Birthdays: James R. Lowell (1819), Christian Nestell Bovee (1820), Charles M. Andrews (1863), Hugo Ball (1886), Duff Cooper (1890), Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892), Sean O’Faolain (1900), Morley Callaghan (1903), Edward Gorey (1925), Joanna Russ (1937), Ishmael Reed (1938), Gerald Stern (1945), Richard North Patterson (1947)

Charles McLean Andres won the 1935 Pulitzer Prize for History for “The Colonial Background of the American Revolution”

Edna St. Vincent Millay won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Gerald Stern won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer for Poetry

Quote: “No one says a novel has to be one thing. It can be anything it wants to be, a vaudeville show, the six o’clock news, the mumblings of wild men saddled by demons.” – Ishmael Reed

Tip: Some evening, light a single candle and turn off all other lights. How are your surroundings different? Imagine this is all you have for lighting. What would be different for you? This is especially helpful for historical or fantasy novels.

Jumpstart: She wasn’t always afraid of the dark… (use: suitcase, yarn, clock)