Maria Dahvana Headley’s Beowulf: A New Translation, published August 25 by MCD Books, is a feminist reworking of the one oldest surviving texts. The resulting story evolves our understanding of the traditional hero/monster binary, inviting us to reconsider epic poetry’s place in a more egalitarian world.

She is joined in conversation by Emily Wilson, translator of Homer’s The Odyssey, and Madeline Miller, author of Song of Achilles and Circe. Together, these three authors radically re-envision classic texts once saturated in toxic masculinity and sexism with fresh perspectives.