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Books

Telling stories about books by campus scholars

black and white image of an older person's face
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Courtesy Image

Michael Gurven reframes aging as evolutionary success

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bloody face man holding mask and shovel
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Detail of "Queer Traffic" book cover with art by Lechevirgen Trimegisto

Free trade, moral panic and the politics of belonging
Headshot of Paul Leonardi next to cover of his book, "Digital Exhaustion."
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Courtesy UCSB Engineering
Paul Leonardi

In ‘Digital Exhaustion,’ Paul Leonardi shares how to make technology work for you
color portrait of poet robert krut with his new book

Poet Robert Krut on the oblivion between tectonic plates
close up of woman at beach
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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
A hotshot in an orange hardhat, yellow Nomex jacket and sunglasses glances to the right backlit by an inferno engulfing the pines a few dozen yards behind him, with the book cover to the right.
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Jordan Thomas/ Penguin Publishing Group
Centuries of misguided policy, politics and prejudice have primed the land for the unprecedented infernos that wildland firefighters now face every year.

Hotshots, history and the human choices behind megafires
water color painting of small boats arriving to shore
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Illustration by Ishtar Bäcklund Dakhil for Mona Damluji's “I Want You to Know."

A mother’s poem becomes a book about displacement, resilience
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Book on transformation of queer nightlife shortlisted for prestigious award
book cover art of many Asian men coming out of a door down a rainbow
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Top Shelf Productions
Book cover art for “It Rhymes with Takei,” illustrated by Harmony Becker

Star Trek actor George Takei and coming out in 2005
colorful conceptual design of UCSB's sneak peek promotion of it's annual community reading program

Sneak peek: UCSB Reads announces 2026 shortlist
book cover art of oscar wilde and his wife
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Author Louis Bayard is adapting his novel "The Wildes," which explores Oscar Wilde’s family life, for a staged reading at UCSB’s LAUNCH PAD Summer Series on July 10.

Louis Bayard brings ‘The Wildes’ to UCSB’s LAUNCH PAD series
US map breaking apart
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iStock

Could America break apart? UCSB expert explores the possibility
man with grey and black shoulder length hair and tattoos on his arms
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Jeff Liang
Artist and professor Kip Fulbeck creates spaces for people to define themselves and be seen as they are.

What does it mean to be ‘Hapa?’ Artist Kip Fulbeck reflects on 25-year identity project
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