The Writer's Almanac
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May. 22, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "What Followed Your Birth" by Hal Sirowitz, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, May 22, 2013.
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May. 21, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Romantics" by Lisel Mueller, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, May 21, 2013.
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May. 20, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "A Light Left On" by May Sarton, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, May 20, 2013.
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May. 19, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Amongst the French" by Paul Zimmer, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, May 19, 2013.
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May. 18, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "All that time" by May Swenson, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, May 18, 2013.
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May. 17, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "May Song" by Wendell Berry, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, May 17, 2013.
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May. 16, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Walking Distance" by Connie Wanek, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, May 16, 2013.
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May. 15, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "A Hint of Spring" by James Whitcomb Riley, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, May 15, 2013.
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May. 14, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Animal Spirits" by Denise Levertov, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, May 14, 2013.
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May. 13, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Iowa City to Boulder" by William Matthews, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, May 13, 2013.
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May. 12, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "I Ask My Mother to Sing" by Li-Young Lee, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, May 12, 2013.
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May. 11, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "On Visiting the Grave of My Stillborn Little Girl" by Elizabeth Gaskell, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, May 11, 2013.
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May. 10, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Land of Beginning Again" by Louisa Fletcher, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, May 10, 2013.
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May. 9, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Blue Dress" by Freya Manfred, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, May 9, 2013.
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May. 8, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Jarring Honey" by Nick Norwood, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, May 8, 2013.
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May. 7, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "on my way to Santa Rosa" by Ingrid Swanberg, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, May 7, 2013.
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May. 6, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Note to My Father After All These Years" by Marjorie Saiser, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, May 6, 2013.
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May. 5, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Dead" by Carol Ann Duffy, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, May 5, 2013.
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May. 4, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "South" by Jack Gilbert, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, May 4, 2013.
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May. 3, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Smoke" by Faith Shearin, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, May 3, 2013.
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May. 2, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Sin City" by David Lehman, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, May 2, 2013.
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May. 1, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "A Final Affection" by Paul Zimmer, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, May 1, 2013.
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Apr. 30, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "A Slice of Wedding Cake" by Robert Graves, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, April 30, 2013.
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Apr. 29, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "One Place to Begin" by John Daniel, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, April 29, 2013.
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Apr. 28, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "A Sighting" by Connie Wanek, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, April 28, 2013.
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Apr. 27, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Journey by Train" by May Sarton, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, April 27, 2013.
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Apr. 26, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Poem" by Frank O'Hara, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, April 26, 2013.
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Apr. 25, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Crazy" by Sharon Olds, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, April 25, 2013.
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Apr. 24, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Pretty Halcyon Days" by Ogden Nash, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, April 24, 2013.
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Apr. 23, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Certain Days" by Grace Paley, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, April 23, 2013.
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Apr. 22, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "For What Binds Us" by Jane Hirshfield, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, April 22, 2013.
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Apr. 21, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Wedding" by Alice Oswald, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, April 21, 2013.
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Apr. 20, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Hard Music" by Tom Chandler, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, April 20, 2013.
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Apr. 19, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "I Will Make You Brooches" by Robert Louis Stevenson, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, April 19, 2013.
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Apr. 18, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Serious" by James Fenton, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, April 18, 2013.
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Apr. 17, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Paper-White Narcissus" by Lisel Mueller, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, April 17, 2013.
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Apr. 16, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Frogs" by Louis Simpson, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, April 16, 2013.
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Apr. 15, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Undeniable Pressure of Existence" by Patricia Fargnoli, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, April 15, 2013.
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Apr. 14, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "This Moment" by Eaven Boland, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, April 14, 2013.
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Apr. 13, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Sun and Rain" by W. S. Merwin, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, April 13, 2013.
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Apr. 12, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Thanks for Remembering Us" by Dana Gioia, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, April 12, 2013.
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Apr. 11, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Wild" by Stephen Dunn, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, April 11, 2013.
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Apr. 10, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Philosophy in Warm Weather" by Jane Kenyon, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, April 10, 2013.
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Apr. 9, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Widow's Lament in Springtime" by William Carlos Williams, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, April 9, 2013.
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Apr. 8, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Threepenny Opera" by George Bilgere, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, April 8, 2013.
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Apr. 7, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "342 It will be Summer -- eventually." by Emily Dickinson, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, April 7, 2013.
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Apr. 6, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "A Paris Blackbird" by Laure-Anne Bosselaar, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, April 6, 2013.
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Apr. 5, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Primavera" by Louise Gluck, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, April 5, 2013.
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Apr. 4, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Up-Hill" by Christina Rossetti, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, April 4, 2013.
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Apr. 3, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "April Chores" by Jane Kenyon, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, April 3, 2013.
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Apr. 2, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Briefcases" by Stephen Dunn, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, April 2, 2013.
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Apr. 1, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Neighbors" by Jack Ridl, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, April 1, 2013.
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Mar. 31, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Easter Morning" by Jim Harrison, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, March 31, 2013.
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Mar. 30, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Spring" by Jim Harrison, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, March 30, 2013.
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Mar. 29, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Meeting and Passing" by Robert Frost, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, March 29, 2013.
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Mar. 28, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "O mistress mine, where are you roaming?" by William Shakespeare, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, March 28, 2013.
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Mar. 27, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Moose in the Morning" by May Sarton, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, March 27, 2013.
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Mar. 26, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Listening" by David Ignatow, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, March 26, 2013.
