prime part of this community."

The Plot Twist Bookbar, Denton, Tex.: "We know how easy & more convenient it is to shop those prime deals, but every time you shop indie you are making a huge difference for not just our store but the thousands of other small businesses & indie bookstores that pour back into your community!"

Judging by the Cover Books, Fresno, Calif.: "Lately, we've seen a wave of posts on Threads claiming that indie bookstores are overpriced. That's Amazon's messaging working exactly as intended.⁠ Our co-owner, Ashley, spent more than a decade working in publishing sales and recently responded to a now-deleted post asking why a $30 new release costs $30 at a local bookstore but only $19 on Amazon. Swipe through to see the breakdown.⁠"
⁠
Daisy Chain Book Co., Edmonton, Alb., Canada: "Really? Do you really need us to remind you that the BIG guys are still aggressively squashing the little guys. Do we need to say that the most prime thing you can do is NOT give billionaires more money and power? Say it isn't so."

"Today, this girl waited in the doorway for one of her fave people. He gives her 2-3 biscuits with each delivery," Rooted Books & Gifts in Grand Island, Neb., posted on Instagram.

Posted on Facebook by lala books in Lowell, Mass.: "Where you shop matters to your community--thank you for spending your money with local businesses."

A trailer has been released for George Oakley's film adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel Sense and Sensibility. Deadline reported that the production, based on a script by Diana Reid, stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles, Caitríona Balfe, Frank Dillane, Herbert Nordrum, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, George MacKay, and Fiona Shaw.

Working Title's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner produced alongside India Flint of November Pictures and Jo Wallett of Kiddo Films. Working Title and Focus previously teamed up on the 2005 movie version of Pride & Prejudice that earned four Oscar nominations, as well as the 2020 adaptation of Austen's Emma.

Tanya Saracho (Vida) is returning to Starz to develop a TV adaptation of Lauren Palphreyman's the Wolf King book series. Deadline reported that Saracho "will serve as showrunner and executive producer of the drama series following a captive princess who gets kidnapped by a brooding werewolf alpha and plunged into a bloodthirsty war."

Palphreyman, who will exec produce the series, wrote three books as part of the series, all of which have been optioned by Starz. They include The Wolf King, The Night Prince, and the upcoming release, The Wolf Queen.

"Coming back home to Starz with The Wolf King is a full-circle moment for me," Saracho said. "This book has been my obsession since I first found it as an indie release over a year ago, and I've been lovingly championing it ever since. While Lauren Palphreyman's beautiful book series is an exciting departure from the genre I'm typically known for, getting to adapt it for the network that housed Vida for three seasons just feels destined to be. I couldn't be more ecstatic to finally share my love for this story with the world!"

Kathryn Busby, president of original programming for Starz, added: "With the rich world Lauren Palphreyman has created in The Wolf King and our longstanding relationship with Tanya--whose instinct for sexy, nuanced storytelling is unmatched--we're excited to bring this saga to screen with all the heat and heart it deserves."

The 2026 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is being awarded to French-British lawyer and author Philippe Sands. He will receive the award on October 11 during the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Sebastian Guggolz, president of the Börsenverein and chairman of the Peace Prize board of trustees, said, "One of the most important intellectual voices of our time, Philippe Sands is a French-British lawyer and writer who advocates for justice, peace and the unwavering defence of international law. Descended from Holocaust survivors, he draws on his own family history to trace the emergence of this body of law, illuminating the experiences that lie behind the legal concepts of 'genocide' and 'crimes against humanity.' In his literary work, which is distinguished both by narrative brilliance and historical depth, Philippe Sands devotes as much attention to the motives of the perpetrators as to the suffering and lives of the victims. Through his balanced and consistently empathetic portrayals, each individual is given a voice and accorded dignity and respect. At the heart of his legal work is a commitment to the universal rights of every human being, evidenced in his advocacy for victims of war crimes, racism, torture and colonial injustice. The campaign to establish ecocide as a criminal offence before the International Court of Justice--making the destruction of ecosystems punishable under international law--also stems from his initiative. Philippe Sands is far more than a chronicler of crimes and violations of international law. He is a committed humanist and author who, despite growing resistance, tirelessly fights for human rights, justice and mutual understanding."

