Anne Rivers Siddons Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Anne Rivers Siddons, born January 9, 1936.

Anne Rivers Siddons was an American novelist who wrote stories set in the southern United States.

The only child of Marvin and Katherine Rivers, she was born in Atlanta, Georgia, was raised in Fairburn, Georgia, and attended Auburn University, where she majored in illustration after initially studying architecture.

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Peter Taylor Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Peter Taylor, born January 8, 1917.

Matthew Hillsman Taylor Jr., known professionally as Peter Taylor, was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Born and raised in Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri, he wrote frequently about the urban South in his stories and novels.

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Gerald Durrell Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Gerald Durrell, born January 7, 1925.

Gerald Malcolm Durrell, was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1959. He wrote approximately forty books, mainly about his life as an animal collector and enthusiast, the most famous being My Family and Other Animals. Those memoirs of his family’s years living in Greece were adapted into two television series (My Family and Other Animals, 1987, and The Durrells, 2016–2019) and one television film (My Family and Other Animals, 2005). He was the youngest brother of novelist Lawrence Durrell.

To read more, go to Wikipedia.

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Antonya Nelson Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Antonya Nelson, born January 6, 1961.

Antonya Nelson is an American author and teacher of creative writing who writes primarily short stories.

Antonya Nelson was born, in Wichita, Kansas. She received a BA degree from the University of Kansas in 1983 and an MFA degree from the University of Arizona in 1986.  She lives in Telluride, Colorado; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Houston, Texas.

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To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.

Florence King Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Florence King, born January 5, 1936.

Florence Virginia King was an American novelist, essayist and columnist.

While her early writings focused on the American South and those who live there, much of King’s later work was published in National Review. Until her retirement in 2002, her column in National Review, “The Misanthrope’s Corner”, was known for “serving up a smorgasbord of curmudgeonly critiques about rubes and all else bothersome to the Queen of Mean”, as the magazine put it. After leaving retirement in 2006, she began writing a new column for National Review titled “The Bent Pin.”

King was a traditionalist conservative, but not a “movement conservative,” and she objected to much of the populist direction of the contemporary American Right.[1] She was an active Episcopalian (though she often referred to her agnosticism),[1] a member of Phi Alpha Theta, and a monarchist.

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To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.

Christina Baker Kline Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Christina Baker Kline, born January 4, 1964.

Christina Baker Kline is an American novelist. She is the author of seven novels, including Orphan Train, and has co-authored or edited five non-fiction books. Kline is a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowship recipient.

She was born in Cambridge, England, and raised in Cambridge, the American South, and in Maine. She is a graduate of Yale (BA in English), Cambridge University (MA in literature), and the University of Virginia (MFA), where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in fiction writing.

To read more, go to Wikipedia.

To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.

Charles Yu Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Charles Yu, born January 3, 1976.

Charles Chowkai Yu is an American writer. He is the author of the novels How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and Interior Chinatown, as well as the short-story collections Third Class Superhero and Sorry Please Thank You. In 2007 he was named a “5 under 35” honoree by the National Book Foundation. In 2020, Interior Chinatown won the National Book Award for fiction.

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To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.

André Aciman Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to André Aciman, born January 2, 1951.

André Aciman is an Italian-American writer. Born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, he is currently a distinguished professor at the Graduate Center of City University of New York, where he teaches the history of literary theory and the works of Marcel Proust. Aciman previously taught creative writing at New York University and French literature at Princeton and Bard College.

In 2009, he was Visiting Distinguished Writer at Wesleyan University.

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Catherine Drinker Bowen Biobite

Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Catherine Drinker Bowen, born January 1, 1897.

Catherine Drinker Bowen was an American writer best known for her biographies. She won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1958.

She was born Catherine Drinker on the Haverford College campus in Haverford, Pennsylvania, on January 1, 1897, to a prominent Quaker family. She was an accomplished violinist who studied for a musical career at the Peabody Institute and the Juilliard School of Music, but ultimately decided to become a writer.

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Connie Willis Biobite

Happy New Year’s Eve from Curious Penman. Today’s Happy Birthday shout out goes to Connie Willis, born Connie Willis, born December 31, 1945.

Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis, commonly known as Connie Willis, is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards for particular works—more major SF awards than any other writer—most recently the “Best Novel” Hugo and Nebula Awards for Blackout/All Clear. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Science Fiction Writers of America named her its 28th SFWA Grand Master in 2011.

To read more, go to Wikipedia.

To check out “Poems in the Key of Carlin,” or to see what else Curious Penman has to offer, check out our Browse Books page.