What's Current in

Literature + Poetry

Red covered book titled Crying in H Mart is perched on a brick wall outside a modern white building
Photo Credit
Courtesy UCSB Library
“Crying in H Mart” explores self-discovery, grief and Korean-American culture through the celebratory lens of food and family.

Michelle Zauner’s “Crying in H Mart” named UCSB Reads 2026 book

Read Article

color portrait of poet robert krut with his new book

Poet Robert Krut on the oblivion between tectonic plates
Alexis Okeowo
Photo Credit
Courtesy UCSB Arts & Lectures
Alexis Okeowo

Writer Alexis Okeowo opens Arts & Lectures’ Justice for All series
close up of woman at beach
Photo Credit
Courtesy
Detail, book cover for "Unfaithful: A Translator's Memoir" by Suzanne Jill Levine, Bloomsbury, 2025

New memoir explores the art of translation and Latin American literature
water color painting of small boats arriving to shore
Photo Credit
Courtesy
Illustration by Ishtar Bäcklund Dakhil for Mona Damluji's “I Want You to Know."

A mother’s poem becomes a book about displacement, resilience
open book with Persian writing and drawing
Photo Credit
Courtesy
Persian poet Saadi Shirazi's 13th-century hand-colored volume.

Rare Iranian treasures, from Qajar era to 1979 Revolution gifted to UCSB Library
Sara Poot Herrera a woman smiling
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
UCSB Distinguished Professor Sara Poot Herrera

How to build global community through Mexican literature
Closeup of 'The Book of Delights' with a library and people in the background
Photo Credit
Courtesy UC Santa Barbara Library

Author Ross Gay caps off UCSB Reads 2025 with appearance on campus
man of East Asian descent in stadium with dramatic light
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
Professor Sameer Pandya at UC Santa Barbara's Harder Stadium

In Sameer Pandya’s ‘Our Beautiful Boys,’ teenage secrets are the dark heart of suburbia
historical map of US with text in Spanish and flowers
Photo Credit
Illustration by Matt Perko
Flower picking as a metaphor for rediscovery — professor emerita Víctor Fuentes’ "Florilegio" gathers centuries of overlooked Spanish-language literature from the U.S.

Spanish-language writers and the making of a U.S. literary tradition
color photograph of writer Manuel Munoz standing on a staircase
Photo Credit
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
2023 MacArthur Fellow Manuel Muñoz

Manuel Muñoz wins Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature
Black man grey beard
Photo Credit
Courtesy
Percival Everett, author of "James" (Doubleday 2024)

‘James’ author Percival Everett discusses reimagining ‘Huckleberry Finn’ and Black narratives with UCSB’s Stephanie Batiste
image of book and its author, William Davies King

Theater scholar’s culminating work unpacks masterpiece of the American stage
Subscribe to Literature + Poetry