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Mar. 25, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Morning" by Frederick Smock, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, March 25, 2013.
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Mar. 24, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Demand It Courageously" by Julia Hartwig, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, March 24, 2013.
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Mar. 23, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Fishing in the Keep of Silence" by Linda Gregg, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, March 23, 2013.
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Mar. 22, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Country" by Billy Collins, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, March 22, 2013.
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Mar. 21, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Every Day" by Tom Clark, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, March 21, 2013.
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Mar. 20, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Fiction" by Lisel Mueller, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, March 20, 2013.
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Mar. 19, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Here in the Time Between" by Jack Ridl, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, March 19, 2013.
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Mar. 18, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Sometime Sportsman Greets the Spring" by John Updike, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, March 18, 2013.
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Mar. 17, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Places to Return" by Dana Gioia, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, March 17, 2013.
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Mar. 16, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Piano, New York" by Julia Kasdorf, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, March 16, 2013.
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Mar. 15, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Prayer in My Boot" by Naomi Shihab Nye, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, March 15, 2013.
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Mar. 14, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Goods" by Wendell Berry, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, March 14, 2013.
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Mar. 13, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Twilight Comes" by Hayden Carruth, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, March 13, 2013.
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Mar. 12, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "My Old Aunts Play Canasta in a Snow Storm" by Marjorie Saiser, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, March 12, 2013.
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Mar. 11, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Spring Training" by Maxine Kumin, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, March 11, 2013.
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Mar. 10, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "My Father Comes to the City" by Joyce Sutphen, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, March 10, 2013.
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Mar. 9, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The courage that my mother had" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, March 9, 2013.
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Mar. 8, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Snow at the Farm" by Joyce Sutphen, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, March 8, 2013.
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Mar. 7, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Turtle in the Road" by Faith Shearin, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, March 7, 2013.
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Mar. 6, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Boy at the Window" by Richard Wilbur, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, March 6, 2013.
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Mar. 5, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "String Quartet" by Carl Dennis, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, March 5, 2013.
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Mar. 4, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Waking" by Stephen Dobyns, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, March 4, 2013.
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Mar. 3, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "This Was Once a Love Poem" by Jane Hirshfield, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, March 3, 2013.
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Mar. 2, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Key" by Jane Hirshfield, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, March 2, 2013.
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Mar. 1, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Report from the West" by Tom Hennen, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, March 1, 2013.
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Feb. 28, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Breakfast" by Joyce Sutphen, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, February 28, 2013.
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Feb. 27, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "When I have fears that I may cease to be" by John Keats, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, February 27, 2013.
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Feb. 26, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "In the Late Season" by Tom Hennen, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, February 26, 2013.
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Feb. 25, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Trombone Lesson" by Paul Hostovsky, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, February 25, 2013.
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Feb. 24, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Long Term" by Stephen Dunn, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, February 24, 2013.
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Feb. 23, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Cord" by Leanne O'Sullivan, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, February 23, 2013.
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Feb. 22, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Honda Pavarotti" by Tony Hoagland, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, February 22, 2013.
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Feb. 21, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "No. 6" by Charles Bukowski, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, February 21, 2013.
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Feb. 20, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Musial" by George Bilgere, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, February 20, 2013.
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Feb. 19, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Dinner Out" by Christopher Howell, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, February 19, 2013.
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Feb. 18, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "When You Are Old" by William Butler Yeats, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, February 18, 2013.
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Feb. 17, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Tyger" by William Blake, and the literary and historical notes for Sunday, February 17, 2013.
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Feb. 16, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Woodstove" by Jennifer Grotz, and the literary and historical notes for Saturday, February 16, 2013.
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Feb. 15, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Odessa" by Patricia Kirkpatrick, and the literary and historical notes for Friday, February 15, 2013.
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Feb. 14, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Sonnet 109: O! never say that I was false of heart" by William Shakespeare, and the literary and historical notes for Thursday, February 14, 2013.
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Feb. 13, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "Undecided" by Hal Sirowitz, and the literary and historical notes for Wednesday, February 13, 2013.
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Feb. 12, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The Underworld" by Sharon Bryan, and the literary and historical notes for Tuesday, February 12, 2013.
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Feb. 11, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Poem: "The February Bee" by Nancy Willard, and the literary and historical notes for Monday, February 11, 2013.
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Feb. 10, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday's Poem: "The Presence" by Maxine Kumin, from Selected Poems 1960-1990. Sunday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht, born in Augsburg, Germany (1898). In 1922, he won a drama prize for his first two expressionist plays, Drums in the Night and Baal, and followed those with Man is Man (1926). Brecht was a Marxist, and he regarded his plays as social experiments, requiring detachment from his audience, not emotional involvement. His theory of "epic...
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Feb. 09, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday's Poem: "Bored" by Margaret Atwood, from Morning in the Burned House. Saturday's Literary Notes: On this day in 1964, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, as teenage girls screamed hysterically in the audience and 73 million people watched from home -- a record for American television at the time. Their appearance on the show is considered the beginning of the "British Invasion" of music in the United States. The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show...
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Feb. 08, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Friday's Poem: "Sonnet: Daffodils" by Gavin Ewart, from Or Where a Young Penguin Lies Screaming. Friday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of poet Elizabeth Bishop, born in Worcester, Massachusetts (1911). She went to Vassar, where she really began her career as a poet. Her mentor was the poet Marianne Moore, who taught Bishop that she could write poems that weren't about big ideas like love or death, but just about the observation of ordinary things. Elizabeth Bishop was a slow, meticulous...
