300,000 Kisses Queer Love in the Ancient World

A landmark illustrated anthology of queer Greek and Roman love stories that reclaim and celebrate homosexual love and sensuality, from artist Luke Edward Hall and award-winning poet Seán Hewitt.

For centuries, evidence of queer love in the ancient world has either been ignored or suppressed. Even today, only a few narratives are widely known: the wild romance of Achilles and Patroclus; the yearning love of Sappho's lyrics; and the three genders introduced in Plato's Symposium. Yet there is a rich literary tradition of queer Greek and Roman love that extends far beyond the prudish translations of these familiar handful of stories.

In 300,000 Kisses, award-winning poet Seán Hewitt and renowned designer Luke Edward Hall collect these stories—including some of the most beautiful and moving in the Classical canon—and bring them to vivid life. Alongside celebrated works by Homer, Sappho, Ovid and Catullus, they include a wide range of rarely anthologized sources: raunchy poems, thoughtful dialogues, philosophical treatises, and even a graffiti text salvaged from the ruins of Pompeii.

Through Hewitt's contemporary translations and Hall's vibrant illustrations, we encounter relationships that are by turns heartfelt and nourishing, unrequited and lustful, toxic and crude, tender and fulfilling. A groundbreaking anthology that seeks to change the way we see the ancient world, 300,000 Kisses is a fascinating journey through love in all its forms.

Seán Hewitt is a book critic for the Irish Times and teaches Modern British and Irish Literature at Trinity College Dublin. His poetry collection Tongues of Fire was awarded the Laurel Prize and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, and a Dalkey Literary Award. He is the recipient of a Northern Writers' Award, the Resurgence Prize, and an Eric Gregory Award.

Luke Edward Hall is an artist, interior designer, and columnist described as a "wunderkind" by Vogue. His colorful work is often inspired by history, filtered through a lens of irreverent romanticism. He has collaborated with Burberry, Lanvin, Christie's, the Royal Academy of Arts, Richard Ginori, Svenskt Tenn, and Habitat, and has exhibited his artwork in Athens, Stockholm, the USA, London, and further afield. He is currently designing the hotel Les Deux Gares in Paris and writes a weekly column for the Financial Times in which he answers readers’ questions on design and stylish living.