Literature is as vital to our lives as food and shelter. Stories and poems help us work through the challenges we face, from everyday irritations to loneliness, heartache, and death. Literature is meant to mix it up with life. This website explores how it does so.

For instance, at different points it has shown how Beowulf can function as a guide for managing anger, The Wife of Bath’s Tale as a workshop on dysfunctional relationships, Gulliver’s Travels as a handbook for social activists, Pride and Prejudice as a marriage manual.

But literature only works this way if we refuse to put it on a pedestal, which is just a fancy way of marginalizing it. I’d love to hear your own reading stories: what are the novels, plays, short stories and poems that have impacted your life?

Please feel free to e-mail me [rrbates (at) smcm (dot) edu]. I would be honored to be part of your conversation.