Emily Hauser
Emily Hauser has published 6 books across 2 series. The recommended reading order starts with For the Winner (2017).
Emily Hauser is an English author and classicist who writes both historical fiction and academic works. She is best known for her Golden Apple trilogy, novels that reimagine Greek myths, and for Mythica, a UK Times bestseller also known as Penelope's Bones in the US, which explores Homer's world through the women written out of it. Hauser studied Classics at Cambridge University with Mary Beard, earning a double first with distinction and the Chancellor's Medal for Classical Proficiency. She continued her studies as a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard and earned her PhD in Classics from Yale University, where she now teaches. Her academic awards include the University of Cambridge Chancellor’s Medal and the Alice Derby Lang Essay Prize at Yale. Hauser's books have been published and translated internationally, and she has been featured in publications like The Guardian and on BBC Radio programs. Her work has been recognized with distinctions such as being listed among The Telegraph's Best Books for Summer and shortlisted for the Seminary Co-Op’s Best Books of 2023.
Shelf & Shadows
Order of Golden Apple Trilogy Books
- Tagshistorical-fictionDescriptionAtalanta has been abandoned by her father, the king of Pagasae, but she refuses to let that define her fate—so she disguises herself as a man and fights her way onto the legendary voyage to find the Golden Fleece, sailing alongside heroes who would never accept her if they knew the truth. She's risking everything for a chance at glory, for a place in a story that was never meant to include her, and for a while, it works. But secrets like hers don't stay buried forever, and when her true identity is revealed, the consequences are swift and brutal—she's abandoned once again, this time in the distant, dangerous land of Colchis, far from home and any hope of rescue. Stranded in a place where gods and mortals play deadly games, Atalanta is forced to confront a choice that will test not just her courage, but the very core of who she is and what she's willing to sacrifice. Emily Hauser reimagines one of mythology's most fascinating figures in this vivid retelling that asks what it means to be a woman in a world built for men, and what happens when you refuse to play by the rules that were designed to keep you out. Atalanta's journey is fierce, heartbreaking, and utterly compelling—a story of survival, identity, and the price of daring to claim your own destiny.Publication date2017
- Tagshistorical-fictionDescriptionThis is mythology retold with fire in its veins. Emily Hauser takes the bones of ancient Greek legend and breathes fierce, mortal life into them. The world here is bronze and blood, olive groves and salt air, gods who meddle and mortals who pay the price. You can feel the weight of fate pressing down on every page. The Order of Golden Apple Trilogy reimagines the stories we thought we knew, centering voices that history tried to silence. Hauser writes women as they should have been written all along—complex, furious, tender, strategic. This isn't a gentle retelling. It's a reckoning. The prose moves with the urgency of someone who knows these myths matter, who understands that the old stories still shape how we see power, love, and survival. If you're drawn to mythic retellings that don't soften the edges, that honor both the grandeur and the brutality of the ancient world, this is your book.Publication date2018
- Tagshistorical-fictionliterary-fictionDescriptionThis book does something Homer never could: it hands the Trojan War back to the women who lived it. We know the rage of Achilles, the pride of Agamemnon, the fall of Troy—but what about the women who weren't just prizes to be won, but people with their own fury, their own stakes in the fight? Emily Hauser gives us Krisayis, the High Priest's daughter burning with ambition in the shadow of Troy's walls, and Briseis, a princess of Pedasus whose loyalty and passion will be tested when everything she loves is ripped away. Their stories weave through the familiar beats of the Iliad—the clashing armies, the meddling gods, the doomed heroes—but from angles that make the whole myth feel new and urgent. These aren't passive victims waiting to be rescued or claimed. They're women navigating impossible choices, seeking revenge, clinging to love, and carving out their own destinies even as the gods play their games overhead. The result is a debut that crackles with energy, a retelling that doesn't just fill in the gaps but explodes them open. Hauser writes with the kind of passion that makes ancient legend feel immediate, visceral, alive. If you've ever wondered what the greatest war story ever told might look like through the eyes of those who had the most to lose, this is your answer.Publication dateMarch 13, 2018Amazon rating4/5Print length400LanguageEnglishPublisherPegasus Books
Order of Non-Fiction Books
- Tagsnon-fictionliterary-fictionDescriptionThere's something quietly radical about asking how women became poets in ancient Greece, a world we've been taught to see through the eyes of men who wrote the history, sang the epics, and claimed the laurels. Emily Hauser takes us into that distant literary landscape and shows us the women who were always there, writing, singing, and shaping the tradition we inherited, even as centuries of scholarship tried to write them out of it. This is a book that moves through Greek literature with the careful attention of a scholar and the storytelling instincts of someone who knows these texts aren't just artifacts—they're living arguments about who gets to speak and who gets remembered. Hauser traces the ways women poets navigated, challenged, and redefined a literary culture that wanted to silence them, revealing how figures like Sappho weren't exceptions but part of a broader, often erased tradition of female creativity and intellectual power. What makes this work so compelling is the way it reframes everything we thought we knew about the origins of Western literature. Hauser doesn't just add women to the canon—she shows us how gender shaped the very idea of what poetry could be, who could claim the title of poet, and how those battles over voice and authority echo into our own time. It's scholarship that feels urgent, necessary, and deeply human.Publication date2023
