One of the best-known and most popular Canadian poet, novelist and journalists, Alden Nowlan would overcome great adversity to garner acclaim for his work, such as the Governor General’s Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He was born January 25th 1933 in Nova Scotia to a dirt-poor family. Gordon Freeman Nowlan (Alden’s father) was a labourer. His mother was only fifteen years old when ...
Modernist, feminist poet Alfonsina Storni was born May 29th 1892 in Switzerland to Italian/Swiss parents. Her father previously ran a brewery in Argentina but went to live in Switzerland for medical reasons in 1891. In 1896, when Alfonsina was four, the family moved back to San Juan, then to Rosario where Alfonsina later worked in her father’s new tavern. Aware that she had ...
Sayat-Nova was an 18th century Georgian/Armenian poet, musician and sometime royal court diplomat. He entertained courtiers for a while before falling out of favour and then lived the life of the wandering minstrel (local term – ashik). Later in his life he became an apostolic priest in Armenia which was, at that time, a deeply religious country. Records suggest that he was born ...
French poet and novelist Jean Cocteau was born in 1889 near Paris and his early life was marked by the suicide of his father when he was just nine years old. At the age of 15, he left home and went to Paris, publishing his first collection of poetry in 1908. He quickly became involved in the Bohemian art movement of ...
The author of such classic novels as 1984, Animal Farm and Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell was also a poet of some renown. Born in India in 1903, Orwell was, at heart, a social democrat who wrote extensively about the scourge of totalitarian states such as Russia as well as the plight of the poor. Born Eric Blair, ...
