7 Author Shoutouts - Authors We Recommend

Here are seven author shoutouts for this week. Check out which authors are your favorites, and discover an author you haven’t read before.

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This Week’s Author Shoutouts:

J.K. Rowling

J. K. Rowling hailed from Yate, South Gloucestershire, England, and is widely recognized as one of the most renowned contemporary writers. Her inspirational journey from humble beginnings to great success, coupled with her benevolent contributions, shaped her into an iconic figure. However, her public stance against transgender individuals and their rights caused her reputation to suffer accordingly.

J.K. Rowling, the writer behind the immensely popular Harry Potter series (along with various companion pieces), also penned the adult book titled The Casual Vacancy and created the Cormoran Strike detective series, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Herman Melville

Herman Melville, born in New York City in 1819, is renowned for his famous novel Moby Dick, as well as other well-known works like Bartleby, the Scrivener and Billy Bud, Sailor. Melville, who came from a lineage connected to the Boston Tea Party, was the son of a traveling French dry goods importer. He, himself, had a seafaring background, having worked on whaling ships, running away to live with a tribe of cannibals, participating in a mutiny, and spending time as a beachcomber.

He experienced limited accomplishment during his lifetime, passing away from heart disease at the age of 72. It took another century for Moby Dick to be acknowledged as one of the most distinguished American novels.

Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende, a Chilean diplomat’s daughter, was born in Lima, Peru. Her initial masterpiece, The House of the Spirits, began as a letter to her sickly grandfather, catapulted her into the realm of vibrant storytelling and mastery of magical realism. Currently residing in California, Allende has authored 27 literary works, which have been translated into more than 30 languages and garnered sales of over 56 million copies.

She has received multiple accolades for her writing, and in 2014, the Presidential Medal of Freedom was bestowed upon her by President Barack Obama.

P.D. James (Phyllis Dorothy)

P. D. James, born in Oxford, England in 1920, faced financial constraints that forced her to leave school at 16. Despite her father’s lack of belief in higher education for girls, she got married at 21 and became a mother of two children. However, she had to single-handedly support her family when her husband was placed in a psychiatric institution. In 1962, P. D. James published her first detective novel, introducing readers to her renowned character, investigator/poet Adam Dalgliesh.

At the time of her passing in 2014 at the age of 94, she had authored more than 20 novels, garnered numerous accolades, achieved Peer status, and received multiple honorary degrees. Quite impressive for a woman who did not complete high school.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley, born in Horsham, Sussex, England in 1792, was an esteemed lyric poet in the English language. Despite his brilliance, he remained relatively unknown during his lifetime. This was likely due to the reluctance of publishers and editors to distribute his works, fearing legal consequences as his radical political and social beliefs were deemed blasphemous and seditious.

He passed away in 1822, just one day before turning 30, due to an (alleged) accidental drowning. His brief existence encompassed a connection with Lord Byron, a complex and theatrical romantic life, and a union with Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein.

Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant, born in Tourville-sur-Arques, France in 1850, is renowned as one of the pioneers of modern short stories. He received guidance from Gustave Flaubert and Alexandre Dumas, fils, and went on to create a remarkable body of work. Maupassant authored more than 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books, and one volume of poetry. His debut work, Boule de Suif, gained immense popularity and is regarded as his masterpiece.

Despite achieving both public and critical acclaim, he longed for isolation and experienced hallucinations, leading him to attempt suicide at the age of 42. Subsequently, less than two years later, he passed away following his admission to a private mental institution in Paris.

Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi hails from Paonia, Colorado. His remarkable first book, The Windup Girl, achieved the prestigious Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards in 2010 and earned recognition from Time magazine as one of the Top 10 Books of 2009. In the subsequent year, Bacigalupi’s young adult novel Ship Breaker received the esteemed Michael L. Printz Award for its excellence in teen literature and secured a nomination for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

His literary works frequently address societal and moral concerns through subjects such as bioengineering (illustrated in The Windup Girl), water rights (explored in The Water Knife), revelations of corporate wrongdoing (depicted in The Doubt Factory), and the topic of undocumented immigration (discussed in the young readers’ book, Zombie Baseball Beatdown).

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