Albums APHC Clips Audio Events Prairie Home Archives Songs Writer's Almanac
Writer's Almanac

To subscribe to the Writer’s Almanac Anniversary Episode email, which includes the unedited text and audio from one daily anniversary episode selected from the archive, click here >>>

To browse archived episodes of The Writer’s Almanac from before 2017, click here >>>

• • • • •

To support The Writer’s Almanac Anniversary Episodes newsletter, please consider “buying” a donation here >>>

You can also buy a paid subscription to the Anniversary Episode newsletter here >>>

Checks may be made out to Prairie Home Productions, LLC and mailed to:

Prairie Home Productions
P.O. Box 2090
Minneapolis, MN 55402

(Note: donations to LLCs are not tax-deductible)

• • • • •

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 23, 2022

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Today is the birthday of filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, born in Tokyo, Japan (1910). Best known for his film “Rashomon.” George Lucas said he lifted the plot of Star Wars from Kurosawa’s epic, “Hidden Fortress.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 22, 2022

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 22, 2022

“While the novelist is banging on his typewriter, the poet is watching a fly in the window pane.” – poet Billy Collins, born on this day in 1941.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 21, 2022

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 21, 2022

Today in 1965 thousands of marchers left Selma, Alabama, headed to Montgomery, to protest the disenfranchisement of African-American voters.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, March 20, 2022

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, March 20, 2022

On this day in 1852, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe was published. It sold 10,000 copies in its first week and about 2 million copies by 1857.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, March 19, 2022

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, March 19, 2022

Today is the birthday of Nikolai Gogol, born in Great Sorochintsy, Ukraine (1809). His works were very popular in Russia and strongly influenced Dostoevsky and other Russian writers of the 19th century.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, March 18, 2022

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, March 18, 2022

“There is nothing but beauty — and beauty has only one perfect expression, Poetry. All the rest is a lie.” — French poet Stéphane Mallarmé, born on this day 1842.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, March 17, 2022

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, March 17, 2022

Novelist and children’s author Penelope Lively was born on this day in Cairo, Egypt (1933). She’s the author of “Moon Tiger” and most recently a memoir “Life in the Garden.”

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 16 , 2022

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 16 , 2022

Today is the birthday of César Vallejo born in Peru, in 1892. A poet, he only published two books in his lifetime but was hailed as a revolutionary innovator of the form.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 15, 2022

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 15, 2022

“Literature may come from a specific place, but it always lives in its own unique kingdom.” –Ben Okri, born in Minna, Nigeria on this day, 1959.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 14, 2022

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 14, 2022

Sylvia Beach was born on this day in 1887. She founded the bookstore “Shakespeare and Company” in Paris which became an influential gathering place for English writers in the 1920s.

Read More