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Writer's Almanac

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The Writer’s Almanac for March 9, 2019

The Writer’s Almanac for March 9, 2019

It’s the birthday of Vita Sackville-West (1892), who wrote eight novels and five plays before turning 19. She was the inspiration for Virginia Woolf’s novel “Orlando.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for March 8, 2019

The Writer’s Almanac for March 8, 2019

Today’s episode features a poem about maple syrup (the second of that type of poem we’ve featured this week!) by Laura Davies Foley, called “It Is Time.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for March 7, 2019

The Writer’s Almanac for March 7, 2019

It’s the anniversary of the first march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama (1965), known as “Bloody Sunday.” TV footage of policemen attacking the marchers helped to shift national public opinion on civil rights.

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The Writer’s Almanac for March 6, 2019

The Writer’s Almanac for March 6, 2019

It’s the birthday of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist who said, “I’ve always been convinced that my true profession is that of journalist”: Gabriel García Márquez (1927).

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The Writer’s Almanac for March 5, 2019

The Writer’s Almanac for March 5, 2019

It’s the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, which took place on a cold and snowy night in 1770. John Adams was the lawyer who took on the case of the British soldiers.

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The Writer’s Almanac for March 4, 2019

The Writer’s Almanac for March 4, 2019

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated on this day in 1933, and his address included the famous phrase, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for March 3, 2019

The Writer’s Almanac for March 3, 2019

It’s the birthday of Ira Glass (1959), who launched the public radio program “This American Life” (originally called “Your Radio Playhouse”) in 1995.

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The Writer’s Almanac for March 2, 2019

The Writer’s Almanac for March 2, 2019

It’s the birthday of Dr. Seuss (1904), who once said, “Writing for children is murder. A chapter has to be boiled down to a paragraph. Every word has to count.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for March 1, 2019

The Writer’s Almanac for March 1, 2019

On this date in 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American actor to win an Academy Award, for her role in “Gone With the Wind.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for February 28, 2019

The Writer’s Almanac for February 28, 2019

It’s the birthday of Michel de Montaigne (Bordeaux, France, 1533), considered by many to be the creator of the personal essay.

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