Irene Peirano Garrison wins McKay Prize for best book on Vergilian studies

Irene Peirano Garrison, associate professor of classics, won the 2015 Alexander G. McKay Prize for Vergilian Studies for her book “The Rhetoric of the Roman Fake: Latin Pseudepigrapha in Context.”

The Vergilian Society awards the prize “in recognition of the book that, in the opinion of the prize evaluation committee, makes the greatest contribution toward our understanding and appreciation of Vergil.” Awarded every other year, the prize is accompanied by a cash award of $500 or a life membership in the Vergilian Society. The society was founded in 1937 to promote the study of Vergil by means of lectures, conferences, publications, and reports of excavation that have a bearing upon Vergil’s works.

“The Rhetoric of the Roman Fake” looks at Latin fakes as sophisticated products of a literary culture in which collaborative practices of supplementation, recasting, and role-play were the absolute cornerstones of rhetorical education and literary practice.