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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.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 8, 2022

Posted on August 8, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday two female authors, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896) author of “The Yearling”, and of poet Sara Teasdale (1884), and also of physicist Ernest O. Lawrence (1901) who won a Nobel Prize for the invention of the cyclotron.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 7, 2022

Posted on August 7, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Margaretha Zelle, better known as Mata Hari, born in the Netherlands (1876). She became an exotic dancer after her divorce, and later became a spy for the French during WWI. Suspected of being a double agent, though she likely was just a bad spy, she was executed by the French in 1917.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 6, 2022

Posted on August 6, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

Jane Austen finished writing Persuasion on this day in 1816, the sixth and final novel she completed in her lifetime. It was published posthumously after Austen died of a mysterious illness a year later. A new adaptation has recently premiered on Netflix.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 5, 2022

Posted on August 5, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the 88th birthday of Wendell Berry. The poet has said “Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.” and “You can best serve civilization by being against what usually passes for it.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 4, 2022

Posted on August 4, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

On August 4th, 1792 Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in England. Destined to only live 29 years, the Romantic poet fit a lot of living into his short life. His best-known works are “Ozymandias” (1818), “Ode to the West Wind” (1819), “To a Skylark” (1820), and the “The Mask of Anarchy” (1819)

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Posted on August 3, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

“Much of our lives involves the word ‘no.’ In school we are mostly told, ‘Don’t do it this way. Do it that way.’ But art is the big yes. In art, you get a chance to make something where there was nothing.” — Marvin Bell, poet, born on this day in 1937.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Posted on August 2, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1932, American physicist Carl Anderson discovered the first physical evidence of the existence of antimatter. He would later win the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the antimater particle, the positron.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 1, 2022

Posted on August 1, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1818, Maria Mitchell was born in Massachusetts. She is the first acknowledged female astronomer, the first woman to earn an advanced degree, and the first female faculty member at Vassar College.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, July 31, 2022

Posted on July 31, 2022 - Writer's Almanac

Author Kim Addonizio celebrates her 68th birthday today. When she was asked about the creative process, she said: “What I’ve learned is simple: if you nurture it, it will expand, and it will nurture you in return. I have also learned that it is a kind of salvation. Sometimes it’s more than enough and sometimes it’s not enough — by that I mean one’s own creativity. If you can truly tap in to the creative process, you know it’s there all the time, and then you probably don’t need saving.”

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