Seth Lerer is dean of arts and humanities and distinguished professor of literature at the University of California at San Diego. His research interests include Medieval studies, Renaissance studies, comparative philology, history of scholarship, and children's literature. He won the 2010 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism and the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism for Children’s Literature: A Readers’ History from Aesop to Harry Potter. His latest book is Prospero’s Son: Life, Books, Love, and Theater, a memoir.

All the World’s a Stage

Writer Seth Lerer’s dad loved the theater and acted in many small productions. He was only preparing for his biggest role yet.

Grown Up Magic

What does Salman Rushdie’s new memoir, Joseph Anton, and J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy tell us about writing for children versus adults? Professor Seth Lerer on why one author’s approach of switching back and forth works, and the other fails.