March 27 Writer Birthdays

1546 – Johannes Piscator, prolific German writer, translator, theologian, and university teacher; he was best known as a Bible translator and textbook author.

1592 – Jiří Třanovský, Polish writer, composer, poet, translator, and pedagogue. Sometimes called the father of Slovak hymnody and the “Luther of the Slavs,” Tranovský’s name is sometimes anglicized to George Tranoscius.

1665 – Pietro Pariati, Italian poet, writer, and librettist.

1770 – Eleonora Charlotta d’Albedyhll (née Wrangel), Swedish countess, poet, writer, and salon holder.

1770 – Sophie Friederike Mereau, German novelist, poet, translator, publisher, and short-story writer associated with German Romanticism.

1883 – Marie Under, Estonian writer, poet, translator, and archivist who is considered one of Estonia’s greatest poets; she was nominated eight times for the Nobel Prize.

1892 – Thorne Smith, American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction; notably his two Topper novels, which were considered racy inthe 1930s.

1910 – Ai Qing (艾青), Chinese writer who was regarded as one of the finest modern Chinese poets.

1914 – Budd Schulberg, American novelist and screenwriter.

1922 – Barnaby Conrad, American artist and author who was also a nightclub proprietor, bullfighter, and boxer.

1922 – Dick King-Smith, British author of children’s books whose book The Sheep-Pig was published in the United States as Babe the Gallant Pig and adapted into the popular movie Babe.

1923 – Louis Simpson, Pulitzer Prize-winning Jamaican poet.

1926 – Frank O’Hara, National Book Award-winning American poet.

1939 – Leila Kasra, Iranian writer, poet, songwriter, and lyricist .

1942 – Michael Jackson, English author and journalist who was best known for writing about beer and whisky.

1949 – Dubravka Ugrešic, Amsterdam-based Croatian novelist, short-story writer, and essayist; she is also a literary scholar, much of whose work focuses on contemporary Russian literature.

1950 – Julia Alvarez, Dominican-American novelist, poet, essayist, and children’s writer who is considered one of the world’s most important Latina writers.

1952 – Dana Stabenow, American author of science fiction, mystery and crime fiction, thrillers, and historical adventures; many of her books are set in her native Alaska.

1955 – Patrick McCabe, award-winning Irish author whose dark, violent novels are set in modern-day Ireland.

1962 – Kevin J. Anderson, American science-fiction author who has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, The X-Files, and other popular series, as well as work set in his own science-fiction worlds; with Brian Herbert, he is the co-author of the Dune prequel series. He is married to writer and sometimes writing partner Rebecca Moesta.

1966 – Bettina Balàka, award-winning Austrian novelist, poet, essayist, playwright and short story writer.

1993 – Chidera Nneoma Okolie, award-winning Nigerian novelist and short-story writer who gained national attention when her debut novel When Silence Becomes Too Loud was endorsed in 2015 by then President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan.