Authors' Birthdays: January

Great authors and such a variety to start the new year! Women's and Caribbean writing, crime and historical novels, poetry. Make a resolution to read their books.

January 7: Zora Neale Hurston (1903 [1891?]-1960) was a Harlem Renaissance novelist, short story writer, folklorist and anthropologist who became well known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.

January 12: Walter Mosley is a very prolific author of over 20 books who is best known for his crime novels. His novel Devil in a Blue Dress was made into a 1995 movie starring Denzel Washington.

January 14: John Oliver Killens (1916-1987) was a novelist, chairman of the Harlem Writers Guild and teacher. He was also vice president of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters. His novel Then We Heard the Thunder was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He wrote two screenplays, Odds Against Tomorrow and Slaves.

January 14: Dudley Randall (1914-2000) was a poet, editor and librarian. From the 1960s, as founder and publisher of Broadside Press in Detroit, he presented the poetry of many new and established African-American poets. His own collections include Cities Burning, (Love You), More to Remember and others.

January 15: Ernest Gaines is a novelist who has published many books including The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. In 1993 he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for his novel A Lesson Before Dying. He also received a prestigious MacArthur Foundation grant.

January 19: Edwidge Danticat, originally from Haiti, is a novelist and short story writer. In 1995, her collection of short stories Krik? Krak? was a finalist for the National Book Award.

January 23: Derek Walcott is a Caribbean (Saint Lucia) poet and playwright who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. He’s the author of numerous poetry collections and an epic poem, Omeros. His many plays include Dream on Monkey Mountain. He has also written a nonfiction book, What the Twilight Says.

January 25: Gloria Naylor is a novelist, essayist and screenwriter. Her novels include Linden Hills, Mama Day and Bailey’s Café. In 1983 she won the National Book Award for The Women of Brewster Place, which was produced for television by Oprah Winfrey.