Books by Josephine Balmer

The Paths of Survival explores the fragility of the written word; the ways in which it is destroyed and the ways in which, by each fresh miracle, it endures against all the odds. Tracing the few surviving fragments of Aeschylus's lost tragedy, Myrmidons, the poems' dramatic monologues introduce us to those who encounter that mysterious text.

From Ovid's Rome to the blood-soaked trenches of Gallipoli, The Word for Sorrow, brings new resonance to ancient grief. Its powerful and spellbinding poems give voice to the universal suffering of exile, war or grief, celebrating the enduring common humanity that binds us across countries and over all the centuries.

Josephine Balmer's Chasing Catullus ventures into the border territory, the no-man's-land between poetry and translation, juxtaposing new poems with fresh versions of ancient texts, brazenly reimagining classical literature, wittily subverting epic works, overwriting the past like a palimpsest.