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

Father Columba Stewart of Hill Museum & Manuscript Library is profiled

A globe-trotting monk with the Benedictine “survival gene” seeks out treasured manuscripts.

by Nell Porter-Brown

Children's-book author Nancy Churnin is profiled

Nancy Churnin’s picture-book biographies for children span time and space.

by Sanya Sagar

Critic and poet Fred Moten, profiled by Jesse McCarthy

Fred Moten’s subversive black-studies scholarship

by Jesse McCarthy

Excerpt from “Off the Charts,” by Ann Hulbert

Parents and superkids, then and now  

by Ann Hulbert

Excerpt from "Slow Medicine: The Way to Healing," by Victoria Sweet, M.D.

A doctor’s take on the destruction of medicine

Frank Bidart wins the 2017 National Book Award for poetry

Five other Harvardians were also honored by the National Book Foundation.

by Sophia Nguyen

Harvard classicist Richard Thomas on Bob Dylan

In a new book, classicist Richard Thomas explores Bob Dylan’s literary ties to ancient Greece and Rome.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Brief life of Guy Davenport, a polymathic stylist

Brief life of a polymathic stylist: 1927-2005

by Eric Allen Been

Excerpt from “The Wine Lover’s Daughter” by Anne Fadiman

Anne Fadiman ’74 recalls her father, Clifton, in an excerpt from The Wine Lover’s Daughter