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Feb. 07, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday's Poem: "In the Highlands" by Robert Louis Stevenson, from Selected Poems. Thursday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of Sinclair Lewis, born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota (1885), author of Main Street (1920)and Babbitt (1922), and the first American to win the Nobel Prize in literature. He left his hometown in Minnesota as soon as he could. He worked for newspapers and for publishing companies, wrote short stories for magazines, and wrote some potboiler novels and even a few serious...
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Feb. 06, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday's Poem: "Great Plains" by Bruce Willard, from Holding Ground. Wednesday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of the man who wrote, "Come live with me and be my love / And we will all the pleasures prove" -- Christopher Marlowe, born in Canterbury, England (1564). He's the author of plays such as The Jew of Malta (c. 1590) and Dr. Faustus (c. 1594), and he was one of the most prominent playwrights of his lifetime. He was a child prodigy and managed to get in to Corpus Christi College...
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Feb. 05, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday's Poem: "Sonnet" by W.S. Merwin, from Migration. Tuesday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of cartoonist John Callahan, born in Portland, Oregon (1951). When he was an infant, a couple named Callahan adopted him from a Portland orphanage. He grew up in the city of Dalles, east of Portland. He had a strict father and was educated in Catholic schools, but he was a rebellious kid. When he was 12 years old, he stole a bottle of gin during his grandmother's wake, and soon became a...
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Feb. 04, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Monday's Poem: "Celebration: Birth of a Colt" by Linda Hogan, from Red Clay. Monday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of Betty Friedan, born in Peoria, Illinois (1921). She's the author of The Feminine Mystique (1963), a book that The New York Times described as being "one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century." Friedan wrote about what she called "the problem that has no name," found particularly among educated suburban women in the years after the end of World War...
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Feb. 03, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday's Poem: "Learning Italian Slowly" by David Sumate, from The Floating Bridge. Sunday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of the first woman to graduate from medical school, Elizabeth Blackwell, born on this day in Bristol, England, in 1821. She wanted to become a doctor because she knew that many women would rather discuss their health problems with another woman. She read medical texts and studied with doctors, but she was rejected by all the big medical schools. Finally the Geneva...
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Feb. 02, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday's Poem: "Snow Fall" by May Sarton, from Collected Poems: 1930-1993. Saturday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of James Joyce, born in Dublin (1882), who said, "The demand that I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works." Joyce wrote Ulysses (1922) and Finnegan's Wake (1939); an autobiographical novel, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man (1916); and a short-story collection, Dubliners (1914), among other works. He was educated by Jesuits,...
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Feb. 01, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Friday's Poem: "The Present" by Dana Gioia, from Pity the Beautiful. Friday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of poet Galway Kinnell, born in Providence, Rhode Island (1927). His roommate in college was the poet W.S. Merwin, who once woke him up in the middle of the night and read Yeats to him until dawn. After that night, Kinnell devoted himself to writing poetry in the style of Yeats. He eventually found his own voice as a poet, but he named all of his children after important figures in...
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Jan. 31, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday's Poem: "Paradise" by Louis Jenkins, from Just Above Water. Thursday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of Thomas Merton, born in Prades, France (1915). Merton was a Trappist monk, but he was also the author of more than 50 books, 2,000 poems, and a personal diary that spanned much of his lifetime. Merton decided to write his master's thesis on William Blake, and he found himself deeply influenced by Blake. He converted to Christianity, and in 1941 he entered a Trappist abbey in...
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Jan. 30, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday's Poem: "In My Craft or Sullen Art" by Dylan Thomas, from Poems. Wednesday's Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1847 that Yerba Buena, California, was renamed San Francisco. "Yerba Buena" means "good herb" in Spanish, and the settlement had belonged to Mexico since 1821 (before that, it was Spain's). American settlers began moving to Yerba Buena in the late 1830s, a decade ahead of the Gold Rush. Then the Mexican-American War began, and during the war -- in July 1846 a U.S....
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Jan. 29, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday's Poem: "Lonely Harvest" by Margaret S. Mullins, from Family Constellation. Tuesday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of the man considered "the master of the modern short story" and a brilliant playwright, a man who said: "Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other. Though it is irregular, it is less boring this way, and besides, neither of them loses anything through my infidelity." Anton Chekhov was...
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Jan. 28, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Monday's Poem: "Farm Scenes" by Robert Bly, from Selected Poems. Monday's Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1754 that the word "serendipity" was first coined. It's defined by Merriam-Webster as "the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for." It was recently listed by a U.K. translation company as one of the English language's 10 most difficult words to translate. Other words to make their list include plenipotentiary, gobbledegook, poppycock, whimsy,...
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Jan. 27, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday's Poem: "A Little Shiver" by Barton Sutter, from The Reindeer Camps. Sunday's Literary Notes: On this day 95 years ago, modernist fiction writer Katherine Mansfield wrote to editor and essayist John Middleton Murry, whom she'd been dating for more than seven years: "It is ten minutes past eight. I must tell you how much I love you at ten minutes past eight on a Sunday evening, January 27th 1918. I have been indoors all day (except for posting your letter) and I feel greatly rested....
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Jan. 26, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday's Poem: "So" by Philip Booth, from Selves. Saturday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of Jules Feiffer, born in the Bronx (1929). He said that when he was young, "the only thing I wanted to be was grown up. Because I was a terrible flop as a child. You cannot be a successful boy in America if you cannot throw or catch a ball." By the time he was a teenager, he wanted to be a comic-strip artist, so he got a job working for the cartoonist Will Eisner. Feiffer said the job was "ten...
