Meny
  • It is 84 years today since Joseph Brodsky was born.

    The Russian poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky was born to a Jewish family in Leningrad as Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky. His father was a journalist and a photographer in the Soviet Navy and his mother worked as an interpreter. He grew up on a communal housing estate where several families shared a bathroom and kitchen. Brodsky and his parents barely survived the German occupation of Leningrad,...

    Further reading

  • It is 119 years today since Mikhail Sholokhov was born.

    The Russian novelist and short story writer Mikhail Sholokhov was born in the village Veshenskaya (near Roston-on-Don) at the Don River. His father was a cattle trader, and his mother came from a family brought to the area as war prisoners by the Cossacks. She remained illiterate long into adulthood. Mikhail Sholokhov's schooling was interrupted by the war. Fifteen year old, he joined the...

    Further reading

  • It is 96 years today since William Trevor was born.

    William Trevor Cox was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, the Republic of Ireland, as the son of a Protestant bank official. Because his father moved around a lot, Trevor grew up in provincial towns all over Ireland and attended many different schools, including St. Columba’s College where he studied art and sculpture under the well-known sculptor Oisin Kelly. As a Protestant living in Catholic I...

    Further reading

  • It is 61 years today since Michael Chabon was born.

    Jewish-American author born in Washington D.C. His father, Robert Chabon, was a paediatrician and a lawyer. His mother, Sharon, went to law school as a mature student, but his parents were divorced when Michael Chabon was eleven years old. It has affected him deeply. After the divorce, he mostly lived with his mother in Maryland, spending his school holidays with his father in Pittsburgh.
    ...

    Further reading

  • It is 50 years today since Jens Lapidus was born.

    Jens Lapidus grew up on the outskirts of Stockholm. His mother was a social worker and his father a journalist who, among other things, worked for an immigrant magazine. As a result, Lapidus became aware of how more marginalised people lived from a young age. He was a trouble-maker in secondary school; had it been today, he believes he would have been diagnosed with behavioural disorder. He went...

    Further reading

Sample of Authors

Portrait image of Agatha Christie

Christie, Agatha
1890 - 1976

English detective writer, born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in an affluent middle-class home in Torquay in Devon County....

Further reading
Författarporträtt av Ferrante, Elena

Ferrante, Elena
1943? -

There isn’t much reliable information available about the author behind the pseudonym Elena Ferrante. One thing is fairly c...

Further reading
Portrait of Christa Wolf

Wolf, Christa
1929 - 2011

The German author Christa Wolf was born as Christa Ihlenfeld in Landsberg ab der Warthe (present-day Gorzów Wielkopolski in ...

Further reading
Författarporträtt av Dahl, Arne

Dahl, Arne
1963 -

For a long time, there was speculation as to who could lie behind the crime-writer pseudonym Arne Dahl. Considering the...

Further reading