Books & Literary Life

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

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio smiling beside the pink cover of her novel "Catalina" featuring a jeweled star and eye.

Being Undocumented in America

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s writing aims to challenge assumptions. 

by Nina Pasquini

Photograph of Emily Dickinson’s family home, The Homestead, an elegant wooden building

The Emily Dickinson Museum

Delving into the world of Emily Dickinson

by Nell Porter-Brown

Illuminated manuscript page

Rare books at risk

Consequences of book-breaking

by Diane E. Booton

German author Karl May dressed as his Old West hero, Old Shatterhand

Karl May, best-selling German novelist

Brief life of a myth-making writer: 1842-1912

by Eugene Stelzig

Photograph of the two actors on stage

Playwright Antoinette Nwandu, profiled

Playwright Antoinette Nwandu confronts race, religion, and her personal history.

by Olivia Schwob

Photo of a young boy reading a book

Excerpt from Bernard Bailyn, “Illuminating History”

An addiction to reading

A view of the Frank House study in 1940, with many books and examples of modern art from the 1930s

Recent books with Harvard connections

Recent books with Harvard connections

Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Photograph of Jack Gross

Excerpt from Adam Cohen, “Supreme Inequality”

A thumb on the scales

Photograph of Yangsze Choo

Profile of novelist Yangsze Choo

Malaysian-born Yangsze Choo writes novels infused with the tropical mysteries of her childhood.

by Stuart Miller

An official Houghton envelope with the words: "Memorandum regarding Eliot Hale letters, instructions enclosed."

Houghton unveils TS Eliot letter about his muse Emily Hale

A bombshell letter from modernist poet T.S. Eliot, 50 years after his death

by Lydialyle Gibson