Looking for some great reads? BYU literature professors at this year’s Education Week have you covered.
With so many things to read and so little time to read them, it can be difficult to tell what deserves a place on your to-be-read list. That’s where recommendations come in—and what better place to get them than from BYU literature professors? At BYU’s 2025 Education Week conference, three professors gave lectures discussing the literature that has changed their lives for the better.
“My Five Best—Medieval Christian Poems” by Juliana Chapman
There’s a lot of value that can be gained from studying texts from past centuries. In her presentation, Associate Professor Juliana Chapman (Medieval British Literature) reviewed her five favorite medieval poems, showing how each one can help us build a deeper relationship with Christ. Find her recommendations below:
Dream of the Rood, an early Christian poem from the 10th century, which recounts the narrator’s experience of being guided through a dream by the Cross of Christ. “It highlights culturally specific and very unique attributes of Christ,” Chapman explained. “It can reinforce both a personal relationship with Christ and a sense of what discipleship can look like.”
Stond Wel, Moder, Under Rode, a Middle English poem from the 13th century that depicts a heart-wrenching dialog between Christ and Mary during Christ’s suffering on the cross. “It moves through the universal aspects of the Atonement as well as the intensely individualized, personal aspects of the Atonement,” Chapman said. “Finally, [Christ] comes down to ‘Mom, I’m doing this for you.’”
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a 14th century poem about Sir Gawain’s quest to find the Green Knight. While the story itself isn’t intended to be an explicitly Christian narrative, Chapman still included it for its themes, saying, “This story is infused with Christian principles of grace and forgiveness and what a community of Christians does to support one another.”
A Revelation of Love, a manuscript written by the anchorite Julian of Norwich in the 14th century. Chapman explained that one of the most transformational pieces in this manuscript is that “everything will work out well because God loves us and He wanted us. . . . He created circumstances in which we could become everything He knows we have the capacity to become because of love.”
“Canto XXXIII,” the final canto to Dante’s 14th century Divine Comedy. Chapman chose this last canto specifically because it, like A Revelation of Love, underscores God’s love for us as the driving force behind the universe. “After everything that Dante’s learned about suffering, about redemption, and about hope through all these difficult times,” Chapman said, “the thing he walks away with is God’s love.”
“Five Reasons Reading Translated Literature Will Change Your Life” by Marlene Esplin
What was the last book you read that was translated from another language? If you can’t remember, or if the answer is “never,” Associate Professor Marlene Esplin (American Literature and Migration) says you’re missing out. In her lecture, she discussed several reasons why reading translated literature can be transformational. “We can readily agree that a lot is lost in translation,” Esplin said. “But what is gained when we encounter or read a translation? I think that’s the more interesting question.”
Esplin discussed the idea that translated literature can help us build empathy and connection with others, allowing us to create unity between ourselves and others even when we have vastly different perspectives. She explained, “Any one translation project represents the union or coming together of different languages and ways of viewing the world.”
Additionally, Esplin shared how translated literature can make us more familiar with other cultures and language traditions. She explained the “three percent problem,” where the amount of translated literature published each year in the US makes up only 3 percent of the market—a very, very small amount compared to the amount of translated literature published in other countries. These numbers “illustrate how little we know about the cultural artifacts and important cultural narratives of peoples and cultures that operate in languages other than English,” Esplin said.
To help challenge this problem, Esplin closed her lecture by providing listeners with a list of presses that publish translated literature, including Words Without Borders, Asymptote, Dalkey Archive Press, and Amazon Crossings. “I want to emphasize that reading works of translated literature provides invaluable opportunities to momentarily see outside of ourselves,” Esplin said. “We only truly learn our place in the world by learning about the world.”
“Five Great Reads” by J. Scott Miller
Ask Professor J. Scott Miller (Japanese, Comparative Literature) for literary recommendations and you’ll get a long list of great reads; ask him to narrow that list down to a few favorites and he might have a little trouble. For his presentation, Miller listed his top five pieces of great literature, helping attendees expand their literary experience with great reads from five different genres.
In selecting his recommendations, Miller specifically tried to pick written literature that made him think. “There are some movies where if you just hit the button, it runs you through a whole series of emotions,” he said. “And then there’s literature [that] requires a lot more of us. It requires investing ourselves in trying to understand and figure things out. . . . Great reads are things that have added some value to our lives.”
For Miller, this list of worthwhile literature includes the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Nachtlied des Wanderers II,” the writer Doppo Kunikida’s short story “The Bonfire,” the novel The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, the nonfiction memoir A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor, and finally Ether 12:6–41 for scriptural literature. However, he said that his list was neither comprehensive nor definitive, and he invited the audience to think of and share their own list of great reads.
“What makes a great read? I think fundamentally that it’s up to you. You’re the one who passes that judgment. You’re the literary critic,” Miller said. “Reading is a very personal experience because when we read, we learn things about ourselves that we would know no other way.”