Books & Literary Life

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

For This Poet, AI is a Writing Partner

Sasha Stiles trained a chatbot on her manuscripts. Now, her poems rewrite themselves.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Chapter and verse quotation-citation correspondence site

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Dustin Tingley on the domestic politics of foreign policy

Political scientists demystify unseen institutional tensions.

Harvard public health dean, museum director, more

A new dean for public health, a new director for the art museums, and more

Political theorist Danielle Allen is profiled by Spencer Lenfield

Danielle Allen’s mission to return equality to the heart of American democracy

by Spencer Lee Lenfield

Toni Morrison concludes Norton Lecture series on race and literature

This week, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison concluded her Norton Lecture series on race and literature—and made a presidential endorsement.

by Sophia Nguyen

Stephen Owen translates the complete works of Chinese poet Du Fu into English

Conant University Professor Stephen Owen spent 10 years translating the poet’s 1,400 surviving poems.

by Jonathan Shaw

Harvard alumna teaches humanities at West Point

Elizabeth D. Samet ’91 melds literature and leadership in her classes for the cadets.

by John S. Rosenberg

Jerome Groopman guides Harvard students to insights from narratives of illness

The students in Jerome Groopman’s “Insights from Narratives of Illness” wrestle with the profound.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Toni Morrison speaks at Harvard, on slavery and "the literature of belonging"

The distinguished writer delivered the first of six lectures on slavery, racism, and “the literature of belonging.”

by Sophia Nguyen

Ross Gay Finds the Right Ground at the Radcliffe Institute

What “unabashed gratitude” means for a black poet

by Lydialyle Gibson