The Writer's Almanac

The Writer's Almanac features Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor recounting the highlights of this day in literary history and reading a short poem or two.

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Nov. 07, 2009: The Writer's Almanac

Saturday’s Poem: “The Thumb” by Peter Schneider, from Line Fence. Saturday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of writer Albert Camus born in Mondovi, Algeria (1913). His book The Stranger was published in 1942, followed by a collection of essays, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)…

Nov. 06, 2009: The Writer's Almanac

Friday’s Poem: “Twenty-three” by Liam Rector, from The Executive Director of the Fallen World. Friday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of actor and novelist Ethan Hawke, born in Austin, Texas (1970). He’s best known for acting in such movies as Dead Poets Society (1989) and Training Day (2001), but he has also published some novels. He says he likes writing because it doesn’t require collaboration. His first novel, The Hottest State (1996), got mixed reviews, but most critics praised his…

Nov. 05, 2009: The Writer's Almanac

Thursday’s Poem: “Psalm for a Lost Summer” by Maura Stanton, from Immortal Sofa. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of the Irish-American writer Tom Phelan, born in County Laois, Ireland (1940). He was a priest, a carpenter, and a professor before he came to the United States and became a writer. His best-known novel, In the Season of the Daisies (1993), is about the murder of a small boy by a member of the Irish Republican Army, after the boy witnessed a political murder. Phelan has…

Nov. 04, 2009: The Writer's Almanac

Wednesday’s Poem: “The Sum of Man” by Norah Pollard, from Death & Rapture in the Animal Kingdom. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of British satirist Evelyn Waugh, born in London (1903). He came from a literary family, but didn’t do well in school or as a teacher. He said, “I was from the first an obvious dud.” He was seriously in debt, without a job, and had just been rejected by the girl he liked, so he decided to drown himself in the ocean. He wrote a suicide note and jumped in…

Nov. 03, 2009: The Writer's Almanac

Tuesday’s Poem: “Driving at Night” by Sheila Packa, from The Mother Tongue. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of William Cullen Bryant, born in Cummington, Massachusetts (1794), who worked as a lawyer, hated it, wrote a history of world civilization in verse while still working as a lawyer in his 20s, quit his attorney job, became a journalist, and edited the New York Evening Post for 50 years, during which time he promoted unions, condemned slavery, and advocated for a Central Park…