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Jan. 25, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Friday's Poem: "Dead Horse" by Thomas Lux, from Child Made of Sand. Friday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of W. Somerset Maugham, born in Paris (1874). His father was in Paris as a lawyer for the British Embassy. When Maugham was eight years old, his mother died from tuberculosis. His father died of cancer two years later. The boy was sent back to England into the care of a cold and distant uncle, a vicar. Maugham was miserable at his school. He said later: "I wasn't even likeable as a...
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Jan. 24, 2013: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday's Poem: "cats and you and me" by Charles Bukowski, from The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps. Thursday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of the writer who said, "Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope." That's Edith Wharton, born in New York City (1862). She wrote about frustrated love in novels like The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), and The Age of Innocence (1920), for which she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize...
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Jul. 25, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “The Miracle of Bubbles” by Barbara Goldberg, from Cautionary Tales. Saturday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of Nobel Prize-winning author Elias Canetti, born in Russe, Bulgaria (1905). He grew up a polyglot, speaking four languages by the time he was 10, and spent his life in exile…
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Jul. 24, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “Miles: Prince of Darkness” by Philip S. Bryant, from Stompin’ at The Grand Terrace: A Jazz Memoir in Verse. Friday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of French novelist Alexandre Dumas, born in Villers-Cotterts, France (1802). He wrote swashbuckling adventure novels like The Three Musketeers (1844) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1844)…
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Jul. 23, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “Soundings” by Joyce Sutphen, from Naming the Stars. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of crime novelist Raymond Chandler, born in Chicago, Illinois (1888). He’s known for his novels about the private detective Philip Marlow, such as The Big Sleep (1939) and The Long Goodbye (1954). He’s one of the originators of hardboiled detective fiction, and he’s known more for the style and atmosphere of his novels than his plots…
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Jul. 22, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “Fault” by Ron Koertge, from Geography of the Forehead. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of novelist Tom Robbins, born in Blowing Rock, North Carolina (1936). He’s known for novels such as Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976), Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994), and Villa Incognito (2003). He says that when he starts a book, he has no idea of what the story will be. He never outlines and never revises. He just works on each sentence until he thinks it’s perfect,…
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Jul. 21, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday’s Poem: “Advice to Young Poets” by Martn Espada, from The Republic of Poetry. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1855 that Ralph Waldo Emerson sent Walt Whitman a letter to “greet” him “at the beginning of a great career.” Whitman had just self-published the first edition of Leaves of Grass earlier in the year…
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Jul. 20, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Monday’s Poem: “Money” by John Updike, from Americana and Other Poems. Monday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1798 that William Wordsworth wrote one of his greatest poems, which he called “Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey on revisiting the banks of the Wye Valley during a tour, July 13, 1798.” The poem is now referred to as “Tintern Abbey.”..
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Jul. 19, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday’s Poem: “Respite” by Jane Hirshfield, from The Lives of the Heart. Sunday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1799 that French soldiers discovered a slab of rock — about 4 feet high and 2 and half feet wide, 11 inches thick and weighing 1,700 pounds, and containing some writing in three different languages — at a port town on Egypt’s Mediterranean Coast…
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Jul. 18, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “Cantaloupe” by Lee Robinson, from Hearsay. Saturday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of journalist Hunter S. Thompson, born in Louisville, Kentucky (1937). After the California attorney general issued a report in 1964 on a dangerous new motorcycle gang known as the Hell’s Angels, Thompson was hired by The Nation magazine to write a brief investigative article about the gang…
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Jul. 17, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “Sober Song” by Barton Sutter, from Farwell to the Starlight in Whiskey. Friday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of American mystery writer Erle Stanley Gardner, born in Malden, Massachusetts (1889). He wrote more than 80 mystery novels featuring the brilliant lawyer Perry Mason. He’s one of the best-selling American authors of all time…
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Jul. 16, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “Milk” by Barton Sutter, from Farwell to the Starlight in Whiskey. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1951 that J.D. Salinger’s first and only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was published. It has gone on to sell more than 65 million copies…
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Jul. 15, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “Blue Suburban” by Howard Nemerov, from The Selected Poems of Howard Nemerov. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1889 that The Wall Street Journal was founded. In 1882, three journalists who were interested in finances — Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser — founded a little company called Dow, Jones & Company. They started hand-writing daily news bulletins, which they called “flimsies,” and delivered to customers each afternoon, and the next…
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Jul. 14, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday’s Poem: “Latina Worker” by Doren Robbins, from My Piece of the Puzzle. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: Today is Bastille Day. It’s France’s national holiday that commemorates the storming of the Bastille in 1789…
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Jul. 13, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Monday’s Poem: “Money” by John Updike, from Americana and Other Poems. Monday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1798 that William Wordsworth wrote one of his greatest poems, which he called “Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey on revisiting the banks of the Wye Valley during a tour, July 13, 1798.” The poem is now referred to as “Tintern Abbey.”..
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Jul. 12, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday’s Poem: “Black Islands” by Martin Espada, from The Republic of Poetry. Sunday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of the man who said: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” That’s Henry David Thoreau, born David Henry Thoreau in Concord, Massachusetts (1817)…
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Jul. 11, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “Pink and White” by Deborah Garrison, from The Second Child. Saturday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of the essayist and children’s writer E.B. White, born Elwin Brooks White in Mount Vernon, New York (1899). E.B. White said, “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”..
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Jul. 10, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “To A High School Senior” by Pat Schneider, from Long Way Home. Friday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of a man whose entire reputation is built on one novel that is more than 3,000 pages long: Marcel Proust, born in Auteuil, France (1871)…
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Jul. 09, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “The Place I Want To Get Back To” by Mary Oliver, from Thirst. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It is the birthday of British Gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe, born in London (1764). Her most famous novel was The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), which is probably best remembered today because it is the book that Jane Austen satirized in Northanger Abbey (1818). Austen’s heroine, Catherine Morland, is so caught up in The Mysteries of Udolpho that she starts to think of herself as a Gothic…
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Jul. 08, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “Blue Suburban” by Howard Nemerov, from The Selected Poems of Howard Nemerov. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1889 that The Wall Street Journal was founded. In 1882, three journalists who were interested in finances — Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser — founded a little company called Dow, Jones & Company. They started hand-writing daily news bulletins, which they called “flimsies,” and delivered to customers each afternoon, and the next…
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Jul. 07, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday’s Poem: “Lonely Lake” by Joyce Kennedy, from Ghost Lamp. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of painter Marc Chagall, born in Vitebsk, Russia (1887), the eldest of nine children in a poor Jewish family. He wanted to be an artist, and he moved to St. Petersburg, where he failed his first entrance exams but eventually got accepted to art school. He went on to become a famous painter, known for his bright, dreamlike scenes. He said, “I work in whatever medium likes me at the…
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Jul. 06, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Monday’s Poem: “The Effort” by Billy Collins, from Ballistics. Monday’s Literary Notes: On this day in 1613, the Globe Theatre burned down. It was built by Shakespeare’s acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, in 1599. A cannon was fired during a performance of Henry VIII to mark the King’s entrance, the thatched roof caught fire, and the whole theater was lost in an hour…
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Jul. 05, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday’s Poem: “A Warm Summer in San Francisco” by Carolyn Miller, from Light, Moving. Sunday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of French writer and artist Jean Cocteau, born in Maisons-Laffitte, France (1889), who hung out with Picasso, Proust, and Erik Satie. Cocteau was nicknamed “the Frivolous Prince” after the title of a poetry collection he’d published at age 21. Cocteau called poetry the foundation of art, and a “religion without hope.”..
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Jul. 04, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “Highway Hypothesis” by Maxine Kumin, from The Long Marriage. Saturday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1931 that James Joyce and Nora Barnacle went down to a courthouse in London and got married. Joyce was 49 years old, and Nora was 47. The two had eloped more than a quarter of a century before…
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Jul. 03, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “At the Airport Baggage Claim” by Charles Darling, from The Saints of Diminshed Capacity. Friday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of Franz Kafka, born in Prague (1883). Kafka’s best-known work is The Metamorphosis, which begins, “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning after disturbing dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous bug.”..
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Jul. 02, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “Terms of Endearment” by Sue Ellen Thompson, from The Leaving: New and Selected Poems. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse, born in Calw, a village in the Black Forest of Germany (1877). He’s the author of the novels Siddhartha (1922), Steppenwolf (1929), and The Glass Bead Game (1943), as well as a large body of poetry…
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Jul. 01, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “Advice to a Pregnant Daughter-in-Law” by Charles Darling, from The Saints of Diminished Capacity. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of grammarian William Strunk Jr., born in Cincinnati, Ohio (1869). He was a professor at Cornell University for 46 years, and during that time, he created the “little book” known as The Elements of Style (1918) in order to make it easier to grade his students’ composition papers…
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Jun. 30, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday’s Poem: “The Lonely Shoe Lying on the Road” by Muriel Spark, from All The Poems of Muriel Spark. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1936 that Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind was first published…
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Jun. 29, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Monday’s Poem: “The Effort” by Billy Collins, from Ballistics. Monday’s Literary Notes: On this day in 1613, the Globe Theatre burned down. It was built by Shakespeare’s acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, in 1599. A cannon was fired during a performance of Henry VIII to mark the King’s entrance, the thatched roof caught fire, and the whole theater was lost in an hour…
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Jun. 28, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday’s Poem: “The VCCA Fellows Visit the Holiness Baptist Church, Amherst, Virginia” by Barbara Crooker, from Line Dance. Sunday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of novelist Mark Helprin, born on this day in 1947, who wrote short stories and novels that won all sorts of awards, including Ellis Island and Other Stories (1981), Winter’s Tale (1983), and Freddy and Fredericka (2005). He also wrote three books for children, all illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg: Swan Lake (1989), A City in…
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Jun. 27, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “Meditation on the Word Need” by Linda Rodriguez, from Heart’s Migration. Saturday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day that respected scientist James Smithson died. He was born in England, the illegitimate son of a British nobleman and his mistress. He didn’t marry or have any children, so when he died in 1829, he left all his money to his nephew, and he wrote in his will that if his nephew died without any heirs, the money would go “to the United States of America, to...
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Jun. 26, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “Rapture” by Richard Jones, from The Blessing: New and Selected Poems. Friday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of a man who wrote a book about a horse, and the stallion he created became one of the most famous horses of all time, real of fictional: Walter Farley, born in Syracuse, New York (1916), the author of The Black Stallion (1941)…
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Jun. 25, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “—The Book” by Fred Andrele, from Love Life. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of the novelist and essayist George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair in Bengal, India (1903). He said, “Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.”..
