Books & Literary Life
A New Chapter for Harvard Arts
The Office for the Arts turns 50, and its longtime director steps down.
by Lydialyle Gibson
Guy Davenport
Brief life of a polymathic stylist: 1927-2005
by Eric Allen Been
Oenophile Par Excellence
Anne Fadiman ’74 recalls her father, Clifton, in an excerpt from The Wine Lover’s Daughter
Found in Translation
Maureen Freely ’74, longtime translator of Orhan Pamuk, shares the nuances of bringing a text from one language to another.
by Oset Babür
Off the Shelf
Recent books with Harvard connections
“Kingmaker” to Gatekeeper
Stephanie Burt ’94 is the kind of poetry critic who provokes anger in other poetry critics.
by Tara Wanda Merrigan
In “Little Fires Everywhere,” a Custody Battle Ignites the Comfortable Suburbs
Celeste Ng’s nimble second novel traces a cross-cultural drama in her Midwestern hometown.
by Sophia Nguyen
In Danielle Allen’s “Cuz,” Caught Between Two Justice Systems
Allen’s new book excoriates both the justice system and a parallel universe of gang rule.
by Marina N. Bolotnikova
A Life of Adventure and Delight
Akhil Sharma is less interested in ideology in itself than in politics as a backdrop to emotional conflict.
by Marina N. Bolotnikova
Life Beyond Sight
On Earth, microbes run the show.
by Jonathan Shaw
Leaders Born in Darkness
The Business School’s Nancy Koehn analyzes the personal stakes that propel leaders.