Phd (University of Nottingham, 2009)
lynn.kozak [at] mcgill.ca (Email)
Lynn Kozak works on archaic and classical ancient Greek literature, as well as its receptions, translations, and comparisons with contemporary texts. After their monograph, Experiencing Hektor: Character in the Iliad, released in 2016 with Bloomsbury Academic (open-access here) compared the Iliad's serial poetics to those of contemporary North American narrative television, they have also continued to work in television and media studies, with interests in horror, queer studies, and poetics. They are a member of the FQRSC-funded horror research team CORÉRISC, an associate editor of the journal Monstrum, and they serve on boards of editors for journals Humanities and Pnyx as well as for the book series 21st century Horror for University of Edinburgh Press.
Recent publications (since 2018) include the co-edited volume The Classics in Modernist Translation with Miranda Hickman, the edited volume Scapegoat Carnivale's Tragic Triology, and articles and book chapters on H.D.'s translations of Greek tragic choruses (with Miranda Hickman), Homeric fandom in Greek tragedy, the politics of FOX's The Exorcist, how Lucifer's supernatural protagonists subvert procedural expectations, reconsidering parallel narrative strategies between ancient epic and contemporary North American serial television, Stranger Things' (Netflix) "binge-able narrative" (with Martin Zeller-Jacques), the reception of Achilles and Patroklos in NBC's Hannibal, showrunners Robert and Michelle King and their platform poetics, Homeric translation, queer Homeric receptions (with Bruce King), responses to racialised American police violence in supernatural procedurals Lucifer and Evil, and Iliad 17.
Prof. Kozak is the organiser of the annual McGill Classics Play, a member of the Quebec Drama Federation. They are also the co-founder and co-artistic director (with Carina de Klerk) of Oimoi Productions, providing many students with mentorship and creative opportunities to work with Classical texts and performance within the broader Montreal performance community.
Recent creative collaborations include literal translations of Hrosvitha's Sapientia (NYC Fringe 2024), Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus (Centaur Theatre Brave New Looks Selection, 2017) and Aristophanes' Birds for Scapegoat Carnivale Theatre. They are currently collaborating with Scapegoat Carnivale on adapting Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War into a performance piece.
Recent and upcoming performance-translations include Ephemer-illz (with Carina de Klerk, 2025 Montreal Fringe Festival) and Homeric Death Match (with Tom Giles, Theatre-Ste-Catherine, as part of the 2025 Festival du Conte, October 25, 2025).
From January-August 2018, Kozak translated and performed the whole Iliad in weekly serial instalments, as part of an FRQSC-funded project "Previously On...The Iliad"; all performances are available to view on youtube. They also performed a version of the Apologoi from the Odyssey as part of the 2019 Festival Interculturel du Conte.
Pronouns: she/he/they (for press or print, please use "they")
Department of History and Classical Studies Webpage