Directory

Albert LaFarge has taught at MassArt since 2012. Trained in classics (MA, Columbia University) and editorial studies (Ph.D., Boston University), he has taught writing, editing, and literature at Boston University and BU Academy; Harvard University, where he earned a certificate of distinction from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning; and Wilkes University, where he is on the advisory board of the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing. A former deputy editor of DoubleTake magazine, Albert is editor of The Essential William H. Whyte (Fordham University Press, 2000) and co-editor (with Robert Coles) of Minding the Store: Great Writing about Business, from Tolstoy to Now (New Press, 2008).

In the MassArt Humanities program, Albert teaches Thinking Making Writing and Literary Traditions. He has also designed electives and seminars, including Media Flux: Reading & Publishing into the Digital Age, Masterpieces of Mid-20th Century American Literature, and Creativity in Transformation; and he has taught Thesis Prep II in the Graduate School of Architecture at MassArt.

Industry Experience

• 2003-present – Founder and Principal Agent, Albert LaFarge Literary Agency
• 2010-2011 – Research Fellow, Boston University
• 2008-2009 – Visiting Lecturer, Harvard University Extension School
• 1999-2002 – Deputy Editor, Doubletake Magazine
• 1999-2002 – Teaching Fellow, Harvard University

Publications

Books (as translator or volume editor)

• 2008 – Minding the Store: Great Writing About Business, from Tolstoy to Now. New Press. Coeditor, with Robert Coles.
• 2000 – The Essential William H. Whyte. Fordham University Press, Editor. Arabia Fe lix from the Time of the Queen of Sheba: Eighth Century B.C. to First Century A.D., by Jean-François Breton. University of Notre Dame Press. Translator (from French).
• 2000 – U.S. Flea Market Directory. St. Martin’s Press, third ed.
• 1996 – The Beatles and the Sixties, by Claude Meunier and Michka Assayas. Henry Holt. Translator (from French).

Articles

• 2008 – “Park Benchmarks.” CommonWealth, Winter
• 2007 – “Simple Pleasures” (review of The Architecture of Happiness, by Alain de Botton). CommonWealth, Summer
• 2006 – “The Wit and Wisdom of Holly Whyte.” In The Humane Metropolis: People and Nature in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Rutherford H. Platt. University of Massachusetts Press
• 2002 – “A Clip Artist Finds a Shrub of His Own.” The New York Times, June 28
• 2001 – “Staring at the Sun: A Conversation with José Saramago.” DoubleTake, Summer
• 2001 – “Hazel and the Captain” (translation, from French, of a chapter from Mercure, by Amélie Nothomb), Two Lines: A Journal of Translation

Presentations, Papers, and Panels

• 2016 – Presenter, “Lobster Laughs Last” (on humor in the early fiction of Samuel Beckett), on panel, “What Makes Something Funny? Close Readings,” moderated by Helaine Smith and Stephen K. Wright. ALSCW 20th Annual Conference. Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., October 27, 2016.
• 2016 – Panelist & workshop leader, “Writing, Publishing, and Social Media for Healthcare Professionals ” (3-day conference), Harvard Medical School, Department of Continuing Education, Boston, March 17–19
• 2016 – Panelist, “Literary Agents and the Biz ,” roundtable with Ann Hood and Gail Hochman. Hosted by Goat Hill at the Providence Athenaeum, March 5, 2016.
• 2015 – Moderator, “Adapting Armies of the Night,” panel with Michael Chaiken and John Buffalo Mailer. Norman Mailer Society 13th Annual Conference, Provincetown, MA, October 1, 2015.
• 2015 – Workshop leader, “The Synopsis: Structure, Structure, Structure. Or, the Synoptic Gospel” (craft session). Ocean State Summer Writing Conference, University of Rhode Island, June 20, 2015.
• 2015 – Panelist, “E-books: A Panel Discussion,” moderated by Julie Silver, M.D. “Achieving Healthcare Leadership and Impact through Writing, Publishing, and Social Media” (3-day conference), Harvard Medical School, Department of Continuing Education, Boston, April 10, 2015.

Awards

• 2000 – Harvard University Bok Center Prize for Distinction in Teaching

Professional Affiliations and Organizations

• 2010 – Modern Language Association (MLA)
• 2010 – Norman Mailer Society. Life member
• 2009 – Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers (ALSCW). Life member.
• 2001-05 – American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME)
• 1992-2014 Authors Guild

Connect

• LinkedIn
• Twitter: @AlbertLaFarge

Awards

Boston University, Editorial Institute, James Fitzjames Stephen Project, research fellow
Boston University, Department of English, teaching and research fellow
Boston University, Department of Classical Studies, teaching fellow
Harvard University, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, certificate of distinction
Harvard College, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, teaching fellow