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