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Writer's Almanac

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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, February 3, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, February 3, 2021

This day marks the 200th birthday of the first woman to be granted a medical degree in the USA — Elizabeth Blackwell, who crossed an ocean to become a doctor.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, February 2, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, February 2, 2021

W.B. Yeats once said, “Never have I seen so much pretension with so little to show for it,” about a young Irish writer named James Joyce, born this day, 1882.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, February 1, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, February 1, 2021

Meg Cabot was born on this day in 1967. She is the author of a series of books about a teenager who discovers she is a princess, “The Princess Diaries.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, January 31, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, January 31, 2021

Today is the birthday of Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe, who has explored parental guilt and shame in several books influenced by his disabled son Hikari.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, January 30, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, January 30, 2021

On this day in1972, British army parachutists shot 27 unarmed civil rights demonstrators in Derry, Northern Ireland — an event known as “Bloody Sunday.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, January 29, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, January 29, 2021

Today features a poem that brings us together in our current pandemic to those enduring one in the past, “Quarantine, 1918” by Faith Shearin.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, January 28, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, January 28, 2021

“an author is one who can judge his own stuff’s worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.” –Collette, born in France on this day (1873).

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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, January 27, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, January 27, 2021

150 years ago a man named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born, better known as Lewis Carroll (1756). He gave us “Alice in Wonderland” and “Jabberwocky.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, January 26, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Today marks the birthday of Seán MacBride (1904) who was both a member of the IRA and the co-founder of Amnesty International, eventually winning a Nobel Peace Prize.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, January 25, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, January 25, 2021

It’s the birthday of the woman who sang “At Last,” “Tell Mama,” and “Something’s Got a Hold On Me.” Blues singer Etta James (1938).

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