Books & Literary Life
Literary criticism, author interviews, and book culture from within and beyond Harvard.
Tara Menon’s Debut Novel Combines Friendship, Grief, and Climate Disaster
The popular Harvard English professor published Under Water this spring.
How Harvard Handled the 1918 Flu Pandemic
Fall semester interrupted, a century ago
by Matteo Wong
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.”
“Lives in Limbo”—Roberto Gonzales tallies the human and social costs
Sociologist Roberto Gonzales on the predicament of undocumented young people
Ceridwen Dovey’s “Life After Truth”
How Harvard reunions are cast in Ceridwen Dovey’s Life After Truth
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