Category: Authors

Author: Xavier Villaurrutia Profile: Xavier Villaurrutia was a Mexican poet, literary critic and playwright. The short theatrical dramas called Autos profanos published in the year 1953 are his most popular works compiled in the work Poesia y teatro completes. He was born in Mexico City, Mexico and died in Mexico City, Mexico. El monje blanco and Let’s Go with Pancho Villa are his most popular movies. He studied in the National Prepatory School (Escuela Nacional Preparatoria) and in Jurisprudence School (Escuela de Jurisprudencia). It was during this time that he developed a liking towards writing, so he took a decision to dedicate his life to writing literature. He joined the Contemporaries (grupo de los Contemporaneous) in 1928. He received a scholarship in 1935 to study theatre at Yale University. In 1937 he came back to Mexico and began working for Letras de Mexico, the local newspaper. IN 1927 he founded the magazine Ulises along with Salvador Novo. Xavier Villaurrutia worked at a professional level for the Contemporaneous, the Mexican literary review from the year 1928 to 1931. He was to later found the first experimental theatre. The work of Ramon Lopez Velarde as well as a number of other Mexican poets influenced Xavier Villaurrutia a lot. Many poets including Ali Chumacero and Octavio Paz (who was his student) have been influenced by Xavier Villaurrutia. Writing style: Xavier Villaurrutia’s genre is literary criticism, poetry and dramaturgy. Published Texts: 1926 – Reflejos (poetic writings) 1933 – Nocturnos (poetic writings) 1938 – Nostalgia de la muerte (Nostalgia of…

Author: Vita Sackville-West Profile: Vita Sackville-West was an English author, novelist, poet and a garden designer. She was born in Knole House, Kent, England and died in Sissinghurst Castle, Kent, England. Harold Nicolson is her spouse. Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson is popularly known as Vita Sackville-West. Not only was she a successful poet, novelist and journalist but also a creative diarist and letter writer. Thirteen novels and more than a dozen poetry collections have been published by her during her whole life. Vita was born in Kent at the home of Vita’s aristocratic ancestors and was the only child. Her grandmother was an acrobat and Spanish dancer and Lionel her father began living with his mistress. The girl Victoria Mary Sackville-West was called ‘Vita’ so that she could be distinguished from her mother (who was also known as Victoria). As her father followed English aristocratic inheritance customs, Vita was unable to inherit Knole after her father’s death which caused bitterness for her all her life. Vita Sackville-West had been the inspiration for the protagonist, Orlando: A Biography, by Virginia Woolf, her famous lover and friend. In The Observer (1946-1961) she has had a longstanding column. She is remembered for the celebrated garden at Sissinghurst created with Sir Harold Nicolson, her husband. Writing style: Vita Sackville-West’s genre is Georgic Poetry. Published Texts: Works Poetry collections 1909 – Chatterton 1912 – A Dancing Elf 1915 – Constantinople: Eight Poems 1917 – Poems of West and East 1921 – Orchard and Vineyard 1926 – The Land 1929…

Author: Virgil Profile: Publius Vergilius Maro was popularly known as Virgil or Vergil in English. Virgil was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. Virgil was born near Mantua, Cisalpine Gaul, Roman Republic, in Virgilio, Italy and died in Brindisium, Roman Empire, Italy. He completed his education in Cremona, Rome, Mediolanum and Naples. Initially he considered a brief career in law in his younger days in law and rhetoric after which his talents diverted to poetry. When he was 5 years old, Virgil received his first education after which he studied medicine, rhetoric, astronomy and then abandoned these subjects for philosophy The Georgics, the Eclogues and the epic Aeneid are three of his most well known poems in Latin literature. He is also accredited to a number of minor poems collected in the Appendix Vergiliana. Some of his popular movies include Georgica, Eneide, Dido & Aeneas: Mark Morris Dance Group and The Avenger and Didone abbandonata. He was pioneer of the Augustan poetry literary movement. He is ranked as one of the greatest poets of Rome, traditionally. Since the time, Aenied was composed (which was modelled after Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad) follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas, as he works hard in fulfilling his destiny so as to reach Italy at the place where Remus and Romulus his descendants were to found the city of Rome. Aenied was considered as the national epic of ancient Rome. Writing style: Virgil’s genre was epic poetry, pastoral poetry and didactic poetry. Published Texts: Poems The Eclogues The Georgics…

