January 10 Writer Birthdays

1814 – Aubrey Thomas Hunt de Vere, Irish poet, critic, and essayist.

1835 – Fukuzawa Yukichi, Japanese author, writer, professor, translator, political scientist, entrepreneur, journalist, critic, politician, and reformer who founded Keio University and is considered one of the founders of modern Japan.

1860 – Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts, Canadian poet and prose writer who is known as the Father of Canadian Poetry and also published works on Canadian exploration and natural history; one of the first Canadian authors to be recognized worldwide, he was also a tireless promoter of Canadian literature.

1867 – Ozaki Kōyō, (real name Tokutaro Ozaki), Japanese novelist, essayist, and haiku poet; some sources list different dates for his birth.

1883 – Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy (nicknamed the Comrade Count), Russian writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels and who also investigated atrocities committed by Nazi soldiers during the German occupation of the Stavropol region; he was related on his father’s side to the better known writer Leo Tolstoy, and on his mother’s side to writer Ivan Turgenev.

1887 – Jesús Balmori , Filipino journalist, playwright, and poet who wrote in Spanish.

1887 – Robinson Jeffers, U.S. poet known for his work about the California coast; he is considered an icon of the environmental movement.

1892 – Dumas Malone, Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. historian, best known for his six-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson and His Time.

1893 – Vicente Huidobro (born Vicente García-Huidobro Fernández), Chilean poet known for promoting the avant-garde movement in Chile and for creating a new style in Chilean literature thatfused many of the contemporary movements of the early 20th century with neo-platonism and the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

1903 – Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth, English artist, sculptor, and autobiographer whose work exemplifies Modernism, especially modern sculpture; she was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in St Ives during World War II.

1915 – Cynthia Freeman, pseudonym of U.S. author Bea Feinberg, who wrote multigenerational sagas about Jewish families.

1916 – Bernard Binlin Dadié, Ivorian (Ivory Coast) writer, poet, novelist, playwright, and politician; among other positions, he held the post of national Minister of Culture.

1924 – Aila Meriluoto, Finnish poet, writer, and translator who was one of the most celebrated and widely read poets of post-war Finland; she also wrote novels and children’s books.

1928 – Philip Levine, Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet whose work centers on the Detroit area.

1931 – Peter Barnes, award-winning English playwright and screenwriter; his most famous work is the play The Ruling Class, which was made into a film starring Peter O’Toole.

1933 – Gurdial Singh Rahi, award-winning Indian Punjabi-language writer, novelist, short-story writer, football coach, and immigration agent.

1936 – Stephen Ambrose, U.S. historian, biographer, and professor whose most popular work was the bestselling Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.

1937 – Daniel Walker Howe, Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. historian.

1940 – Algimantas Žižiunas, award-winning Lithuanian writer, poet, journalist, short-story writer, children’s writer, and photographer who works in the fields of portraiture, ethnography, documentary, and photojournalism.

1944 – Elva Macias Grajales, award-winning Mexican poet, writer, essayist, educator, and museum director.

1944 – Azizur Rahman Aziz, Bangladeshi poet, novelist, playwright, short-story writer, museum trustee, lyricist, and song composer who has been given the title, “Living Poet in the City.”

1945 – Geneviève Amyot, Canadian poet, novelist, and educator.

1947 – George Alec Effinger, Nebula and Hugo Award-winning U.S. author of science fiction novels, short stories, and comics.

1950 – Suchitra Bhattacharya, Indian novelist whose work explored contemporary social issues and the changing urban milieu of the Bengali middle class.

1950 – Thirayuth Boonmee, Thai writer, activist, politician, and political scientist who has been named one of Thailand’s ten most influential public intellectuals.

1950 – Raúl Zurita Canessa, award-winning Chilean poet, writer, and engineer.

1951 – Kang Sok-kyong, award-winning South Korean fiction author whose works explore the inhumanity in Korean society.

1952 – Dorianne Laux, award-winning U.S. poet and editor.

1954 – Baba Vaziroglu, award-winning Azerbaijani prosaist, poet, writer, and translator.

1955 – James Alan Gardner, award-winning Canadian science-fiction author of novels and short stories who is also a technical writer and an educator.

1955 – Yasmina Khadra (Green Jasmine), pen name for successful Algerian novelist Mohammed Moulessehoul; an officer in the Algerian army, he adopted a woman’s pseudonym to avoid military censorship.

1958 – Paola Calvetti, Italian novelist, journalist, screenwriter, short-story writer, and nonfiction author who has written extensively about dance and music.

1959 – Fran Walsh, New Zealand screenwriter best known for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lovely Bones.

1960 – Ku Seman Ku Hussein, Malaysian writer, journalist, film critic, and popular blogger.

1960 – Ioana Pârvulescu, award-winning Romanian writer, professor, and translator.

1961 – Steve Hamilton, U.S. writer of detective fiction, notably the Alex McKnight series.

1968 – Mohammad Kazem Kazemi, notable Afghan poet, author, literary critic, and book editor; among other works, he was written a poetry textbook and many books on Persian literature and Afghan poetry.

1972 – Mohammed Benzakour, award-winning Moroccan and Dutch columnist, essayist, journalist, novelist, nonfiction author, poet, writer and politician; his work has been called, “a literary achievement of the first order.”

1975 – Luis Felipe Gómez Lomelí, Mexican writer and poet who is best known for his flash fiction work “El emigrante” (“The Migrant”) and for the award-winning short-story collection Todos santos de California (All Saints of California).

1977 – Élise Gravel, Canadian children’s book author and illustrator who writes in both English and French; her books and graphic novels focus on wacky and often gross content.

1988 – Widi Dwinanda, Indonesian actress, writer, and sportscaster.