Books & Literary Life

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

A whimsical illustration of a man balancing on a rooftop edge, wearing a suit and glasses.

The Artist Edward Gorey—and Pets—at Harvard

Winter exhibits at Houghton Library   

by Nell Porter-Brown

Book cover for Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South

The 2022 Pulitzer Prizes

Erin Kelly and Salamishah Tillet honored for “searing” and “stylish” writing in biography and criticism

by Lydialyle Gibson

The seven 2022 Harvard Horzions scholars

Harvard Horizons Spotlights Seven Scholars

Ph.D. students discuss subjects from aliens to infrastructural aesthetics.

by Jacob Sweet

British soldiers and local police searching homes to interrogate subjects during Mau May rebellion, c. 1954

Realities of Empire

A new history indicts the British imperium.

Illustration depicting social fissures during pandemic by tearing of the U.S. Constitution

The Broken Social Contract

Danielle Allen on America’s broken social contract

Photograph of pioneering Wexner Center for the Arts

Architectural Upheaval

A comprehensive examination of avant-garde architecture

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

Tracy K. Smith

Tracy K. Smith to Speak at Harvard Alumni Day

An alumna and faculty member at a new Harvard tradition

by Nell Porter-Brown

Jarvis Givens

Fugitive Pedagogy

Jarvis Givens rediscovers the underground history of black schooling.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Photograph of the Lincoln Memorial

Open Book

Michael Ignatieff on Abraham Lincoln on solace

Woodblock print based on The Tale of Genji

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections