Here are seven author birthdays for this week. Check out which authors are your favorites, and find out who shares your day. You can buy the books relating to our author picks at our bookshop, on our list of Sharon’s Birthday Picks.
This Week’s Author Birthdays:
Jacqueline Carey – October 9
On this day, October 9, in 1964, Jacqueline Carey was born in Highland Park, Illinois. A stint working at a bookstore led her to literary aspirations, and in 2001 she published the darkly romantic (and erotic) political saga Kushiel’s Dart, the first of a historical fantasy trilogy based in Terre D’Ange, where the overarching precept is “love as thou wilt.” With two other trilogies set in the same universe, and a Sundering duology where JRR Tolkien-type themes are told from a darker perspective, Carey has established herself as a refreshing voice in the fantasy genre.
Now the author of 20 novels, her newest, Cassiel’s Servant (which revisits Terre D’Ange) was just released in August. Today, she turns 59.
Nora Roberts – October 10
On this day, October 10, in 1950, Nora Roberts was born in Silver Spring, Maryland. The first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame, her more than 225 novels have spent a combined 861 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, many of those in the number-one spot. She began to write during a blizzard in February 1979. A stay-at-home mom at the time, she states that with three feet of snow, a dwindling supply of chocolate, and no morning kindergarten for her two boys, she had little else to do.
Less than 30 years later, she was named to TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list. Today, she turns 73.
Anne Enright – October 11
On this day, October 11, in 1962, Anne Enright was born in Dublin, Ireland. She was named the first Laureate for Irish Fiction (2015–2018) and in 2007 won Man Booker Prize for her fourth novel, The Gathering. She has published eight novels (including The Wren, The Wren, which just dropped last month), many short stories and a non-fiction work called Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood, about the birth of her two children.
Her essays have appeared in the London Review of Books and The New York Review of Books, and she regularly writes for The Irish Times and The Guardian. Her fiction explores themes such as family, love, identity and motherhood. Today, she turns 61.
NoViolet Bulawayo – October 12
On this day, October 12, in 1981, NoViolet Bulawayo (the pen name for Elizabeth Zandile Tshele) was born in Tsholotsho, Zimbabwe. Her debut novel, We Need New Names, was included in the 2013 Man Booker Prize shortlist, making her the first black African woman and the first Zimbabwean to be shortlisted for the prize. She also won the Etisalat Prize for Literature and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, among other accolades.
Her second novel, 2022’s Glory (inspired by George Orwell’s Animal Farm and about a nation on the cusp of revolution) was also longlisted for the Booker and the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Today, she turns 42.
Conrad Richter – October 13
On this day, October 13, in 1890, Conrad Richter was born in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. Editor of a weekly newspaper at age 19, founder of a children’s magazine at 21, he mainly penned short stories until age 47, when his novel The Sea of Grass was published. Many of his works were historical fiction, documenting the American frontier. The Town, the third book of his well known The Awakening Land trilogy (which followed a frontier family in the early 19th-century Ohio Valley), was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1951.
Another novel, The Waters of Kronos, won the National Book Award ten years later. Mr. Richter died of a heart attack at age 78.
e.e. cummings – October 14
On this day, October 14, in 1894, Edward Estlin Cummings, known as e. e. cummings, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although he was also a novelist, playwright and painter, his fame came from his poetry. By age 8 he was already writing poetry daily, eventually amassing an amazing output of around 2,900 poems.
Known for “inventive use of grammar and syntax”, and creative use of punctuation, purposeful misspellings and even manipulated topography, his works bridged both avant garde and traditional styles. He died in 1962 at age 67.
Roxane Gay – October 15
On this day, October 15, in 1974, Roxane Gay was born in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2014 she debuted the New York Times best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist and also published the harrowing novel An Untamed State. In July 2016, Gay and poet Yona Harvey were announced as writers for Marvel Comics’ World of Wakanda, a spin-off from Black Panther, making them the first black women to be lead writers for Marvel; it ran for six issues and was hailed for its prominent portrayal of LGBTQ characters.
In 2017 she published the short story collection Difficult Women, and the ground breaking memoir Hunger (addressing issues of weight, body image, and building a positive relationship with food). Today, she turns 49.
Other LitStack Resources
Be sure to look at other Author Birthdays, a weekly feature on LitStack from contributing writer Sharon Browning, and be sure and support independent bookstores – buy a book today at LitStack Bookshop, with tons of author birthday titles on our list of Sharon’s Birthday Picks.
As a Bookshop affiliate, LitStack may earn a commission at no cost to you when you purchase products through our affiliate links.
