By Skyler Gomez | On November 4, 2020 | Updated January 3, 2023 | Comments (4)
Eileen Chang, also known as Chang Ai-ling or Zhang Ailing (September 30, 1920 – September 8, 1995), was a Chinese essayist, novelist, and screenwriter.
Although Chang’s somber love stories are widely recognized, her construction of an alternative wartime narrative is considered a significant contribution to Chinese literature.
Chang was born in Zhang Ying, Shanghai, China to a well-known family; her grandfather was a son-in-law to Qing court official Li Hongzhang. In 1922 when Chang was two, her family relocated to Tianjin. Her father introduced her to Tang poetry at the age of three. Her mother also introduced her to painting, piano, and English in her early years.
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By Marcie McCauley | On September 29, 2020 | Updated November 29, 2024 | Comments (2)
Rachel Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was a noted American marine biologist, conservationist, and writer whose holistic view of the natural world shaped today’s environmental science.
Her eloquent nonfiction works educated readers about how every entity interacts with the broader web of life. (photo at right courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
This interconnectedness influenced her research into the indiscriminate use of chemical insecticides and the resulting book, Silent Spring (1962), her best known, raised questions and awareness that contributed to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On August 31, 2020 | Updated January 9, 2025 | Comments (0)
Angelina Weld Grimké (February 27, 1880 – June 10, 1958) was an American playwright, poet, and educator. She rose to prominence as a figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement of the 1920s, though most of her major works were created before that era.
As a writer and woman of color, she was deeply concerned about pervasive racism and other issues of African American lif . Themes of racial bias and danger played a prominent role in her poetry and plays. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On August 28, 2020 | Updated November 1, 2024 | Comments (3)
Mary Oliver (September 10, 1935 – January 17, 2019) was an American poet whose work reflects a deeply rooted harmony with the natural world. No Voyage and Other Poems, her first collection, was published in 1963. Since then, books and numerous collections of her poems were published.
Born in Maple Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Mary’s parents were Edward and Helen Oliver. Her father worked in the Cleveland public school system as an athletic coach and social studies teacher. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On July 19, 2020 | Updated August 28, 2022 | Comments (0)
Johanna Spyri (June 12, 1827 – July 7, 1901) born Johanna Louise Heusser, was a Swiss author best known for her first and most successful book, the 1881 children’s novel Heidi.
Born in rural Hirzel, not far from Zurich, she grew up in a happy, cultured home in a literary environment. Her mother, Meta Huesser, was a popular songwriter and poet. Her father was a well-known and greatly beloved physician in Zurich. The Huessers opened their home to the intellectual and literary figures of that time and place.
In 1852, when Johanna was 25, she married a former schoolmate, Bernhard Spyri, who became an attorney. While the couple was living in Zurich, she began to tell stories to their son to amuse him, and her husband encouraged her to set them to paper. Read More→
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