Books & Literary Life
Abraham Verghese Named Harvard Commencement Speaker
Physician and author will address the graduation exercises May 29.
by John S. Rosenberg
Cruel and Unjust
A legal scholar’s harsh assessment of the Supreme Court’s rulings on crime
by Lincoln Caplan
Off the Shelf
Artmaking under duress, designing the UN HQ, Booker White’s blues, and more
Leslie Jamison’s Many Selves
The essayist on isolation, empathy, and selfhood
by Nina Pasquini
On Unintended Consequences
Essayist Edward Tenner on technology’s pitfalls
Bill Gates on AI and Innovation
At Harvard, the Microsoft co-founder discusses his biography—and artificial intelligence.
by Olivia Farrar
A Return to the Beloved Community
Poet and lawyer Reginald Dwayne Betts on Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy
by Lydialyle Gibson
Jimmy Carter and James Agee ’32
Why this “sovereign prince of the English language” touched the president’s heart
by Lincoln Caplan
History and Love in Haiti
Alumna Nadine Pinede’s young-adult novel—in verse
by Lydialyle Gibson
Justice and “Despair”
A critical analysis of “settler colonialism”
Off the Shelf
Recent books about Iraq, academic writing, John Singer Sargent, “eldercide,” and more