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Jun. 24, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “The Genius of Small-town America” by Norman Williams, from The Unlovely Child. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of boxer Jack Dempsey, born in Manassa, Colorado (1895). Dempsey dropped out of elementary school to work, and left home when he was 16. He traveled in hobo camps, and soon he realized that he was a good fighter, and he started making a name for himself in Colorado mining towns, calling himself “Kid Blackie.” He went on to become the world...
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Jun. 23, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday’s Poem: “The Sun Grows In Your Smile” by Linda Rodriguez, from Hearts Migration. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1868 that the typewriter was patented, by Christopher Sholes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ernest Hemingway loved his Royal typewriter. Hunter S. Thompson wrote on a red IBM Selectric. Jack Kerouac was fast at typing, and it frustrated him to have to change the paper so often. So he took long sheets of drawing paper, trimmed them to fit in the machine, and wrote…
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Jun. 22, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Monday’s Poem: “Flannery’s Angel” by Charles Wright, from Sestets: Poems. Monday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa, born in Kashiwabara, Japan (1763). He’s one of the masters of the Japanese form of poetry called haiku, which uses 17 Japanese characters broken into three distinct units. By the end of his life, he had written more than 20,000 haiku celebrating the small wonders of everyday life…
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Jun. 21, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday’s Poem: “Rendezvous” by Ted McMahon, from The Uses of Imperfection. Sunday’s Literary Notes: Today is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the first official day of summer and the longest day (and shortest night) of the year. It’s also the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere; it’s the shortest day of the year today in countries like Australia, Argentina, and South Africa. Down there, the summer solstice is in December…
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Jun. 20, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “Wild Peavines” by Robert Morgan, from Wild Peavines. Saturday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of poet and novelist Vikram Seth, born in Calcutta, India (1952). Seth’s native language is Hindi. He writes in English, and he’s fluent in Mandarin and Urdu, Pakistan’s national language. He’s also studied Welsh, German, and French. He plays the cello and the Indian flute, and he sings German lieder…
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Jun. 19, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “Questions” by Stephen Dunn, from Local Visitations. Friday’s Literary Notes: Today is the birthday of novelist Salman Rushdie, born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India (1947). Rushdie is the author of a travelogue, The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (1987), as well as the novel The Satanic Verses (1988), which caused an enormous amount of controversy and forced Rushdie into hiding after Islamic extremists issued a fatwa death sentence upon him…
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Jun. 18, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “Old In The City” by Anne Porter, from Living Things Collected Poems. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1983 that Dr. Sally Ride became the first woman in space, aboard the Challenger for a six-day mission. She said: “The thing that I’ll remember most about the flight is that it was fun. In fact, I’m sure it was the most fun I’ll ever have in my life.”..
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Jun. 17, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “Farewell to Teaching” by George Johnston, from The Essential George Johnston. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of graphic artist M. C. Escher, born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands (1898), best known for his drawings that contain tessellations, or interlocking shapes. His work is sometimes featured on men’s suit neckties. He said, “Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?” And, “We adore chaos because we love to produce order.”..
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Jun. 16, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday’s Poem: Excerpt from, “Ulysses, ” by James Joyce. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of journalist John Howard Griffin, born in Dallas, Texas (1920), best known for his book Black Like Me (1961). It’s a nonfiction account of the experiences he (a white Southerner) had while traveling around the Deep South disguised as a black man…
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Jun. 15, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Monday’s Poem: “Summer Cottage” by Anne Porter, from Living Things Collected Poems. Monday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, born in Richland Center, Wisconsin (1867). He designed houses and buildings that complemented the place they were built in. He said, “The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.” And, “I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.”..
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Jun. 14, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday’s Poem: “Yard Sale” by Jane Kenyon, from Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. Sunday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of the screenwriter Diablo Cody, born Brook Busey in Lemont, Illinois (1978). She started a popular blog about life as a stripper, and a talent agent came across it and helped her publish her memoir: Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper (2005). Then he suggested that she write a screenplay, and in just a couple of months sitting with her laptop in...
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Jun. 13, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “The Great Poem” by Lawrence Raab, from The History of Forgetting. Saturday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of the South Korean diplomat Ban Ki-Moon, born in a farming village in North Chungcheong Province, South Korea (1944). He is the current Secretary-General of the United Nations…
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Jun. 12, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “Fifties Music” by Leslie Monsour, from The Alarming Beauty of the Sky. Friday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of the Johanna Spyri, born in the village of Hirzel, Switzerland, in the year 1827. She wrote many stories and novels for children, but she’s best known as the author of Heidi. Heidi is a plucky young orphan who goes to live with her stern grandfather in the Alps, where she drinks goat milk and sleeps in a hayloft and becomes friends with the goatherd, Peter....
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Jun. 11, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “Horses At Midnight Without A Moon” by Jack Gilbert, from Refusing Heaven. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1935 that listeners first heard FM radio, when the American inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong gave a demonstration in Alpine, New Jersey. FM was much clearer than AM. Armstrong demonstrated it by playing classical music and the sound of water being poured…
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Jun. 10, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “Annual” by Robyn Sarah, from A Day’s Grace: Poems 1997-2002. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of Judy Garland, born Frances Ethel Gumm in 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, where her father operated the only movie theater in town. She starred in The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet Me In St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948), and many more movies…
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Jun. 09, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday’s Poem: “A Plea For Mercy” by Anne Porter, from Living Things Collected Poems. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of playwright and screenwriter George Axelrod, born in New York City (1922). He’s the author of The Seven Year Itch (1952) and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1955), and he wrote the screenplays for Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962)…
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Jun. 08, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Monday’s Poem: “Summer Cottage” by Anne Porter, from Living Things Collected Poems. Monday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, born in Richland Center, Wisconsin (1867). He designed houses and buildings that complemented the place they were built in. He said, “The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.” And, “I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.”..
