March 7 Writer Birthdays

1715 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, German lyric poet and cavalry officer.

1769 – Richmal Mangnall, English schoolmistress, author, poet, and schoolbook writer.

1785 – Alessandro Manzoni, Italian poet and novelist whose novel The Betrothed (I promessi sposi) is ranked among the masterpieces of world literature and is considered a symbol of Italian reunification, both for its patriotic message and because it was a milestone in the development of the modern, unified Italian language.

1816 – Maria Georgina Grey, British writer, educator, and college founder who promoted education for women.

1846 – Giuseppe “Peppino” Turco, Italian poet, journalist, satirist, writer, and songwriter who is now most remembered for his verses put to music.

1847 – Susan McKinney Steward, U.S. physician, writer, suffragist, and human-rights activist who was only the third African-American woman to earn a medical degree, and the first in New York state.

1852 – Gregorio Sancianco y Goson, Filipino lawyer, writer, and advocate of economic reforms; he was among the first generation of the Propaganda Movement, the lobby for political and economic reforms spearheaded by educated Filipinos. He has been called the first Filipino economist.

1856 – Matilde Serao, Greek-born Italian journalist, novelist, and newspaper editor and founder who was a four-time nominee for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1876 – Laura Orvieto (born Laura Cantoni), Jewish Italian writer and children’s author.

1899 – Jun Ishikawa (real name Ishikawa Kiyoshi), Japanese Modernist writer, poet, translator, novelist, linguist, and literary critic.

1913 – Sumati Kshetramade, India Marathi novelist and physician; she often wrote about the exploitation of women.

1920 – Katherine Siva Saubel, U.S. Native American writer, poet, linguist, educator, scholar, tribal leader, and activist for preserving her Cahuilla history, culture, and language.

1920 – Bo Yang, Chinese author, poet, historian, essayist, memoirist, translator, human-rights activist, and social critic who was a political prisoner several times on trumped-up charges, once for his sarcastic translation of a Popeye comic strip, which was seen as a criticism of Taiwanese leader Chiang Kai-shek; other charges included listening to a Communist radio broadcast and being a Communist agent. He never knew the exact day of his birth but adopted March 7 as his birthday because it was the date of his 1968 imprisonment.

1922 – Olga Alexandrovna Ladyzhenskaya, award-winning Russian mathematician, professor, and author who worked on partial differential equations, fluid dynamics, and the finite difference method for the Navier–Stokes equations; she is the author of more than 200 scientific works, among which are six monographs.

1922 – Mochtar Lubis, Indonesian Batak journalist, novelist, magazine founder, and political prisoner; his novel Senja di Jakarta (Twilight in Jakarta) was the first Indonesian novel to be translated into English.

1924 – Abe Kobo (pen name of Kimifusa Abe), Japanese writer, playwright, musician, photographer, and inventor who has been compared to Franz Kafka for his modernist sensibilities and surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society.

1928 – Rimma Aldonina, Russian writer, poet, children’s writer, and architect.

1929 – Dan Jacobson, Jewish South African-born novelist and short-story writer.

1936 – Lidiya Ivanova, Russian journalist, writer, television presenter, and announcer who was also a master rower and member of the U.S.S.R. national rowing ream.

1936 – Georges Perec, French novelist, screenwriter, and essayist who experimented with constrained writing techniques.

1945 – Elizabeth Moon, Nebula Award-winning U.S. science-fiction and fantasy author, newspaper writer, photographer, and naturalist who was once a U.S. Marine.

1946 – Daniel Goleman, U.S. psychologist, science journalist, and author of the international bestseller Emotional Intelligence.

1948 – Juan Eslava Galán, Spanish writer, novelist, and essayist who writes both fiction and nonfiction about history; some of his work has been published under the pen name Nicholas Wilcox.

1950 – Barbara Polla, Swiss writer, politician, art dealer, curator, physician, and researcher.

1951 – Robin Becker, award-winning U.S. poet, critic, professor, and feminist writer whose work reflects her Russian-Jewish heritage and queer identity, her interest in art history and visual art, the experience of growing up in 1950s America, and the legacy of the 1960s.

1952 – Sudha Bhattacharya, Indian writer, scientist, and professor whose work is primarily in the fields of Molecular Parasitology and Gene Regulation.

1954 – Carol Miller Swain, U.S. author, television analyst, and professor of political science and law whose work centers on race relations, immigration, representation, evangelical politics, and the United States Constitution.

1954 – Jasmina Tešanovic, Serbian author, journalist, translator, feminist filmmaker, and activist; she is married to American science-fiction writer Bruce Sterling.

1956 – Andrea Levy, English novelist of Afro-Jamaican descent who chronicled the experience of Jamaican immigrants in Britain.

1957 – Robert Harris, English journalist and author of historical fiction, mostly centering on World War II and Rome.

1963 – E.L. James, pen name of Erika Leonard, British author of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

1964 – Bret Easton Ellis, U.S. novelist, satirical author, screenwriter, and short-story writer, best known for his novel American Psycho.

1964 – Alberto Fuguet, Chilean writer, journalist, novelist, film director, film producer who rose to critical prominence in the 1990s as part of the movement known as the New Chilean Narrative.

1964 – Wanda Sykes, Emmy Award-winning U.S. comedian, writer, screenwriter, actress, and voice artist.

1967 – Muhsin Al-Ramli (Arabic: محسن الرملي‎), Iraqi scholar, translator, novelist, and poet.

1968 – Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Nigerian-born, British-based novelist, short-story writer, essayist, literary critic, and editor; one critic said she “writes with great verve and gentle wit, illuminating her characters with subtle insight.”

1968 – Saleem Safi, Pakistani journalist, writer, columnist, news presenter, and talk-show host.

1974 – Beatrice Dorothy “Bee” Wilson, British food writer, journalist, and historian who writes books on food-related subjects.

1978 – Jaqueline Jesus, Brazilian psychologist, writer, and human rights activist.