Stephanie Burt, Harvard University
March 26th, 4pm
Location: To be Determined

Harvard professor and poetry expert Stephanie Burt joins us to explain the artistry — and the celebrity — of Taylor Swift. Through heartfelt critical appreciation, Burt analyzes Swift, her body of work, and the community that her art has fostered. Drawing from her popular 2024 Harvard course, Taylor Swift and Her World, as well as from her years as a Swiftie, Burt examines Swift’s particular form of genius — not the destructive genius of tortured poets, but the collaborative and joyful genius of an artist who has mastered her craft. Tracing a path through the Eras, Burt’s newest work, Taylor’s Version, shows what Swift has created, how it works, and why her songs will endure.

Stephanie Burt is a poet, literary critic, and professor with nine published books, including two critical books on poetry and three poetry collections. Her essay collection Close Calls with Nonsense was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other works include We Are Mermaids; Advice from the Lights; The Poem is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them; The Art of the Sonnet; Something Understood: Essays and Poetry for Helen Vendler; The Forms of Youth: Adolescence and 20th Century Poetry; Parallel Play: Poems; Randall Jarrell on W. H. Auden; and Randall Jarrell and His Age. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, The Believer, and the Boston Review.