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By: Sarah Sweeney/
November 12, 2009
Before Greg Epstein became chaplain at Harvard's Humanist Chaplaincy, he was a rock star. Now he's written a book on Humanism, a religious philosophy that rejects supernaturalism while encouraging virtuous actions and decisions.
Painting pictures in our minds
Nobel laureate in literature Orhan Pamuk nears the end of his six-lecture Norton series on the novel’s durable attractions.
In pursuit of everyday excellence
Stacey M. Childress and David A. Thomas are two Harvard Business School professors who wrote a book on how a struggling school system in Maryland turned itself around.
One of the most extensive collections of rare Chinese books outside China will be digitized and made freely available to scholars worldwide as part of a six-year cooperative project between the Harvard College Library (HCL) and the National Library of China.
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Updike papers acquired by Houghton Library
Harvard University has acquired a massive treasure trove of papers from one of its most famous literary graduates, John Updike ’54, the multifaceted novelist, short-story writer, poet, and critic who died last January.
The story from beginning to end
Norton Greenberger, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has written a book about the hidden world of digestion — and no holds are barred.
The Humanities Center at Harvard is staging a symposium this weekend on the publication of the 1,095-page "A New Literary History of America" (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2009). A centerpiece of the symposium was today’s (Sept. 25) "20 Questions" panel with the book's editors, Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors.
In the first of six Norton Lectures, Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk investigates the act of novel reading and the fleeting “second lives” readers acquire.
Norton Lectures interrogate the novel
Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for literature, will deliver Harvard’s traditional Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, in a series of six talks on novels and novelists that begin Sept. 22.
Michael Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government, has authored a new book unpacking today’s most prevailing political and ethical quandaries.
Harvard’s Houghton Library, home to a comprehensive collection related to 18th century English literature, sponsored a three-day international literary celebration of lexicographer, poet, essayist, and moralist Samuel Johnson, born 300 years ago this year. His work has inspired centuries of scholarship and generations of fervent ‘Johnsonians.’
Child psychiatrist pens her past
Psychiatrist Nancy Rappaport uncovers a relationship with the mother she scarcely knew in her powerful familial memoir. Infused with accounts of treating her own teenage patients, Rappaport plumbs the bond between parents and children while closing in on healing.
Sarah Messer’s surreal poetics
With long, sun-streaked tresses, Sarah Messer doesn’t strike one as a poetess whose work conjures American histories in bewitching, surrealist twists. But Messer’s poems navigate farther and farther from the familiar mainland into a world wholly her own.
Not so elementary, my dear Watson
For more than a century, Sherlock Holmes, the most famous creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, has captivated mystery fans, literary scholars, and researchers of virtually every stripe. But, as dozens of Doyle scholars and Sherlockians showed during a recent three-day symposium at Harvard, the Holmes stories represent only a small part of Doyle’s contribution to literature.
Writers at risk talk about their lives
For some, words are both a way of life and a way of risking life. Last year, 877 writers and journalists around the world were killed, jailed, or attacked.
Arts Medalist Ashbery ’49 charms audience
Before John Ashbery ’49 was one of the most influential and celebrated poets of modern times, he moonlighted as an English translator of French detective novels under the pseudonym “Jonas Berry.” But the self-dubbed “hair-brained, homegrown, Surrealist” poet bestowed his fitting absurdist style to these books, including adding the sex scenes the publisher requested to please American readers.
Harvard has new poetry Web site
On an abnormally sweltering spring day, one would expect to see patches of Harvard students sunbathing in the Yard, not reading poetry inside Lamont Library. But a throng of students, faculty, and staff gathered inside the modest-sized Woodberry Poetry Room on a sultry Tuesday (April 28) evening to celebrate the release of Poetry@Harvard, a new Web site dedicated to all things poetry.
Harvard Review contributors receive literary honors
For the seventh year in its eight-year history, Harvard Review has had contributors selected for inclusion in the highly selective “Best American” series and have been nominated for a prestigious Pushcart Prize.
Jehn is appointed director of the Harvard College Writing Program
Thomas R. Jehn, an expert in writing pedagogy, has been appointed Sosland Director in the Harvard College Writing Program, effective immediately.
Clicking keyboards provide a soundtrack to the semester’s end, as students put finishing touches on term papers, theses, dissertations, and the like. But amid the flurry of traditional writing assignments, there are other projects afoot. Short stories, for example. Screenplays. Fiction manuscripts. Personal essays.
Poet/critics talk about the state of the art
A triumvirate of prominent poet-critics – each with strong Harvard ties – took on the meaning of contemporary poetry last week. And despite a lively discussion, none of them provided a comprehensive definition.
Multimedia Features
Up Close, part 3
In the fast pace of our daily lives we may overlook the details which, collectively, create a stunning backdrop for all that happens within the University. See the inner workings of Harvard's pianos up close, while enjoying a melodic feast for the ears.
Video
4:48 run time
April 9, 2009
Slideshow / Apr 30, '09
Slideshow / Feb 2, '08
Slideshow / Apr 15, '06
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