1834 – Aleksis Kivi, Finnish playwright, novelist, and poet.
1892 – Ivo Andric, Nobel Prize-winning Yugoslav novelist, poet, and short-story writer.
1906 – R.K. Narayan, Indian author who is best known for bringing Indian fiction to an English audience.
1913 – Claude Simon, Nobel Prize-winning Madagascar-born French novelist who “in his novel combines the poet’s and the painter’s creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition.”
1924 – James Clavell, Australian-born British/American novelist and screenwriter, known for his Asian saga, which included the novels Tai-Pan and Shogun.
1928 – Sheila Walsh, award-winning British writer of romance novels who also wrote under the pen name Sophie Leyton.
1930 – Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize-winning English playwright who “in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms”
1938 – Lily Tuck, National Book Award-winning French-born American novelist and short-story writer.
1941 – Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian activist, dramatist, diarist, and poet.
1942 – James Marshall, American children’s author best known for his George and Martha books.
1943 – Frederick Barthelme, American novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, and screenwriter who is one of the seminal writers of minimalist fiction.
1950 – Nora Roberts, prolific American novelist, beloved for her bestselling romantic works, though she also writes mysteries; in addition to writing under her own name, she has published under the pseudonyms J.D. Robb, Jill March, and Sarah Hardesty.
1957 – Rumiko Takahashi, Japanese manga artist whose most famous works in the west are the InuYasha series.
1967 – Jonathan Littel, American/French author whose book The Kindly Ones won the Prix Goncourt in France.
1969 – Dilsa Demirbag Sten, award-winning Swedish/Kurdish author and journalist.
