Madeline Miller in Conversation with George O’Connor

Registration: https://mdc-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9p1_5bZgTIeEBSJDJoFkEQ

2024 Big Read Keynote: Madeline Miller in Conversation with Author & Illustrator George O’Connor with Q&A via Zoom

Author MADELINE MILLER will deliver the 2024 NEA Big Read keynote address, followed by a conversation with author and illustrator GEORGE O’CONNOR on the themes found in the book, including the retelling of myths and the persistence of thousand-year old tales.

Miller has been a force in bringing mythology to the masses with her bestselling novels Song of Achilles and Circe. O’Connor has created what is essentially a modern-day D’Aulaires with his bestselling middle-grade graphic novel series, Olympians. Together, they possess the Midas touch when it comes to retelling Greek mythology for a modern age. These stories persist after thousands of years because their themes are universal and still as true as ever. However, most of the stories we have come to know have alternate versions as recorded by various historians. In this keynote talk, Miller and O’Connor will discuss various themes found in Circe, with a focus on the persistence of mythology and how perspective changes a story.

Madeline Miller

She has also studied at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama, where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms.

The Song of Achilles, her first novel, was awarded the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a New York Times Bestseller. Miller was also shortlisted for the 2012 Stonewall Writer of the Year. Her second novel, Circe, was an instant number 1 New York Times bestseller, and won the Indies Choice Best Adult Fiction of the Year Award and the Indies Choice Best Audiobook of the Year Award, as well as being shortlisted for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Circe also won The Red Tentacle Award, an American Library Association Alex Award, and the 2018 Elle Big Book Award.  It is currently being adapted for a series with HBO Max. Miller’s novels have been translated into over twenty-five languages including Dutch, Mandarin, Japanese, Turkish, Arabic and Greek, and her essays have appeared in a number of publications including the Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Telegraph, Lapham’s Quarterly and NPR.org. She currently lives outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

George O’Connor

George O’Connor is an author, illustrator and cartoonist. Above all, George is a Greek mythology buff and a classic superhero comics fan, and he’s out to remind us how much our pantheon of superheroes (Superman, Batman, the X-Men, etc) owes to mankind’s original superheroes: the Greek pantheon. Now he has brought his attention to OLYMPIANS, an ongoing series retelling the classic Greek myths in comics form.

In his New York Times bestselling Olympians series, O’Connor draws from primary documents to reconstruct and retell classic Greek myths. But these stories aren’t sedate, scholarly works. They’re action-packed, fast-paced, high-drama adventures, with monsters, romance, and not a few huge explosions. O’Connor’s vibrant, kinetic art brings ancient tales to undeniable life, in a perfect fusion of super-hero aesthetics and ancient Greek mythology.

George’s first graphic novel, Journey Into Mohawk Country, used as its sole text the actual historical journal of the seventeenth-century Dutch trader Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, and told the true story of how New York almost wasn’t. He followed that up with Ball Peen Hammer, the first graphic novel written by playwright Adam Rapp, a dark, dystopian view of a society’s collapse.

In addition to his graphic novel career, O’Connor has published several children’s picture books, including the New York Times best-selling Kapow!, Sally and the Some-Thing, If I Had a Raptor and If I Had a Triceratops.

George lives in Brooklyn, NY with two terrible cats and one good one.

Co-sponsored by the Miami Book Fair, Hopewell Valley Regional School District and Pennington Public Library

This event is part of the 2024 NEA Big Read – an initiative designed to broaden our imaginations and understanding of our world, our neighbors, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. The featured book Circe by Madeline Miller retells a Greek story from the eponymous heroine’s point of view, giving voice to a lesser goddess of Homer’s The Odyssey. Please visit PenningtonLibrary.org/2024BigRead for a full calendar of events and more information.