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It is 125 years today since Yasunari Kawabata was born.
Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer born in Osaka. He came from an educated, wealthy family, but he lost his parents at an early age and his only sibling, a sister, died when he was nine years old. These childhood traumas came to inform his writing. After growing up with his maternal grandfather in the countryside, Kawabata read English and Japanese literature at...
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It is 113 years today since Victor Canning was born.
Victor Canning was a British author of humorous adventure stories and thrillers. He was born in Plymouth, Devon. At the outbreak of the First World War, while his father was doing his military service, he went with his mother and siblings to live with his uncle in Calstock, a few miles north of Plymouth. This was where Canning fell in love with the English countryside, which features prominently...
Sample of Authors
Rådström, Niklas
1953 -
The Swedish poet, dramatist and author Niklas Rådström grew up in Södermalm, Stockholm, in a literary family. His father, Pä...
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Roth, Veronica
1988 -
Veronica Roth grew up in Barrington, Illinois, with her siblings and single artist mother. Her grandparents were Polish...
Further reading
Akhmatova, Anna
1889 - 1966
The Russian poet Anna Akhmatova was born as Anna Andreyevna Gorenko in Odessa, but she spent most of her childhood in...
Further reading
Okri, Ben
1959 -
Ben Okri was born into the Urhobo tribe in Minna, Nigeria, as the son of Grace and Silver Okri, but he spent his early...
Further reading