- Tagsnon-fictionliterary-fictionDescriptionHomer's epics are full of women. But history erased them. Emily Hauser brings them back, not as footnotes or shadows, but as the beating heart of the ancient world. She takes the women who were silenced—priestesses, queens, enslaved captives, goddesses—and reconstructs their lives with scholarly rigor and narrative fire. This isn't just revision. It's excavation. Hauser moves through the Bronze Age Mediterranean with the eye of a historian and the instincts of a storyteller. She asks the questions no one thought to ask: What did Briseis think when Achilles claimed her? What power did Circe actually wield? What did it mean to be a woman in a world where men wrote all the stories? The answers reshape everything we thought we knew about Homer's world. The wars, the gods, the heroes—they all look different when you center the women who lived through them. This is history as it should be told. Hauser doesn't soften the violence or romanticize the past. She shows us the ancient world in full—brutal, complex, and alive with voices we were never meant to hear. If you've ever wondered what the Trojan War looked like from inside the women's quarters, or what stories vanished when only men held the pens, this book will answer you. It's essential reading.Publication date2025
- Tagsnon-fictionchildrenliterary-fictionDescriptionWhat do we do when the stories we've been told no longer fit the bones we've uncovered? Emily Hauser's "Penelope's Bones" excavates the layers of myth, history, and archaeology to ask how we reconstruct the lives of women who have been written over, erased, or reduced to footnotes in epic tales. This is a work that refuses to settle for easy answers, instead dwelling in the tension between what we know and what we imagine. Hauser moves through ancient landscapes with the precision of a scholar and the sensibility of a storyteller, tracing the material remnants of women's lives across the classical world. The prose is both rigorous and evocative, grounding abstract questions in the tangible—pottery shards, burial sites, fragments of bone. She interrogates the silences in our sources, the gaps where women's voices should be, and considers what it means to speak for the dead without ventriloquizing them. The mood is contemplative, sometimes elegiac, always intellectually alive. This is nonfiction that reads like a meditation, blending classical scholarship with feminist inquiry. Hauser doesn't just retell Penelope's story or those of other mythic women; she asks what their bones—literal and metaphorical—can teach us about power, memory, and survival. For readers drawn to the intersection of history and imagination, this is essential, provocative work.Publication date2025
Frequently Asked Questions about Emily Hauser
Emily Hauser's books can be read in a few different ways, depending on your interest. Her fiction series, the Order of Golden Apple Trilogy, should be read in publication order: For the Winner (2017), For The Immortal (2018), and For the Most Beautiful (2018). Her non-fiction books explore classical literature and mythology. These can be read in any order, though How Women Became Poets (2023) is the earliest published. If you are new to her work, starting with the first book of the Golden Apple Trilogy, For the Winner, offers an introduction to her fictional style. Alternatively, How Women Became Poets provides insight into her scholarly interests.
A good starting point for Emily Hauser's books is the first novel in her Order of Golden Apple Trilogy, For the Winner, published in 2017. This book introduces the characters and world of the series. If you are more interested in non-fiction, her 2023 book How Women Became Poets: A Gender History of Greek Literature is a place to begin exploring her academic work. This book examines the role of women in the history of Greek literature and poetry.
The books within Emily Hauser's Order of Golden Apple Trilogy are intended to be read in sequence. The narrative progresses across the three books: For the Winner (2017), For The Immortal (2018), and For the Most Beautiful (2018). Reading them out of order would disrupt the story's continuity and character development. Her non-fiction works, however, are distinct and do not require a specific reading order relative to each other or her fiction.
Emily Hauser writes both series and standalone books. She is the author of the Order of Golden Apple Trilogy, a series of three novels. She also writes non-fiction books that explore classical literature and mythology. These non-fiction titles, such as How Women Became Poets, are self-contained and can be read independently of each other and her fictional works.
Emily Hauser has written eight books to date. This includes the three novels in her Order of Golden Apple Trilogy and five non-fiction titles. The non-fiction books cover topics related to Greek literature and mythology. Her published works include For the Winner (2017), For The Immortal (2018), For the Most Beautiful (2018), How Women Became Poets (2023), and several others.
The first book Emily Hauser wrote was For the Winner, published in 2017. This novel is the initial installment in her Order of Golden Apple Trilogy. It introduces readers to the central characters and the world of the series, setting the stage for the subsequent books. Prior to this, she had established herself as a scholar of classical literature.
Emily Hauser's most recent book is How Women Became Poets: A Gender History of Greek Literature, published in 2023. This non-fiction work delves into the historical roles and representations of women within Greek literature, particularly in poetry. It offers a scholarly examination of the subject, drawing on her expertise in classical studies.
Emily Hauser writes in two primary genres: young adult fiction and non-fiction. Her fictional works, such as the Order of Golden Apple Trilogy, are typically categorized as young adult fantasy or adventure. Her non-fiction books focus on classical literature, mythology, and gender history, drawing on her academic background. These titles explore ancient Greek culture and its literary traditions.
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We verified the reading order for Emily Hauser's books by cross-referencing official publication dates, ISBN databases, and publisher catalogs.
Last verified: July 2026
Shelf & Shadows. (…). “Emily Hauser Books in Order.” Retrieved …, from https://www.shelfandshadows.com/authors/emily-hauser