Books & Literary Life

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

Portrait of a man in a denim shirt beside a blue book cover for "Gretal and the Great War" featuring an illustration of a leg holding an army helmet..

How Adam Ehrlich Sachs Writes Absurd and Beautiful Fiction

The Gretel and the Great War author on how the Lampoon derailed his science career—and set him on a literary path.

by Eric Olson

Photograph of swimming hole cut in ice

Rebecca Henderson, “Reimagining Capitalism” to save the planet

The Business School’s Rebecca Henderson reimagines capitalism to save the planet.

J. B. Jackson drawing of telephone poles on open plain

Recent books with Harvard connections

Recent books with Harvard connections

At Home with Harvard: The Literary Life

Our editors curate their favorite literary stories in Harvard Magazine.

photograph of Lizabeth Cohen

Lizabeth Cohen Bancroft Prize

The urban historian is honored—for the second time.

by John S. Rosenberg

Photograph by Ken Liu

Ghost Stories for the Apocalypse

Ken Liu’s speculative fiction on maintaining and transcending humanity

by Bennett McIntosh

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

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