What does it mean to call Roman poems queer? What could it mean for us to read them that way? In this reading, award-winning translator C. Luke Soucy introduces Queer Roman Verse (Liveright 2026), his forthcoming anthology of 138 poems on themes of same-sex attraction and gender nonconformity, newly translated into formal English poetry. Drawing on a range of works from mythological epics to love poems and dirty epigrams, Queer Roman Verse reclaims the Romans from centuries of censorship and omission, revealing that nearly all the major authors and genres of classical Latin literature treated topics that would today be considered queer.

Sponsored by the Greek and Roman Studies Department, English Department, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, and Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies. 

This event is free and open to the public.