Books & Literary Life

Literary criticism, author interviews, and book culture from within and beyond Harvard.

How Adam Ehrlich Sachs Writes Absurd and Beautiful Fiction

The Gretel and the Great War author on how the Lampoon derailed his science career—and set him on a literary path.

by Eric Olson

The Renovated Harvard Coop

Adapting to new conditions—but books are still a “core business”

by Kristina DeMichele

Life After Brain Injury

Alumna Carolyn Gold on finding a “new self” after West Nile encephalitis

by Lydialyle Gibson

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

Getting Close to the Past

A powerful public history of slavery in America

by Drew Gilpin Faust

Supreme Court Brinkmanship

Linda Greenhouse on the 2020-2021 Supreme Court—and the changes to come

How Myth and Memoir Intertwine

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta ’01 finds truth in the border between fact and fiction.

by Juliet Isselbacher

Namwali Serpell’s Novel-In-Progress

The acclaimed author and English professor will explore mourning and reunion in The Furrows: An Elegy.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Open Book: Hiding in a Tick Mattress

Wilfred Rembert’s escape from a lynching

A Beloved Bengali Poet in Translation

A new book presents a mother and daughter’s final collaboration

by Lydialyle Gibson

Chapter & Verse: Who wrote...?

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words