Author: Valerie Taylor Profile: Valerie Taylor was born as Velma Nacella Yung in rural Illinois.  She was an American novelist and author. She has also published as Francine Davenport (under which she wrote her romances), Nacella Young, (under which she wrote her poetry) and Velma Tate. During the Great Depression, she went to Blackburn College. At the age of twenty two years she has been member of the American Socialist Party. In 1939 she married William Jerry Tate as she had to adhere to social norms and find a husband. In 1940 she delivered Marshall her son and in 1942, James and Jerry, her twins. She is known to mention her Potawatomi heritage most often. Until the 1950s she worked as a secretary and schoolteacher while at the same time she sold short stories, articles and poems to magazines that included Good Housekeeping, Canadian Poetry Magazine and True Love and True Story. In 1953 she published ‘Hired Girl’ her debut novel. After Taylor met Pearl Hart in 1965 (another founder of Mattachine Midwest) they remained together till 1975. In 1979 after relocating to Tuscon, Arizona, Taylor became a Quaker and member of a social justice activist group called the Gray Panther. She became involved in advocacy of the elderly and activism in the environmental movement. Writing style: Valerie Taylor published books in the lesbian pulp fiction genre besides novels and poetry after the ‘golden age’ of lesbian pulp fiction. Published Texts: Novels 1953 – The Lusty Land 1957- Whisper Their Love 1959 – The Girls…

Author: Stephen Spender Profile: Sir Stephen Harold Spender is better known as Stephen Spender. Stephen Spender was an English poet, essayist and novelist. He was born in Kensington, London, England and died in St. John’s Wood, London, England. He completed his education at Hall School in Hampstead, then Gresham’s School, Holt, later at Charlecote School in Worthing, University College School, Hampstead and later at University College, Oxford. Inez Pearn and Natasha Litvin were his 2 spouses. W.H.Auden was the biggest influential friend in his life who introduced him to Christopher Isherwood. Spender had hand-printed the earliest version of Poems, which Auden wrote. Every half a year Spender moved from England to Hamburg on Isherwood’s invitation. Spender was familiarized with a number of fellow Auden Group as well as Bloomsbury Group members. In the year 1929 he started work on a novel under the title The Temple. In 1933, T.S. Eliot an editor at Faber & Faber discovered Spender and in the same year he became a Communist Party of Great Britain, member. Head of the Party invited Spender to write for the Daily Worker on the Moscow Trails. Spender always felt close to Jewish people as his mother was half-Jewish. As a member of the Allied Control Commission, Spender assisted in civil authority restoration in Germany as well. Writing style: Stephen Spender’s work was directed more on themes related to class struggle and social injustice. Published Texts: Bibliography 1943 – Spiritual Exercises 1947 – Poems of Dedication 1949 – The Edge of Being 1928-1953 (1955)…

Author: Sinclair Ross Profile: Sinclair Ross was a Canadian author and banker. He was born in a homestead near Shellbrook, Saskatchewan, Canada and died in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Sinclair Ross’s genre is fiction.  His most notable and best known work is As For Me and My House. His parents left each other when he was seven after which he spent his whole childhood on different farms. He studied at the school in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. After Grade 11 he left school and joined the Union Bank of Canada which after a year became part of the Royal Bank of Canada. Initially Sinclair Ross worked in Saskatchewan in various small towns and in 1933 moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba and in 1946 to Montreal, Quebec before which he spent 4 years in the Canadian Army during World War II. Till his retirement in 1968 he continued to remain with the Royal Bank after which he lived in Greece, Spain and then moved to Vancouver, to a nursing home where he lived till the time of his death. Writing style: Sinclair Ross wrote short fiction and novels about life prevalent on the Canadian prairies. His subject of work is the Canadian prairies. Published Texts: Bibliography Novels 1941 – As For Me and My House 1958 – The Well 1970 – Whir of Gold 1974 – Sawbones Memorial Short Stories 1938 – The Lamp at Noon and other stories ·        One’s a Heifer ·        The Painted Door ·        The Lamp at Noon ·        Cornet At Night ·        A…

