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.

by Andrés Muedano

Chapter and verse quotation-citation correspondence site

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

“Time is Now: Photography in Baldwin’s Era” exhibit at the Carpenter Center

Eighteen photographers capture the 1930s through the 1980s.

by Brandon J. Dixon

Image and the Arc of Feeling

Jorie Graham’s challenging lyrics use language to give readers the experience of the poem. 

by Craig Lambert

Excerpt from “Not Quite Not White” by Sharmila Sen

A “first-gen” American explores race and assimilation in the United States.

Casey Cep reviews “These Truths: A History of the United States,” by Jill Lepore

Jill Lepore excavates the history of America, down to its bedrock values.

by Casey N. Cep

Recent books with Harvard connections

Recent books with Harvard connections

Boston by Foot’s “Dark Side of Boston” tour

“Stories the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t want you to hear”

by Nell Porter-Brown

Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon in the Spotlight

Fresh efforts to understand the writer’s history and craft

by Brandon J. Dixon

Laura van den Berg and “The Third Hotel”

In Laura van den Berg’s fiction, the deeply strange is ordinary.

by Lydialyle Gibson