By Nava Atlas | On March 6, 2018 | Updated December 6, 2022 | Comments (0)
Madeleine L’Engle (November 29, 1918 – September 6, 2007) was an American novelist and memoirist best known for her award-winning fantasy and science fiction series for young adults and children of all ages. She’s particularly well known for A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels.
L’Engle’s writing life that can be described as one of perseverance. She recorded in detail the long years of rejection of her work as “too dark and difficult for children.”
Hers is a story of triumph following years of silence and frustration. She persisted because she felt compelled to, though she often had little to show for her labors but rejection slips. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On March 5, 2018 | Updated January 14, 2026 | Comments (0)
Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was a gifted writer of poetry and fiction whose life ended all too young by suicide. Triggered by the death of her father when she was eight years old, depression took root and led to a life of struggle.
She made no pretense about the degree of her pain in her writings. Plath’s poetry is considered part of the frank and revelatory “confessional movement.” (Photo at right courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
As a young woman, Plath seemed to have what it would take to succeed. She was attractive, smart, and talented. As a college student at Smith, she was well liked and showed immense academic promise. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On March 4, 2018 | Updated February 21, 2025 | Comments (1)
Katherine Anne Porter (May 15, 1890– September 18, 1980), was an American author and journalist best known for her short stories and her 1962 masterwork, Ship of Fools.
She spent her early years working as a teacher of drama, dance and song to help support her and her father. These misfortunes are what made Porter the amazing writer that she became, focusing on themes of death, mistrust, and depraved human behavior. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On March 4, 2018 | Updated August 25, 2022 | Comments (0)
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American author, poet, and art collector. She’s considered one of the most significant modernist writers of the early twentieth century.
Though some consider her writing incoherent or absurd, others view it as a singular voice from the era of literary modernism.
Born into a well-to-do family Jewish family in Pennsylvania, Stein went to college at Radcliffe and then studied medicine for four years at Johns Hopkins University. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On March 3, 2018 | Updated January 30, 2024 | Comments (2)
L.M. Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), born on Prince Edward Island, Canada, was a novelist and short story writer best known for the Anne of Green Gables series. Her full name was Lucy Maud Montgomery.
When she was not yet two years old her mother died of tuberculosis, and her father left her to be raised by her grandparents. Strict Presbyterians who ran the Cavendish post office, they provided a stable home for restless, imaginative Maud.
Maud started writing on scraps of paper when she was just a girl, and would eventually draw upon the beautiful Prince Edward Island habitat for the adventures of Anne Shirley. Read More→
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