Books & Literary Life

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

Woman with long hair, smiling, wearing a black sweater, in a textured beige background.

For This Poet, AI is a Writing Partner

Sasha Stiles trained a chatbot on her manuscripts. Now, her poems rewrite themselves.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Aisha Muharrar with shoulder-length hair, wearing a green blazer and white shirt.

Parks and Rec Comedy Writer Aisha Muharrar Gets Serious about Grief

With Loved One, the Harvard grad and Lampoon veteran makes her debut as a novelist.

by Stuart Miller

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

New Books with Harvard Connections

From TikTok to hip hop to the solar revolution

by Gabriella Gage

Book cover of "Black Moses" by Caleb Gayle with subtitle about ambition and the fight for a Black state.

Civil Rights in the American West

A new book chronicles one man’s quest for a Black state.

Julie Riew, wearing a white dress, playing guitar and singing into a microphone on stage.

Bringing Korean Stories to Life

Composer Julia Riew writes the musicals she needed to see.

by Max J. Krupnick

Renaissance portrait of young man thought to be Christoper Marlowe with light beard, wearing ornate black coat with gold buttons and red patterns.

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

by Nina Pasquini

Matt Levine in a dark blazer and glasses stands smiling with arms crossed in front of a large window in a city building.

Matt Levine's Bloomberg Finance Column Makes Money Funny

Matt Levine’s spunky Bloomberg column

by Max J. Krupnick

Illustration of a tilted dollar bill with George Washington’s face, partially submerged in ocean waves under cloudy skies.

Will the U.S. Dollar Always Be So Powerful?

The preeminence of U.S. currency at risk

Alexander Gardner’s 1868 photo shows federal peace commissioners with Sophie Mousseau, the lone woman at center.

Harvard Summer Reading Picks | 2025

The wealth gap, shamanism, the life of David Nathan, and more

David Leo Rice

David Leo Rice on 'The Berlin Wall'

David Leo Rice explores the strange, unseen forces shaping our world.

by Nina Pasquini