Books & Literary Life

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

Being Undocumented in America

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s writing aims to challenge assumptions. 

by Nina Pasquini

“Lives in Limbo”—Roberto Gonzales tallies the human and social costs

Sociologist Roberto Gonzales on the predicament of undocumented young people

by Lydialyle Gibson

Callimachus

Brief life of a multifaceted poet: c. 310 B.C.E. - c. 240 B.C.E.

by Stephanie Burt , Mark Payne

Excerpt from Marjorie Garber, “Character: The History of a Cultural Obsession”

Marjorie Garber explores the word’s complexity and history.

Excerpt from Alex Keyssar “Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?”

Problematic features of the Electoral College

Recent books with Harvard connections

Recent books with Harvard connections

Author Gabrielle Zevin profiled by Nell Porter Brown

A prescient novelist is hopeful that “after great change, amazing things can happen.”

by Nell Porter-Brown

Ceridwen Dovey’s “Life After Truth”

How Harvard reunions are cast in Ceridwen Dovey’s Life After Truth

by Nell Porter-Brown

Colson Whitehead '91 wins 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

The Nickel Boys wins the 2020 prize for fiction.

Walter Johnson writes about “The Broken Heart of America”

Walter Johnson’s radical history of St. Louis

by Marina N. Bolotnikova

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

Brief life of a breakthrough astronomer: 1900-1979

by Donovan Moore