Birthdays: Percy Shelley (1792), Knut Hamsun (1859), Robert Hayden (1913), Robert Beck (1918), Mary White Calstom (1948), Tim Winton (1960), Dennis Lehane (1965), Fred Khumalo (1966), Jojo Moyes(1969)

Robert Hayden was the first Black person to hold the office of US Poet Laureate – 1976-1978.

Knut Hamsun won the 1920 Nobel Prize for Literature for “Growth of the Soil”

Quote: “I always make a point of working on more than one project at a time. When I am stuck with my, say, fiction, I change gears and work on a piece of journalism or some other non-fiction. I don’t wait for inspiration. I write every day – even if it’s unpublishable rubbish.” – Fred Khumalo

Tip: If you can afford it, enter contests, especially ones that offer comments not just scores. The feedback from some can be invaluable. But be prepared for uneven results. Don’t look at the scores so much as pay attention to the comments.

Jumpstart: You’re one of the first people who get to go on vacation on the international space station. Do you go? Why or why not? What happens when something goes wrong?