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Jun. 07, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday’s Poem: “To Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick. Sunday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of poet and novelist Louise Erdrich, born in Little Falls, Minnesota (1954). She’s best known for her series of four books that follow three generations of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota during the 20th century: Love Medicine (1984), The Beet Queen (1986), Tracks (1988), and The Bingo Palace (1994)…
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Jun. 06, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “Reverence” by Julie Cadwallader-Staub, from Friends Journal Saturday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of poet Maxine Kumin, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1925). She’s the author of many poetry collections, including Up Country (1972), which won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, and The Long Marriage (2001)…
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Jun. 05, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “Dragonflies at Dawn” by David Allen Sullivan, from Strong-Armed Angels. Friday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1723 that Adam Smith, the economist who invented the idea of free trade, was baptized in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. He wrote, “[We are] led by an invisible hand … without knowing it, without intending it, [to] advance the interest of the society.”..
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Jun. 04, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “Aperture” by Gary Short, from 10 Moons and 13 Horses. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1917 that the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded. The New York Times holds the all-time record for number of Pulitzer Prizes received. The paper has collectively won 101 Pulitzers…
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Jun. 03, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “The Ordinary” by Kirsten Dierking, from Northern Oracle. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of novelist Larry McMurtry, born in Wichita Falls, Texas (1936). His novel Lonesome Dove came out in 1985, became a huge best seller and a TV mini series, and it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction…
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Jun. 02, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday’s Poem: “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of British poet and novelist Thomas Hardy, born in Higher Brocklehampton, in Dorset (1840). His last two novels, Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895), are considered his best. Irving Howe said that “Tess is that rare creature in literature: goodness made interesting.”..
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Jun. 01, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Monday’s Poem: “Four Kinds of Lilacs” by Leo Dangel, from Home from the Field: Collected Poems. Monday’s Literary Notes: Today’s the birthday of Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe — born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles, California (1926) — who said, “I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.”..
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May. 31, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday’s Poem: “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman. Sunday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of Walt Whitman, born at West Hills, Long Island (1819). In 1855, Whitman self-published the first edition of his Leaves of Grass. It contained 12 poems, including “Song of Myself,” and was 95 pages long…
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May. 30, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “Night Poem” by Margaret Atwood, from Selected Poems II: Poems Selected & New 1976-1986 Saturday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1431 that Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France. In the centuries that have passed, she’s become a national icon in France. She is to the national identity of France, novelist Julian Barnes notes, what Robin Hood is to England…
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May. 29, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “Progress Does Not Always Come Easy” by Jimmy Carter, from Always A Reckoning. Friday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of novelist T(erence) H(anbury) White, born in 1906 in Bombay, India, educated at Cambridge, and best known for his novels about the Arthurian legend: The Once and Future King (1958) and the children’s classic The Sword in the Stone (1937)…
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May. 28, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “Lyrical” by Joseph Millar, from Fortune. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of Irish novelist Maeve Binchy, born in Dalkey, Ireland (1940). She’s the author of 15 novels, nearly all of which have been best sellers. In 2000, Brits ranked Binchy as their sixth-favorite writer of all time, putting her ahead of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and William Shakespeare. When an interviewer told her about this, Binchy replied: “A lot of my sales are at airports. You are not…
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May. 27, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “Counting the Mad” by Donald Justice, from New and Selected Poems. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of novelist and short-story writer John Cheever, born in Quincy, Massachusetts (1912). His most famous stories include “The Enormous Radio,” “Goodbye, My Brother,” “The Five-Forty-Eight,” “The Country Husband,” and “The Swimmer.”..
