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Writer's Almanac

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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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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, January 24, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, January 24, 2021

“Half the trouble in life is caused by pretending there isn’t any.” ― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth – Born this day 1862

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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, January 23, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, January 23, 2021

It’s the birthday of biochemist and pharmacologist Gertrude B. Elion (1918), who developed drugs to treat leukemia, malaria, herpes, and AIDS.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, January 22, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, January 22, 2021

It’s the birthday of fiction writer Aryn Kyle (1978) who said “I try to remind myself that Emily Dickinson lived in an attic, which makes me feel well adjusted by comparison.”

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