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Marjorie Garber publishes new book Character: The History of a Cultural Obsession

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What is “character”? How can it be measured, improved, or built? Are character traits fixed or changeable? Is character innate, or can it be taught? Since at least the time of Aristotle, philosophers, theologians, moralists, artists, and scientists have...

Book Review by Stephanie Burt Featured in The Boston Globe

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Professor Stephanie Burt wrote a book review on Rob Sheffield's Heartbreak is the National Anthem. An excerpt is included below: Rob Sheffield wants you to know that he’s now a true Swiftie. “Heartbreak Is the National Anthem,” his slim, strongly felt...

Michelle Kurilla, Class of 2022: Journalism, Book Writing, Research

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I graduated from Harvard in May 2022 with one of the college’s only joint concentrations in English and Government. As I wrote in my application for the Literary Careers Summer Award, I thought that I would have to choose between a career predominantly in...

Michael Pollan's A World Appears on New York Times Book List

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Professor of the Practice of Non-Fiction, Emeritus Michael Pollan's A World Appears was included on The New York Times' list of 27 Books Coming in February. In his latest exploration of the human condition, Pollan turns his attention to the enduring...

New Book Release: Morning Leaves by Harvard Alumna Laing Rikkers

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In the wake of the untimely death of the author's younger sister and isolated by the pandemic, Laing Rikkers '93 produced Morning Leaves, a book of vulnerable, evocative, and ultimately hopeful poems. She introduces her story and explains how counseling...

Marjorie Garber's Shakespeare in Bloomsbury among Boston Globe's Best Books of 2023

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Marjorie Garber's Shakespeare in Bloomsbury, was included on The Boston Globe's list of the best books of 2023. A description of her book is included below: "The eminent Harvard scholar weaves together a meeting of three beautiful minds: Virginia Woolf...

“Obama’s Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books”

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In an interview with The New York Times President Obama shares his reflections on the role literature has played in shaping him as a person and politician, and how books and writing will continue to influence him post-presidency. The love for literature...

Teju Cole's Tremor Wins Anisfield-Wolf Book Award

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Teju Cole's Tremor was one of the winners of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the only book prize in the United States that recognizes books that focus on racism and diversity. A description of the novel is included below: "'Tremor,' a sinuous meditation on...

New Book Release: Philip Pullman and the Historical Imagination by Kristen Poole, PhD ‘96

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Philip Pullman and the Historical Imagination: Seventeenth-Century Literature, Science, and Religion in His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust by Kristen Poole, PhD ’96, was released in April by Oxford University Press. Kristen is currently the Ned B...

Gracia Perala '25 Wins Third Prize for Entry to Harvard Library Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize

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Gracia Perala, class of 2025, and an English concentrator, won third prize for her collection, "Things That Go Bump In The Night: Four Centuries of Spine-tingling Gothic Literature." The Harvard Library Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize recognizes the...

Case Kern's Habitat Featured on Literary Hub's 100 Notable Small Press Books List

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Habitat by our very own Case Kerns was included on Literary Hub's 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025. An excerpt of the book review is included below: "In this delectably creepy novel-in-stories, set slightly in the future, late-stage capitalism plays...

The Unfinished Book: Oxford Twenty-First Century Approaches to Literature, co-ed. Alexandra Gillespie and Deidre Lynch

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