Author: Sara Teasdale Profile: Sara Teasdale was an American lyric poet. She was born Sarah Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. and died in New York City, New York, U.S. From the year 1914, after she married Ernst Filsinger, she used the name Sara Teasdale Filsinger. Flame and Shadow and Love Songs are her most notable works. During most of her childhood she had poor health so she was home schooled till the age of nine years and started formal school at ten years of age. In 1898 she went to Mary Institute, in 1899 to Hosmer Hall and in 1903 she completed her graduation. The Teasdale family first resided at 3668 Lindell Blv and later at 38 Kingsbury Place in St. Louis, Missouri both of which her mother had designed. Sara had a private suite for herself on the second floor accessible to guests by appointment. It was at this suite where Sara slept, worked and dined alone. She was ‘The Potters’ member from 1904 to 1907 which was a female artist’s group in their early twenties and late teens. In 1907, her first poem was published in a Reedy’s Mirror a local newspaper. That same year, Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems, her first poem collection was also published. Many men including Vachel Lindsay, the poet courted Teasdale from 1911 to 1914. She however married a longtime admirer of her poetry, Ernst Filsinger on December 19, 1914. Writing style: Sara Teasdale’s poems are in classical style consistently. He has written technically pure,…

Author: Sappho Profile: Sappho was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Sappho was considered to be one of the finest lyric poets. Names like ‘The Poetess’ and ‘Tenth Muse’ were given to her. Much of her poetry is whatever is available is in the form of fragments with two praiseworthy exceptions like the ‘Tithonus poem’ and the ‘Ode to Aphrodite’. A number of commentators of the ancient times claim that besides lyric poetry, Sappho is believed to come from Lesbos, from a rich family and with three brothers.  Around 600 BCE she was exiled to Sicily and must have continued to work till around 570. The prolific poet, Sappho composed around ten thousand lines. Her poetry was greatly admired, popular and admired through much of the ancient past. Her extraordinary works continue to inspire other writers. Sappho is popular as a symbol of desire and love between women beyond her poetry. Lesbian and Sapphic are the English words derived respectively from her own name Sappho and from the name of her home island. Right from the earliest times, her importance is confirmed and her work interpretations have been influenced and colored by discussions of her sexuality. Writing style: Sappho was popular for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by a lyre. Sappho wrote iambic and elegiac poetry. Published Texts: Works Sappho has written around ten thousand lines of poetry probably out of which only 650 survive as of today. Her written lyric poetry is accompanied by music. She wrote…

Author: Ruth Vanita Profile: Ruth Vanita is an Indian author, activist and academic. Ruth also writes and teaches Hindu philosophy. She was born in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma). She received her B.A., M.A. and Ph.D degree in English at Delhi University. She worked in the Department of English at Delhi University as Reader from 1994 to 1997. Presently she works at the University of Montana as professor of World Cultures and English where South & South-East Asian Studies are directed by her. Manushi: A Journal about Women and Society has been co-founded by Ruth Vanita in 1978 while living in Delhi. This journal is a combination of grassroots activism and academic research. From the year 1979 to 1991 she served as volunteer co-editor of the journal without getting any salary payment. Writing style: Ruth Vanita specializes in Indian and British literary history with a major focus on sexuality and gender studies. Published Texts: Books 1994 – A Play of Light: Selected Poems 1996 – Sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same-Sex Love and the English Literary Imagination 2005 – Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West 2005 – Gandhi’s Tiger and Sita’s Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture 2012 – Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry In India 1780-1870 2017 – Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema Edited volumes 1991 – In Search of Answers: India Women’s Voices from Manushi 2000 – Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History 2002 – Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in…

