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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Posted on August 17, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Ted Hughes, a poet, translator, and children’s writer born in 1930. Hughes said: “The inmost spirit of poetry, in other words, is at bottom, in every recorded case, the voice of pain — and the physical body, so to speak, of poetry, is the treatment by which the poet tries to reconcile that pain with the world.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Posted on August 16, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

T.E. Lawrence, better known as “Lawrence of Arabia” was born this day in 1888 in Tremadoc, Wales. His book “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom” (1926) was an account of his exploits as a military advisor to Arabs in their revolt against the Turks.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 15, 2022

Posted on August 15, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

Poet, playwright, and essayist Mary Jo Salter was born on this day in 1954. She counts Emily Dickinson as one of her poetic models, and considers herself a formalist, working with meter and rhyme rather than free verse, crafting quatrains and sonnets and villanelles.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 14, 2022

Posted on August 14, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

The English novelist John Galsworthy was born on this day in 1867. His series “The Forsyte Saga” was turned into a successful BBC adaptation. 18 million people watched it’s 1968 finale.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 13, 2022

Posted on August 13, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

Novelist Tom Perrotta celebrates his 61th birthday today. Best known for his 2011 novel “The Leftovers” about life on earth after an event takes some, and leaves billions behind.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 12, 2022

Posted on August 12, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the woman who wrote the lines: “O beautiful for spacious skies, / For amber waves of grain, / For purple mountain majesties / Above the fruited plain!” That’s Katharine Lee Bates, born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod (1859).

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 11, 2022

Posted on August 11, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

“I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!” — Louise Bogan, poet, born on this day in 1897.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Posted on August 10, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

Minnesota born poet Joyce Sutphen celebrates 73 years of age on this day. On writing poetry, Sutphen says: “Poetry makes the world real for me […] in the end, it isn’t hard. When I sit down to write a poem, one thing just leads to another.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 19, 2022

Posted on August 10, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

The poet Ogden Nash was born on this day in 1902. His work leaned towards the humorous. He said: “Middle age is when you’re sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn’t for you.” and “A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Posted on August 9, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the creator of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers, born Helen Lyndon Goff, in Australia, 1899. She said in an interview: “Mary Poppins is both a joy and a curse to me as a writer. As a writer you can feel awfully imprisoned, because people, having had so much of one thing, want you always to go on doing more of the same.”

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