Ovid: Metamorphoses. Penguin Classics. (Translation, with Introduction and Notes).
Praise:
“Stephanie McCarter’s gorgeous verse translation of the Metamorphoses is ground-breaking not just in its refreshingly accessible approach to Ovid’s syntax and formal devices, but for how she reframes the controversial subjects that have made Ovid, and Ovidian scholarship, so fraught for contemporary readers. McCarter’s translation understands that the Metamorphoses is a complex study of power and desire, and the dehumanizing ways that power asserts itself through and on a variety of bodies. McCarter’s deft, musical, and forthright translation returns much-needed nuance to Ovid’s tropes of violence and change, demonstrating to a new generation of readers how our identities are always in flux, while reminding us all of the Metamorphoses’ enduring relevance.” (Paisley Rekdal, author of Nightingale)
“The Metamorphoses has it all: sex, death, love, violence, gods, mortals, monsters, nymphs, all the great forces, human and natural. With this vital new translation, Stephanie McCarter has not only updated Ovid’s epic of transformation for the modern ear or era — she’s done something far more powerful. She’s paid rigorous attention to the language of the original and brought to us its ferocity, its sensuality, its beauty, its wit, showing us how we are changed, by time, by violence, by love, by stories, and especially by power. Here is Ovid, in McCarter’s masterful hands, refreshed, renewed, and pulsing with life.” (Nina MacLaughlin, author of Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung)
“McCarter confronts the tricky issues associated with both the poet and his epic not only in her forthright introduction but in the translation itself, where, like an art restorer removing decades of browned varnish from an Old Master, she strips away a number of inaccuracies and embellishments that have accreted in translations over the decades and centuries, obscuring the sense of certain passages, particularly those portraying women and sexual violence.” (Daniel Mendelsohn, The New Yorker)
“Stephanie McCarter’s translation is lush and gorgeous, keeping the poetic bones of Ovid’s epic without falling into the clunky pitfalls that come from translating a classic poem to English. McCarter takes a frank look at the power dynamics of the Metamorphoses, making this the perfect companion to Emily Wilson’s The Odyssey and Caroline Alexander’s The Iliad.” (Boston Magazine, “25 Books Boston Booksellers Are Looking Forward to This Fall“)
“McCarter’s excellent poetic instincts and thorough understanding of the text makes this a timely and invaluable contribution to classical and poetic scholarship.” (Publisher’s Weekly)
“The result of her spare approach is nothing short of classic …. Ms. McCarter’s “Metamorphoses” is not a crib or a pony on Ovid’s Latin; nor is it an original work with vaguely Ovidian window-dressing …. Rather, it is what its title proclaims — a transformation of Ovid’s fluid Latin into Ms. McCarter’s taut English, something new and distinct in form but, still, under it all, the same.” (Jude Russo, The New York Sun)
Horace: Epodes, Odes, and Carmen Saeculare. The University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, 2020). (Translation, with Introduction and Notes)
Praise:
“Stephanie McCarter’s new translation…of the Epodes and Odes would make an excellent foundation for a course in Horace in translation …. McCarter is, to my knowledge, the first woman to translate all of Horace’s Odes into English. Her approaches to, and reading of, the Odes is, of course, colored by her gender, just as gender influenced the approach and reading of generation upon generation of male translators. Some readers will balk. This reader was delighted …. This handsome volume is, in short, a welcome addition not only to available translations in English of Horace’s lyric genres but promises as well to re-engage students with the work of one of Rome’s most important poets.” (Jeanne Marie Neumann, Exemplaria Classica)
“The translation is superb. It manages to translate every word of the Latin without extending the length of the poems and some of her renderings are simply brilliant….a masterpiece of style and accuracy.” (John Godwin, Bryn Mawr Classical Review)
“[T]his is a successful and compelling volume of translations and the various notes, circumspect introduction and glossary of rhetorical and literary terms will be of especial use to non-Classicist students, teachers and scholars. (Christopher Trinacty, Classical Journal)
“Over the centuries the sophisticated Latin lyrics of the Roman poet Horace…have been translated into English by a procession of literary icons. Thus, any new English version inevitably bears the onus of comparison with its predecessors, both remote and contemporary. In that context this volume deserves kudos and is a welcome addition to the corpus of Horatian poetry transformed into English….In short, this accessible collection of Horace’s work removes…all obstacles to entry into the Horatian poetic universe.” (J.S. Louzonis, Choice)
“For instructors, students and all manner of general readers McCarter’s fine edition would be a worthy investment, whose combination of a faithful, effective translation with especially robust scholarly annotation sets it apart from other English iterations of Horatian lyric.” (Tedd A. Wimperis, The Classical Review)
“Excellent translation in contemporary idiom.” (Louis J. Kern, The Key Reporter)
Horace between Freedom and Slavery: The First Book of Epistles. University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, 2015). (Monograph)
Praise:
“This delightful book…would be a very valuable companion for anyone reading or studying the Epistles….Definitely a Best Buy.” (Colin McDonald, Classics for All)
“McCarter’s book is a very good contribution to Horatian studies and will be of great help both to the specialist (particularly interpreters and commentators) and to general readers interested in an up-to-date and reliable introduction to the Epistles.” (Andrea Cucchiarelli, American Journal of Philology)
“This is a very good and pleasant book, which offers a strong and consistent interpretation of a book of poetry as a whole.” (Francesco Ursini, Phoenix)
Stephanie McCarter 