Category Archives: writers

For International Women’s Day: Ladies I Love

I post edited versions of this every year. I add names. I take names off sometimes, not because I now dislike the person but just because I feel like it. I enjoy compiling it but it’s not just about enjoyment. … Continue reading

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“Since when was genius found respectable?” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

It’s her birthday today. I have a beautiful red-leather bound copy of The Complete Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, bought at a second-hand store. The publication date is 1882, with a foreword by Mrs. Browning herself. She died in … Continue reading

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“Silence is necessary to tyrants and occupiers, who take pains to have their actions accompanied by quiet.” — Ryszard Kapuściński

It’s the birthday today of one of my favorite writers, Polish journalist and author Ryszard Kapuściński. His death in 2007 was devastating to me. I went to the memorial tribute at the New York Public Library, hosted by his close … Continue reading

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“I was going upstream, against the current. I was coming from the North before the North had broken”. — John Montague

It’s his birthday today. John Montague has great sentimental value to me. He was one of my father’s favorite poets. I remember being at home – some years ago, it had to be pre-covid (sob) – and Mum pulled out … Continue reading

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“What a writer asks of his reader is not so much to like as to listen.” — poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“He suffered excessive popularity; he has now suffered three quarters of a century of critical neglect.” – Michael Schmidt, Lives of the Poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on this day in 1807, in Portland, Maine. He was the first … Continue reading

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“I recognize no rights but human rights.” — Angelina Weld Grimké

“The ground upon which you stand is holy ground: never never surrender it.” — Angelina Weld Grimké Poet/playwright Angelina Weld Grimké, born on this day in 1880, had a powerful familial legacy. Her paternal grandparents were a white slave owner … Continue reading

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“Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it.” — David Foster Wallace

“Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it.” — David Foster Wallace It’s his … Continue reading

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“I love humanity but I hate people.” — poet Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was born on this day in 1892 in Rockland, Maine. “Boys don’t like me anyway because I won’t let them kiss me. It’s just like this: let boys kiss you and they’ll like you but you … Continue reading

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“Never write from your head; write from your cock.” — Wystan Hugh Auden

W.H. Auden was born on this day in York, England, 1907. I first encountered Auden in my “Humanities” class, senior year in high school. I got a lot out of that class, and I remember we analyzed Auden’s famous most-anthologized … Continue reading

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Substack: Interview with author Julia Cooke

Julia Cooke’s Starry and Restless: Three Women Who Changed Work, Writing, and the World comes out at the end of this month and I snagged an advance copy. I fell so in love with the book I reached out to … Continue reading

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