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Literature

Illustration of Jane Austen's world
Jane Austen lives on
Published Summer 2025
As the world celebrates Austen's 250th birthday, scholars share what makes the patron saint of marriage plots more popular today than ever before. / Johns Hopkins Magazine
John Barth
In memoriam
John Barth, prolific author and revered mentor, dies at 93
Published April 2, 2024
Barth, a JHU graduate who later taught at his alma mater for more than two decades, was known for his postmodernist, unpredictable fiction and his exacting, generous teaching
Illustration of James Joyce standing in the doorway of a bookstore
Unlocking 'Ulysses'
Published Spring 2022
Learning to love James Joyce's 100-year-old masterpiece that most of us never begin, let alone finish / Johns Hopkins Magazine
90s-inspired collage of a woman drinking a soft drink and a skateboarder
Pop culture
Triple layer literature
Published Fall 2020
Alum M.M. Carrigan's Taco Bell–themed literary magazine embraces nostalgia, sincerity, and Crunchwrap culture / Johns Hopkins Magazine
Book cover for 'Forms of Contention'
Poetry
Lines of history
Published Fall 2020
Alum Hollis Robbins' 'Forms of Contention' investigates the history of African American poetry in printed newspaper and magazines / Johns Hopkins Magazine
Book cover of 'On Not Being Someone Else'
Nonfiction
Less traveled by
Published Fall 2020
Andrew Miller's 'On Not Being Someone Else' explores the existential questions that arise when reflecting on the choices we could have made—and how our lives might have changed / Johns Hopkins Magazine
Illustration of a Muslim woman looking at a burning train
A devastating debut novel
Published Fall 2020
Alum Megha Majumdar's debut novel tackles social status and Hindu nationalism in Kolkota / Johns Hopkins Magazine
Illustration of O'Donnell
Literature
Prose of war
Published Spring 2020
Michael O'Donnell didn't return home from the Vietnam War. His poetry did. / Johns Hopkins Magazine
Close-up of 'A Problem in Greek Ethics'
Classics
Libraries acquire rare copy of seminal 19th-century essay
Published Dec 5, 2019
'A Problem in Greek Ethics' by poet John Addington Symonds helped set the stage for the modern gay-rights movement
Ellen La Motte
Nursing
The 'literary high explosives' of Ellen La Motte's 'Backwash of War'
Published Summer 2019
The Hopkins alumna, overlooked in the Western canon, may have inspired generations of writers who followed her, including Hemingway, Remarque, Vonnegut, and Heller / Johns Hopkins Magazine