1868 – Maxim Gorky, Russian Soviet writer and founder of the Socialist Realism literary movement; he was a four-time nominee for the Nobel Prize.
1887 – Dimcho Debelianov (Димчо Дебелянов), Bulgarian poet
1909 – Nelson Algren, National Book Award-winning American novelist and short-story writer.
1924 – Byrd Baylor, American novelist, essayist, and picture-book author whose work won four Caldecott Honor awards.
1936 – Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Prize-winning Peruvian-Spanish writer known “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt and defeat.”
1948 – Jayne Ann Krentz, American author of romance novels, who also writes under the names Jane Quick and Amanda Quick.
1956 – Amanda Aizpuriete, award-winning Latvian poet and translator.
1962 – Nuray Lale, Turkish-born, German-based writer and translator.
1964 – Lisa Moore, acclaimed Canadian novelist, short-story writer and editor, much of whose work is set in Newfoundland.
1968 – Iris Chang, American historian, journalist, and political activist best known for her 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, The Rape of Nanking.
1970 – Jennifer Weiner, bestselling American author, journalist, and television producer who has been an activist against gender bias in publishing and the media.
1977 – Lauren Weisberger, bestselling American author best known for her novel The Devil Wears Prada.
1985 – Heart Yngrid, Filipina romance author, two of whose books have been made into television series.
