August 24

Yan Lianke

Yan Lianke 阎连科 Chinese poet, novelist (born August 24, 1958) – The Day the Sun Died (2018)

Read a review of Yan's novel Hard Like Water here

Watch an interview with Yan
 here


Ali Smith

Ali Smith (born August 24 1962) Scottish fiction and nonfiction author – Winter (2017)

Read an interview of Ali Smith here

Ali Smith speaks at the Edinburgh World Writer's Conference
 here


Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges (born August 24, 1899) Argentinian poet, essayist, story writer – Labyrinths

Read an interview with Borges here

Listen to a set of lectures that Borge gave about poetry and writing
 here


Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry (born August 24, 1957) U.K. comedian, novelist, scholar – The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within (2005)

Read Fry's assessment of modern poetry here

[Fry] believes that a lot of 'modern poetry can be listless and, perhaps more unforgivably than anything, just simply lazy. It's not that it's naive or formless, just: "Go back and work harder at it before you show it to the public, it's not ready." It's not worth time. Poems are not like novels or speeches or emails or texts.

Stephen Fry talks about poetic form
 here