Sands is a professor of international law at University College London and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. He regularly acts as counsel before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and his involvement in several landmark cases in international law has made him one of the leading human rights lawyers.

Sands's books include East West Street (2016), which recounts the persecution and murder of Jewish people in Lviv during the German occupation, while also tracing the life paths of two Jewish jurists who became pivotal to the field of international law; The Ratline (2020), which examines the life of SS officer Otto Wächter; The Last Colony (2022), which explores the case of the Chagos Archipelago, whose inhabitants were forced to leave their homeland between 1968 and 1973 to make way for a U.S. military base; 38 Londres Street (2025), which examines the case against Augusto Pinochet.

Sands has received many awards for his books, including the Baillie Gifford Prize (2016), the Wingate Literary Prize (2017), the British Book Award (2017), the Prix Montaigne (2018), the Austrian Booksellers' Honorary Award for Tolerance in Thought and Action (2023), and the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize (2025).

Cynthia Pelayo received the Bram Stoker Award for her poetry collection Crime Scene, the first author and poet of Latin American descent to receive the award. She lives in Chicago and is completing a Ph.D. in English. Her novels include Children of Chicago, The Shoemaker's Magician, Forgotten Sisters, Vanishing Daughters, and It Came from Neverland (Crooked Lane Books, June 9, 2026), a retelling of Peter Pan set during World War I. She is the editor of the forthcoming horror anthology Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latiné Horror (Primero Sueno Press/Atria, September 29, 2026).

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

London, 1914. Wendy Darling has been telling the truth about what came through her nursery window 12 years before. No one believes her, until now.

On your nightstand now:

César Vallejo's Poesías Completas, Federico García Lorca's Selected Verse: Revised Bilingual Edition, The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell. I read a lot of poetry. I read poetry in the morning, poetry at night, and even poetry before starting to write fiction. Poetry teaches me how to compress emotions into the most economical use of words possible.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Grimms' Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen's Complete Fairy Tales, basically any and all fairy tales. I love fairy tales because of the wonder and magic and mystery about them, and also, I acknowledge that many of the lessons in fairy tales are applicable to us today, warnings against walking alone at night, and being cautious of strangers.

Your top five authors:

Julia de Burgos. Shirley Jackson. Jorge Luis Borges. Toni Morrison. Federico García Lorca. Poets and authors. These authors represent a range of approaches that appeal to me, poetry about home and identity, poetry about love and the metaphysical and transcendence. And the authors' works here are writings that make us ask questions about the world that we live in and interrogate ourselves and one another.

Book you've faked reading:

If I say I've read it, I've read it. I always think it's odd that people will pretend to have read something. I would rather someone told me what they haven't read. I also think this happens because people may feel pressure to be seen as a certain literary type, if that makes sense. It's all right if you have not read that classic. It's all right if you have read 100 books this year. It's all right if you have just read one book this year. What I hope, ultimately, is to create reading environments where we are more welcoming and can convert people who have not read a single book in a year or longer into having read a book this year.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson. In it, Winterson constructs sentences that carry the weight of the world. A friend recommended I read it because they said that there are words that Winterson strings together that create such an emotional world, and I agree.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. It's the most perfect novel about isolation, and about how two women have to create a world in order to protect themselves from that very world. Every time I reread it, I find something new in Merricat's voice. Jackson understood that the real horror is not the monster, it's the people in the community with pleasant smiles who perform care.

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo. It's a novel about a man who goes to find his father, but what he discovers instead is a town full of ghosts. Rulfo wrote a very slim novel, but it's one that changed Latin American literature forever. Gabriel García Márquez said he couldn't have written One Hundred Years of Solitude if he had not read Pedro Páramo. Every sentence is a ghost speaking.

Book you've bought for the cover:

I have several editions of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and it's very often because of the varying covers. I just received this gorgeous copy with illustrations by John Coulthart from my editor. It's one of the most stunning editions I've ever seen, with vintage anatomical illustrations and sprayed edges. Also, maybe this is a hint about the next book I am working on.

