A preeminent Harvard professor and poetry expert explains the artistry—and the celebrity—of Taylor Swift Taylor Swift has become a peerless superstar, ceaselessly productive and internationally beloved. From her teen country debut to her world tour as the chair of the tortured poets department, Swift’s career and her creations have captivated and bewitched us, opening up new ways to see both her life and our own. In Taylor’s Version, the poet and literary scholar Stephanie Burt offers an insightful and heartfelt critical appreciation of Taylor Swift, her body of work, and the community that her art has fostered. Drawing from her 2024 Harvard course, Taylor Swift and Her World, as well as from her years as a Swiftie, Burt examines the purposes, talents, and energies Swift brings to her music and to her persona. She highlights the ways Swift’s work remains at once intimate and relatable, portraying people we feel that we know and people we wish we could be, from the first loves and girlhoods on Fearless through the public and private angst of Midnights. How does she do it (with a broken heart)? Tracing a path through the Eras, Taylor’s Version shows what Swift has created, how it works, and what it means.
Author
Stephanie Burt is a poet, literary critic, and professor. In 2012, the New York Times called Burt “one of the most influential poetry critics of [her] generation.” Burt grew up around Washington, DC and earned a BA from Harvard and PhD from Yale. Burt has taught at Macalester College and is now Professor of English at Harvard University. She lives in the suburbs of Boston with her spouse, Jessie Bennett, and their two children. Previously wrote under the name Stephen Burt.
