Guest post by Tim Groenland Raymond Carver, who died in 1988, would have celebrated his 81st birthday today. In the years since his untimely passing, the continued spread of his work – the appearance of previously unpublished stories, new translations in multiple languages, adaptations and homages such as that found in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Oscar-winning… Read More »
Guest post by Edythe Haber “What do you think – will you be able to go and eat soupe à l’oignon to wildly celebrate your birthday?” Valeria Grabovskaya wrote her mother, the Russian émigré writer Nadezhda Teffi, in April, 1952. Valeria (more informally, Valya), a resident of London, did indeed come to Paris to be… Read More »
Guest post by Arka Chattopadhyay 13th April is Samuel Beckett’s birthday. This date takes me back in time to my undergraduate days. I was an English literature student in Presidency College, Kolkata, India. It was there in 2004 that my obsession with the Nobel Prize winning Irish writer Samuel Beckett began. Yes, let me call… Read More »
Guest post by Dirk Van Hulle and Pim Verhulst Samuel Beckett came into the world on 13 April 1906. Not only was it a Friday the 13th, it was also a Good Friday, the Friday before Easter Sunday, on which the Christian Church commemorates the Crucifixion of Jesus at Calvary. To the superstitiously-minded, any life… Read More »
Guest post by Jordan Cofer This March 25th marks Flannery O’Connor’s 94th birthday and if you’re near Savannah, Georgia, Flannery O’Connor’s birth place, you could join the Flannery O’Connor enthusiasts who line up each year in Lafayette Square for the Annual Flannery O’Connor Birthday Parade. They dress up as their favorite O’Connor characters and take… Read More »
Bertolt Brecht was born on February 10, 1898. To celebrate the 121st anniversary of his birth, Tom Kuhn explores some of his unfinished works. On Brecht’s birthday let’s remember how contentious, how provocative and just how contemporary his writings are! Most people know him above all as the author of The Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage… Read More »
David Mitchell is the author of seven novels, including bestsellers Cloud Atlas, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and The Bone Clocks, and was born on 12th January 1969. To mark his 50th birthday, Rose Harris-Birtill sent him ten interview questions on his birthday wishes, his fictional alter-ego, and his next book. A huge… Read More »
David Mitchell is the author of seven novels, including bestsellers Cloud Atlas, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and The Bone Clocks, and was born on 12th January 1969. To celebrate his 50th birthday, Wendy Knepper and Courtney Hopf explore the connections between Mitchell and his characters. In the interview with David Mitchell that… Read More »
David Mitchell is the author of seven novels, including bestsellers Cloud Atlas, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and The Bone Clocks, and was born on 12th January 1969. In honor of his 50th birthday, Patrick O’Donnell reflects on Mitchell’s imaginative storytelling. Like David Mitchell, I’ve always been fascinated by writers who create multiple… Read More »
Rebecca West was born on December 21, 1892. To celebrate the 126th anniversary of her birth, Laura Cowan explores one of her unfinished and posthumously published works. This recognition of West (née Cicely Isabel Fairfield) closely coincides with the centennial of the World War I Armistice on 11 November 1918, a topic central to West’s unfinished… Read More »