Book you hid from your parents:

I didn't read commercial fiction growing up. Everything I brought into my house came from the school library or public library and those were all classics. They didn't object to any of that.

Book that changed your life:

Chicago: City on the Make by Nelson Algren. It was the book that showed me that I could write about a place and that I could write it lyrically, both with love and with critique. I read it at least once a year. I love Chicago. It's a magical city and an inspiration for much of my work.

Beloved by Toni Morrison. It's a book I avoided reading because I knew it would change me forever and I was not yet prepared for that change. When I did read it, it indeed shifted the way I look at writing and literature and the emotional impact that it can generate. Also, Morrison showed me that horror and literary fiction were never separate, and that a ghost story could be the most important American novel of the 20th century. It's this book that gave me permission to write what I write.

Favorite line from a book:

"Verde que te quiero verde." Lorca, from "Romance Sonámbulo." Five words that capture the complexity of the longing being communicated in this poem, green, sea, a horse, a dead woman.

Five books you'll never part with:

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Beloved by Toni Morrison. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, in Margaret Sayers Peden's translation. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. Rebecca is another book I read frequently, as well as Ficciones. In all of these books, the authors challenge form, convention. They do things that keep the reader thinking and processing long after the book has been read. That's what I love, a book that changes you, rewires you, and stays with you.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.

What you read when you're writing:

Poetry, almost exclusively. Vallejo, Lorca, Anne Carson, Anne Sexton, Pablo Neruda, Gwendolyn Brooks. I could read poetry all day and every day. It's the most emotional of our forms of writing, and it's the form of writing that allows me to feel something instantly.

University of Pennsylvania classical studies professor Emily Wilson received considerable critical praise and popular attention for her translations of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. In the 13 erudite and lively essays that compose Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea, she reveals the complexities of the translator's art while simultaneously conducting a stimulating tour of Greek and Roman literature.

Starting from "The Pleasures of Translation," Wilson makes clear that literary translation involves much more than simply rendering ancient Greek or Latin into serviceable English prose. One recurring theme is the decision facing the translator about whether to preserve a work's poetic meter. She cites that as one of her primary goals in her translation of the Odyssey and the Iliad, though she provides numerous examples of others who've abandoned such restraint for prose poems and free verse.

The collection's longest and most technical piece is its last, "Translating the Odyssey." In it, Wilson takes readers inside the translator's workshop to reveal how "we dance different ways along the tightrope." She selects several brief passages from Homer's work and then analyzes the strikingly different ways translators from the 17th century to the present have delivered them to English-language readers. To illustrate the demands of the process--in many ways, she says, more challenging than creating original writing--she devotes several pages to describing her choice of the word "complicated" to introduce Odysseus.

Some of Wilson's essays travel deeply into the works of writers such as Sappho, Catullus, and Aeschylus, exploring subjects that include female sexuality, Roman humor, and slavery in the ancient world. One of the more accessible pieces is "Chill Out with the Stoics," her critique of "how contemporary people may claim ideas from Greek and Roman antiquity to serve modern cultural imperatives." In "Ancient Worlds: Edith Hamilton and the Popularisation of the Classics," she gives due credit for an engaging prose style to the widely read and admired author of The Greek Way and Mythology. However, she also takes Hamilton to task for her "woolly thinking, prejudices, distortions and errors" and her facile depiction of ancient Greece as a precursor of 20th-century U.S. democracy.

Wilson concludes Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea with a brief but helpful afterword containing 20 principles that direct her own practice as well as her evaluation of the translations of others. For her, "the project--of devoting your life to these great texts, of bringing them to life in new ways for new generations--is always worth it." Anyone who's been exposed to Wilson's work will learn much from the insights of these essays and will hope her journey as a trusted guide through this distant world continues. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: In this collection of 13 essays, classics scholar and eminent translator Emily Wilson illuminates the translator's task while considering some of the iconic works of Greek and Roman literature.