Trojan Women

Anne Carson was born in Canada and teaches ancient Greek for a living. She is author of The Autobiography of Red, The Beauty of the Husband, Decreation, Economy of the Unlost, Eros the Bittersweet, Glass, Irony and God, Grief Lessons, If Not, Winter, Men in the Off Hours, Norma Jean Baker of Troy, Nox, Plainwater and Red Doc>. Antigonick, her translation of Sophokles' play Antigone, was published in 2012 by New Directions (USA) and Bloodaxe Books (UK) in a hardback edition with illustrations by Bianca Stone. Antigonick won the 2012 Criticos Prize for an original work, written in (or translated into) English, inspired by Greece or Greek exploits, culture or history. Her latest book is The Trojan Women, a collaboration with Rosanna Bruno in a comic book reimagining of Euripides' tragedy, published in 2021 by New Directions (USA) and Bloodaxe Books (UK).Rosanna Bruno is a visual artist and based in New York, where she makes paintings, comics, and – sometimes – a mess. She received a New York Foundation for the Arts grant in 2012. Her paintings have been exhibited internationally, and her cartoons have been published in BOMB magazine and featured in The Daily Beast and The Toast, among other publications. Her first book, The Slanted Life of Emily Dickinson (Andrews McMeel, 2017), is a book of cartoons based on the myth of her life. Her second is The Trojan Women (Bloodaxe Books, 2021), a comic book reimagining of Euripides’ tragedy with texts by Anne Carson.Euripides (c. 480–406 BC) was a tragedian of classical Athens, the author of nearly a hundred plays, of which only 18 or 19 have survived more or less complete. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly due to chance and partly because his popularity grew as theirs went into decline.

What do you get when you cross Euripides’ classic tragedy, the artistic stylings of Rosanna Bruno, and the poetic touch of Anne Carson? This book! Here’s what we know: Troy has been ravaged. Everyone is depicted as an animal (except Kassandra, who is another planet, which actually makes complete sense when you think about it). Need I say more?