Each month, we highlight birthdays of authors for you to discover through print and digital items as well as online biographies. In the post below, click on the author’s name to find titles by them in our catalog. Read a bit about each author, then follow the links to their full biographies in one of our databases! Just log in with your last name and TCCL card number.
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Richard Wright (born Sept. 4, 1908): "Richard Wright was a novelist, essayist, short story writer, and poet. Wright is known for being one of the most important, critically acclaimed, and popular American fiction writers active in the middle of the 20th century. Although Native Son (1940) is considered his master work, he wrote a number of other important novels, essays, autobiographies, and short stories." From the African American Experience database. Read the full piece HERE.
Sonia Sanchez (born Sept. 8, 1934): "A prominent figure in the Black Arts Movement, Sonia Sanchez is a poet, activist, author, educator, and playwright. She has published dozens of plays, anthologies, and collections of poetry that explore gender relations in black America. Sanchez has continued to shape the tradition of Black Arts through her collaborative projects with contemporary hip-hop artists." From the African American Experience database. Read the full piece HERE.
John Steptoe (born Sept. 14, 1950): "John Steptoe was an acclaimed author and illustrator of children's books. Many of his works have been praised for both realistically portraying black life and having universal themes which appeal to children of all races. Steptoe was especially concerned about reaching black children, largely because he felt their literary needs were not being met. He once explained: 'One of my great incentives for getting into writing children's books was the great and disastrous need for books that black children could honestly relate to ... I was amazed to find that no one had successfully written a book in the dialogue black children speak.'" Found in the Biography in Context database. Read more HERE.
Agatha Christie (born Sept. 15, 1980): "Agatha Christie is a towering figure in the history of crime literature for two reasons. First, she consolidated the form of the pure mystery novel, achieving in five or six of her books puzzle stories that set a standard unlikely ever to be decisively bettered. Second, she sold more books than any other writer except Shakespeare. Totaling her sales was a task that defeated her agent and publishers. Her works have been translated into more than a hundred languages. She was, in short, the most successful mystery writer the world has known." Found in the Biography in Context database. Read more HERE.
Tomie DePaola (born Sept. 15, 1934): "Tomie dePaola's creative brush and pen have fashioned more than 200 informational books, imaginative stories, realistic picture books, and folktales, bringing him recognition as a creative writer and illustrator and as a favorite choice of children. Though dePaola has been criticized for being too prolific, a close inspection finds versatility and a distinct style to be the significant hallmarks of his work." Found in the Biography in Context database. Read more HERE.
Stephen King (born Sept. 21, 1947): "Stephen King is a master of the horror genre, skillfully interweaving elements of the supernatural with popular culture and thereby refreshing the standard elements of horror fiction. Immensely scary and frequently violent, King's stories portray believable characters faced with the most appalling circumstances. As a result of his compelling storytelling abilities, King has become one of the best-selling authors of all time and has exerted a profound influence not only on the development of popular literature but also on American popular culture." Found in the Biography in Context database. Read more HERE.
bell hooks (born Sept. 25, 1952): "A prolific author of more than 17 books, bell hooks has made significant contributions as a writer to the discussion of sexism and racism in contemporary U.S. society. In her numerous books that appeal to academic and popular audiences, her social criticism and theoretical works are especially respected across such academic disciplines as African American studies, women's studies, cultural studies, and film studies. According to hooks, the lowercased first letters of her name emphasize the substance of her ideas and books rather than her authorship; she seeks to separate herself from them to facilitate her own ability to change her interests and ideas." From the African American Experience database. Read the full piece HERE.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón (born Sept. 25, 1964): "Born and raised in Barcelona, Spain, writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón lives and works in Los Angeles, California, where he moved in his late twenties to work as a screenwriter. His first novel, The Shadow of the Wind, is the result of a decision to write a book set in his homeland. Although Ruiz Zafón reads extensively in English and has a particular affection for nineteenth-century English-language novelists, he wrote The Shadow of the Wind in Spanish. The book was first published as La sombra del viento in Spain, where it spent months on the best-seller lists, promoted primarily by word of mouth through the enthusiasm of booksellers." Found in the Biography in Context database. Read more HERE.
Shel Silverstein (born Sept. 25, 1930): "Shel Silverstein was a beloved children's author and artist known for his quirky mix of innocence and irreverence. Adults were known to enjoy his juvenile work as well, perhaps because he was a pioneer in adding a certain edginess to the children's genre. Before his books, most works for youth were mired in sugar-coated sappiness, but Silverstein introduced an element of fun, a touch of satire, a dose of bathroom humor, and sometimes even a bit of the macabre." Found in the Biography in Context database. Read more HERE.