"Willetrudis. Verses about Susanna" published!

Pixelia Publishing is delighted to announce the publication of Willetrudis. Verses About Susanna. It is the fourth volume in Pixelia's Experrecta series, devoted to publishing Latin texts written by women as carefully edited, classroom-ready editions. Congratulations to Prof. Abbe Walker, who headed the project, and her team of student co-editors at Northwestern University: Merlin Gouesse, Lauren Kelley, Emmeline Murphy, Natalie Peterson, Sophie Pong, Grace Richards, Isabel Tolman-Bronski, and Charles Drew White.

Willetrudis' de Susanna, only recently discovered, is a work of extraordinary interest. The poem tells a familiar story -- that of the biblical Susanna, a virtuous woman who is spied upon, propositioned, and ultimately blackmailed by two lustful men -- but in a fresh way. Whereas the male-dominated interpretive tradition of the Middle Ages had tended to see Susanna as a passive object of desire, Willetrudis gives the character a powerful will and voice. Her words and her decisions are at the center of the poem. Willetrudis herself was a nun writing for a community of nuns and laywomen, which means that with this poem, we have a medieval text written by a woman, about a woman, for women.

In their edition, Walker and her team provide a meticulously edited text of the poem, with same-page vocabulary and commentary to assist Latin learners. A thorough introduction both synthesizes and extends the existing scholarship on the poem.

For more on the significance of the poem and this edition, see Thomas Hendrickson's recent article on Medium, "The Fantastical Latin of Willetrudis of Wilton."