Pens and Poison

1 week ago | pensandpoison.org | Liza Libes

In my work at my college consulting firm Invictus Prep, I’ve noticed a trend among my students: no one is preparing to major in English. Now, it might not come as a surprise that English majors—the brunt of all Starbucks barista jokes—are on the decline, but is it not strange that out of a sample size of 25, not one of my students chose to major in English—or, heck, in any humanities field?

2 weeks ago | pensandpoison.org | Liza Libes

Welcome to my first official “Q&A with Liza” video! Get to know me and hear my hot takes in today’s Q&A as I answer your burning questions!For those of you who haven’t heard, I have just finished a novel. I am currently experiencing severe writer burnout (I stayed up until 3 a.m. writing the book on most days), so I will be dialing back some of my long intellectual essays for the next few weeks until I recover from the plague of never wanting to look at words again.

3 weeks ago | pensandpoison.org | Liza Libes

This article originally appeared in The Boston Globe on April 22, 2025. It’s college admissions season, and the process is once again under fire. Several weeks ago, a high school student by the name of Zach Yadegari went viral on X after posting a college essay that got him denied from every single elite college that he applied to. As a college counselor who routinely reviews college applications, I immediately sensed that there must have been something wrong with his essay.

3 weeks ago | pensandpoison.org | Liza Libes

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I’ve been hard at work writing my latest novel, The Leverkühn Quartet. I’m thrilled to share that the manuscript is nearing completion—and I’m now looking to gauge feedback from a select group of readers here on Pens and Poison. The Leverkühn Quartet is a deeply personal work. It follows the ex-violinist Elise Goldberg as she is drawn back into the world of music when her eccentric ex-lover recruits her to join an avant-garde string quartet.