Books & Literary Life

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

America’s Past, Opera's Future: 11 New Books from Harvard Authors

These newly released novels, histories, and memoirs grapple with identity in all its forms.

by Gabriella Gage

Chapter and verse quotation-citation correspondence site

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Library of Congress names Harvard alumna Tracy K. Smith as new Poet Laureate

The announcement comes at a busy time for the writer, who is at work on two operas and will soon publish her fifth verse collection, Wade in the Water.

by Sophia Nguyen

"Poetry, Voiced": diving into the sound archive of the Woodberry Poetry Room

In the Woodberry Poetry Room, a landmark audio collection waits to be heard.

by Sophia Nguyen

Tahmima Anam's "The Bones of Grace" excavates history and family

Tahmima Anam’s Bengal trilogy finds a resting place.

by Marina N. Bolotnikova

Open Book: An excerpt from “Pedagogues and Protestors” by Conrad Edick Wright

The diary of a “unexceptional collegian”—attending class, or not

Joan C. Williams on "class cluelessness"—a book review by Andrea Louise Campbell

A review of Joan Williams’s powerful book on the resentments reshaping American politics

by Andrea Louise C...

Recent books with Harvard connections

Beach reading, the West, segregation, gardening with children, and more

Chapter and verse quotation-citation correspondence site

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

In “Renga for Obama,” an exquisite corpse and a literary wake

Harvard Review editor Major Jackson, RI ’07, linked 200 poets in this verse tribute to the president.

by Sophia Nguyen