Author: Peterson Toscano Profile: Peterson Toscano is born in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S. He is an actor, playwright, podcaster, Bible scholar, blogger, a gay rights activist and an advocate against global warming. He completed his education at City College of New York. Glen Retief is his spouse. Nearly 20 years were spent by him undergoing conversion therapy and ex-gay treatment before coming out as a gay man at peace with his his sexual orientation.A number of plays and media outlets have been used by him to share his experiences at a global level. Toscano spent around 17 years as part of the ex-gay movement as he adhered to the Conservative beliefs of the Christians, while trying to alter his sexual orientation through faith-based ex-gay programs and conversion therapy. He also attended many Life-Ministries in New York City and ex-gay programs in addition to attaining conversion therapy, pastoral counseling and discipleship training. He contemplated suicide due to the conflict between his sexuality and beliefs. In December 1998 he came out as a gay man and presents his LGBT-affirming message with the help of talks and theatre at universities, churches, conferences, theatres, gay clubs and online. Presently Toscano resides with his husband Glen Retief, a South African writer in Sunbury, Pennysylvania. Writing style: Peterson Toscano in his writings highlights gender non-conforming Bible characters, he explores religion, issues related to LGBTQ and climate change by using storytelling and comedy through his performances and talks. Published Texts: Queer 101 – Now I Know My gAy, B,Cs How the Indians Discovered…

Author: Perry Deane Young Profile: Perry Deane Young was born in Woodfin, near Asheville, North Carolina in the U.S. and died of cancer at the age of 77 years at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He completed his education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Out of his 13 siblings, he was the youngest. Perry Deane Young was an author, historian, writer, journalist, playwright, professional gardener and historian. He has authored, Two of the Missing related to two fellow journalists Dana Stone and Sean Flynn, who were lost and couldn’t be found during the Vietnam War besides which their fates were never known. Perry is also the co-author of a biography of David Kopay, a professional football player during the 1970s who in 1975 declared that he was gay. Perry worked for many newspapers including the Chapel Hill Weekly, the Raleigh News & Observer and the Durham Morning Herald. The N.C. General Assembly for UPI was covered by him in 1963, besides which in 1064 he worked a spart of Richardson Preyer’s unsuccessful guber-national campaign and in 1966 joined the Army Reserves. In 1967 he joined work at United Press International. In 1968 he undertook an assignment in Vietnam with the UPI. Tet Offensive was his first story, in which while covering the war, he stayed with fellow room-mates journalists, Nik Wheeler, Sean Flynn and Tim Page Writing style: Perry Deane Young’s genre is Non-Fiction. Published Texts: Books 1975 – Two of the Missing: Remembering Sean Flynn and Dana Stone 2005 – Hanged…

Author: Paul Verlaine Profile: Paul Verlaine was a French poet. He was associated with the Decadent Movement and the Symbolist Movement. In French and international poetry, Paul is considered to be one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle. He was born in Metz, France and died in Paris, France. Mathilde Maute de Fleurville has been his spouse. He completed his education at the Lycee Imperial Bonaparte in Paris and then took up a post in the civil service. At a very young age, Paul started writing poetry and was influenced by the Parnassien Movement and Leconte de Lisle, its leader. ‘La Revue du progress’, is Paul’s first poem published in the year 1863. Paul  visited the salon of Marquise de Ricard located at 10 Boulevard des Batignolles and many other social venues, very frequently where he came in contact with a number of well known artistic figures including Villiers de I’Isle-Adam – the cynical antibourgeois idealist, Charles Cros – the humorist and inventor-poet, Francois Coppee, Theodore de Banville, Jose-Maria de Heredia and many others.   Writing style: Paul Verlaine’s genre includes Symbolist and Decadent. Published Texts: Works in French (original) 1964 – Libretti for Vaucochard et FIls 1 and Fisch-Ton-Kan 1866 – Poems saturniens 1867 – Les Amies 1869 – Clair de Lune 1869 – Fetes galantes 1870 – La Bonne Chanson 1874 – Romances sans paroles 1880 – Sagesse 1884 – Les Poetes maudits 1884 – Jadis et naguere (Verlaine) 1886 – Les Memoires d’un veuf 1888 – Amour 1888 –…

