February 29

Natasha Beaulieu

Natasha Beaulieu (born February 29, 1964) French-Canadian novelist

Read about Natasha Beaulieu (in French) here

Visit Natasha Beaulieu's website
http://www.penlocke.com/


Alene Brown Harris

Alene Brown Harris (born in 1948) U.S. chemist and Chevron executive (retired) - Alene: Chevron's First African-American Scientist (2019)

Read about Alene Brown Harris here


Howard Nemerov

Howard Nemerov (born February 29, 1920) U.S. poet

Read an interview with Howard Nemerov here

Howard:
I sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem. When Robert Frost was alive I was known as the other new England poet which is to be barely known at all and after Robert and I became friends, and after he died, I wrote a poem about a couple of maple trees I'd walked under every Autumn. They come in the last line.
And Robert had always said you mustn't think of the last line first or it's only a fake poem and not a real one and while I'm inclined to agree I make my own exceptions. I've thought of the last line of some poems for years and tried them out and it wouldn't work because the last line was much too beautiful for the poem and the poem never arrived at it properly but finally I think I got it in the poem
FOR ROBERT FROST, IN THE AUTUMN, IN VERMONT
"now on your turning page
The lines blaze with a constant light, displayed
As in the maple's cold and fiery shade."

Read the whole poem here

Howard Nemerov reads his poem
The Makers  here