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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, May 9, 2021

Posted on May 9, 2021 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the 100th birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mona Van Duyn (1921). She said, “I believe that good poetry can be as ornate as a cathedral or as bare as a pottingshed, as long as it confronts the self with honesty and fullness.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, May 8, 2021

Posted on May 8, 2021 - Writer's Almanac

Poet and Zen practitioner Gary Snyder, was born in San Francisco on this day in 1930. His most recent book is one of essays, “The Practice of the Wild,” published in 2020.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, May 7, 2021

Posted on May 7, 2021 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Johannes Brahms (1833), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1876), and Robert Browning (1812).

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, May 6, 2021

Posted on May 6, 2021 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1935 Franklin Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration. The WPA employed 8.5 million out-of-work people on 1.4 million individual projects.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Posted on May 5, 2021 - Writer's Almanac

Nellie Bly was born on May 5th, 1864. She reinvented investigative journalism with her exposee on life in a New York asylum, to which she got herself committed for ten days.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Posted on May 4, 2021 - Writer's Almanac

Horace Mann was born this day in 1796. An advocate of public education and an opponent of slavery, he said, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, May 3, 2021

Posted on May 3, 2021 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet, novelist, and memoirist May Sarton (1912). Her memoir “Journal of a Solitude” (1973) has been called “the watershed in women’s autobiography.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, May 2, 2021

Posted on May 2, 2021 - Writer's Almanac

The author of the novel “Catch-22” Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn on this day in 1923.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, May 1, 2021

Posted on May 1, 2021 - Writer's Almanac

The author of the novel “Catch-22” Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn on this day in 1923.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, April 30, 2021

Posted on April 30, 2021 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer Annie Dillard (1945). She read voraciously as a child and has said, “I opened books like jars.” Her latest is “The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New” (2016).

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