Author: Paul Toupin Profile: Paul Toupin was a Quebec essayist, journalist and playwright. He was born on December 7, 1918 in Montreal, Canada and studied at College Jean-de-Brebeuf, the Sorbonne, Columbia University and Aix-Marseille University. He has taught at the Loyola University and Universite de Sherbrooke and Loy in addition to his journalism and writing. Paul Toupin has been one of the first prominent writers who were openly gay besides novelist Jean-Paul Pinsonneault and poet Paul Chamberlan, in Quebec literature. In his 1964 essay collection, L’Ecrivain et son theatre, he has written and addressed gay related themes. He has been very open about his very own sexuality while writing his memoirs Mon mal vient de plus loin in 1969 and Le Coeur a ses raisons in 1971. One of the few tragedies ever composed in French Canada was Brutus (1952) which was televised in the year 1953. It was for television only that Le Mensonge (1960) and Chacun son amour (1961) were performed after which he turned towards writing autobiographical memoirs and essays like L’Ecrivain et son theatre (1964). Paul Toupin left for the heavenly abode on March 8, 1993. Archives of Paul Toupin have been preserved in the Montreal archives centre of the Bibliotheque et Archives nationals du Quebec. Writing style: Paul Toupin’s plays, classical in terms of structure, language and universal in theme have been accredited more by critics as compared to his audiences in Quebec. He has been very open about his very own sexuality. Published Texts: 1951 – Le Choix (play)…

Author: Paul Russell Profile: Paul Russell is an American novelist, short story writer and poet. In the year 2000 he has been a winner of the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT fiction, two times for The Coming Storm and in the year 2012 he was winner for the Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov. In novel, ‘The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov, a real person Sergey Nabokov, is fictionally portrayed. He is the younger and gay brother of Vladimir Nabokov, the Russian novelist about whom there is not much of definite or real biographical information known. Paul Russell spent his growing up years in Memphis, Tennessee. Jack, his father worked at Southwestern at Memphis, as a mathematics professor. In 1974 he graduated from Raleigh-Egypt High School, after which he attended Oberlin College in Ohio and got his MFA degree in Creative Writing from Cornell University in 1982. In 1983 he did his PhD. in English. Besides this he spent time in London and Germany as well. Presently he serves at Vassar College as professor of English literature. Seven novels have been authored by Paul Elliott Russell. He grew up in the Scenic Hills neighborhood at Memphis, Tennessee. He has also taught at the University of Exeter and The College of William & Mary. Writing style: Novels written by Paul Russell are described as dreamy reconstructions of half-recalled nightmares. He is an accomplished author of fiction and non-fiction both including literature. Published Texts: Novels 1990 – The Salt Point 1991 – Boys of Life 1994 – Sea of…

Author: Nancy Richler Profile: Nancy Richler was a Canadian novelist. She was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and died in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was Jewish and a lesbian. She completed her studies in Brandeis University and University of Denver. She won two international awards and was shortlisted for 3 awards. In 2013 she was shortlisted for the Canadian Booksellers Association Author of the Year award. When Nancy was 18 years old, she moved to the United States and graduated at Brandeis University with a degree in history. Later she studied social work and worked with younger people. She completed the Master of Arts degree in international studies at the University of Denver Graduate School, specializing in the Soviet Union. After moving to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1988, she started to write fiction. Throwaway Angels is a novel based on unresolved crimes in real life of women sex workers who disappeared in downtown east side of Vancouver. Short stories written by Richler have been published in anthologies and magazines including A Room of One’s Own, Prairie Fire, New Quarterly and the Journey Prize Anthology. Vicki Trerise, a mediator and lawyer was her partner. Richler went back to Montreal to look after her aging parents. She has been writer-in-residence in 2013-2014 at the University of Ottawa. Writing style: Nancy Richler’s genre is fiction. Published Texts: 1996 – Throwaway Angels (debut novel) 2003 – Your Mouth is Lovely (historical novel) 2012 – The Imposter Bride Awards and Acknowledgements: 2003 – Won the Canadian Jewish Book Award…