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May. 26, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday’s Poem: “Mingus at the Showplace” by William Matthews, from Time and Money: New Poems Tuesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of playwright Lorraine Hansberry, born in Chicago, Illinois (1930). She’s best known for her play A Raisin in the Sun (1959), about an African-American family living on the South Side of Chicago. She wrote it when she was 28 years old, and it was the first play produced on Broadway that was written by a black woman…
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May. 25, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Monday’s Poem: “Evening” by Jo McDougall, from Dirt. Monday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of comedian Tina Fey, born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (1970). She worked with The Second City improve troupe, then as an actor and writer on Saturday Night Live, and went on to create her own TV series, 30 Rock. But she returned to SNL during the 2008 election to do a series of extremely popular impersonations of Governor Sarah Palin…
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May. 24, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday’s Poem: “Among the Things He Does Not Deserve” by Dan Albergotti, from The Boatloads. Sunday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of the man who just released his 33rd studio album, Together Through Life: Bob Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota (1941)…
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May. 23, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “Driving West in 1970” by Robert Bly, from Eating the Honey of Words. Saturday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of essayist and conservationist Paul Gruchow, born in Montevideo, Minnesota (1947), who wrote books of essays about the farm where he grew up and the landscape of Minnesota, including The Necessity of Empty Places (1988) and Grass Roots: the Universe of Home (1995)…
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May. 22, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “Rock Tea” by Gary Gildner, from Cleaning a Rainbow. Friday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of Arthur Conan Doyle, born in Edinburgh, Scotland (1859). The public ate up his stories about Sherlock Holmes, but Conan Doyle actually didn’t like writing Sherlock Holmes stories very much — he thought they were potboilers. His ambition was to write great historical romances like Sir Walter Scott…
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May. 21, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “Durum wheat” by Lisa Martin-demoor, from One Crow Sorrow. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of comedian and politician Al Franken, born in New York City (1951). He grew up in Minneapolis, went to Harvard, and a couple of years later got hired for the first season of Saturday Night Live. He went on to write books, start a political talk show, and then run for office. He said, “When you encounter seemingly good advice that contradicts other seemingly good advice,…
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May. 20, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “Spruce Street, Berkeley” by Naomi Shihab Nye from Yellow Glove. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1862 that President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. Settlers who paid a filing fee of 10 dollars and agreed to live on a piece of land for at least five consecutive years were given 160 acres for free. By 1900, homesteaders had filed 600,000 claims for 80 million acres. Willa Cather’s parents set out to homestead in Nebraska, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s…
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May. 19, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday’s Poem: “Mingus at the Showplace” by William Matthews, from Time and Money: New Poems Tuesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of playwright Lorraine Hansberry, born in Chicago, Illinois (1930). She’s best known for her play A Raisin in the Sun (1959), about an African-American family living on the South Side of Chicago. She wrote it when she was 28 years old, and it was the first play produced on Broadway that was written by a black woman…
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May. 18, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Monday’s Poem: “Mammoth” by Robert Wrigley, from Earthly Meditations. Monday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of Audrey Hepburn, born in Brussels, Belgium (1929). She wanted to become a ballerina, but when Germany invaded Holland during the war and food imports to Holland were halted, she got sick, she suffered from malnutrition, and she was too weak to dance…
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May. 17, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday’s Poem: “Folding My Clothes” by Julia Alvarez, from Homecoming. Sunday’s Literary Notes: On this day in 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled on Brown vs. Board of Education. The unanimous ruling stated that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees equal protection of the law to all citizens…
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May. 16, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “No Deal” by Ronald Wallace, from Long for this World: New and Selected Poems. Saturday’s Literary Notes: Today is the feast day of St. Brendan, patron saint of sailors and travelers…
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May. 15, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “Ready” by Irene McKinney from Vivid Companion. Friday’s Literary Notes: It was on this day in 1886 that Emily Dickinson died at the age of 55…
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May. 14, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “The Day of the Sun” by Vijay Seshadri, from The Long Meadow. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of filmmaker George Lucas, born in Modesto, California (1944). His Star Wars movies are greatly influenced by Joseph Campbell’s analysis of the mythic hero’s journey. Star Wars was filmed in Tunisia and Death Valley…
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May. 13, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “My Name” by Mark Strand from Man and Camel. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of novelist and travel writer Bruce Chatwin, born Sheffield, England (1940). Chatwin contracted HIV around 1980. But he hid the virus with various stories: that he had gotten sick from a bat bite, or that he had a rare Chinese disease. He and his wife moved to south of France, and he died as a result of AIDS at the age of 48…
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May. 12, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Tuesday’s Poem: “La Strada” by George Bilgere. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: Today is Cinco de Mayo, which celebrates Mexico’s defeat of French invaders at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Cinco de Mayo has actually become a bigger holiday in the United States than in Mexico, where it is mostly a regional holiday in Puebla…
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May. 11, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Monday’s Poem: “Mammoth” by Robert Wrigley, from Earthly Meditations. Monday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of Audrey Hepburn, born in Brussels, Belgium (1929). She wanted to become a ballerina, but when Germany invaded Holland during the war and food imports to Holland were halted, she got sick, she suffered from malnutrition, and she was too weak to dance…
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May. 10, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Sunday’s Poem: “The Waltz We Were Born For” by Walt McDonald, from Blessings the Body Gave. Sunday’s Literary Notes: Today is Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day as we know it - where we celebrate our own mothers, with flowers, gifts, and cards - is relatively new, but annual celebrations to celebrate motherhood are an ancient practice…
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May. 09, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Saturday’s Poem: “To My Mother” by Wendell Berry, from Entries. Saturday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of Ellen Bryant Voigt, born in Danville, Virginia, (1943). She has written several books of poetry, including Kyrie (1995), The Forces of Plenty (1983), and most recently, Messenger: New and Selected Poems (2007)…
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May. 08, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Friday’s Poem: “What Have I Learned” by Gary Snyder from Axe Handles. Friday’s Literary Notes: Gary Snyder turns 79 today. He was born in San Francisco in 1930. For about 12 years, Snyder spent most of his time studying Zen Buddhism in Japan. He has published more than 20 books of poetry and prose, including Axe Handles (1983), Mountains and Rivers Without End (1997), and Turtle Island (1974)…
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May. 07, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Thursday’s Poem: “On a Perfect Day” by Jane Gentry, from A Garden in Kentucky. Thursday’s Literary Notes: On this day in 1847, the American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia. It was started by a small group of physicians who realized that medicine might work better if doctors talked to each other and shared their practices…
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May. 06, 2009: The Writer's Almanac
Wednesday’s Poem: “Larson’s Holstein Bull” by Jim Harrison from In Search of Small Gods. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of director, actor, and screenwriter Orson Welles, born in Kenosha, Wisconsin (1915). He became truly famous at age 23 when he produced a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ story of Martian invasion, War of the Worlds…
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