6,282 articles
Ayyappa Paniker
Ayyappa Paniker (കെ. അയ്യപ്പപ്പണിക്കർ, 1930–2006) was a Malayalam poet, critic, and translator who pioneered modernism in Malayalam poetry; his long poem Kurukshetram, published in 1960, marked a decisive break with traditional verse.
Azerbaijan Writers' Union
The Azerbaijan Writers' Union is the main professional organization of Azerbaijani writers, poets, and translators, founded in Baku in 1934 and long led by the writer Anar.
Aziz Nesin
Aziz Nesin (Mehmet Nusret Nesin, 1915–1995) was a Turkish humorist, novelist, and publisher, founder of Markopaşa and the Nesin Foundation, author of Zübük and Yaşar Ne Yaşar Ne Yaşamaz.
B. D. Hyman
B. D. Hyman (Barbara Davis Sherry, born 1947) is Bette Davis's only biological child, author of the 1985 memoir My Mother's Keeper and the 1987 Pentecostal sequel Narrow Is the Way; Davis disinherited her and her sons.
B. Jeyamohan
B. Jeyamohan (ஜெயமோகன்), born 1962 in Nagercoil, is an Indian Tamil and Malayalam novelist, critic, and screenwriter, known for the 26-volume Mahabharata retelling Venmurasu and films like Ponniyin Selvan and Naan Kadavul.
B. M. Srikantaiah
B. M. Srikantaiah (Belluru Mailarayya Srikantaiah), known as B.M. Sri, was an Indian Kannada writer and educationist whose 1921 English Geetagalu helped found modern Kannada literature.
B. P. Koirala
Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala (विश्वेश्वरप्रसाद कोइराला), known as BP, was a Nepali politician and writer, Nepal's first elected prime minister in 1959, and a pioneer of psychological realism in Nepali literature.
B. S. Mardhekar
B. S. Mardhekar (Bal Sitaram Mardhekar, बाळ सीताराम मर्ढेकर; 1909–1956) was a Marathi poet, novelist, and critic whose 1947 collection Kahi Kavita introduced modernist technique into Marathi poetry.
B. Traven
B. Traven, pseudonym of a German-Mexican novelist also known as Ret Marut, author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Death Ship; twelve novels, 40 million copies, identity still disputed.
B. W. Vilakazi
B. W. Vilakazi, born Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, was a South African Zulu poet, novelist, and linguist who wrote the first book of poems published in isiZulu.
Bacchylides
Bacchylides (Βακχυλίδης, c. 520–450 BC) was a Greek lyric poet from Ceos, ranked among the nine canonical lyric poets and known for victory odes and dithyrambs.
Badi' al-Zaman Foruzanfar
Badi' al-Zaman Foruzanfar (بدیعالزمان فروزانفر) was a Persian literary scholar and professor at the University of Tehran who became Iran's leading twentieth-century scholar of Rumi.
Badr Shakir al-Sayyab
Badr Shakir al-Sayyab (بدر شاكر السياب) was an Iraqi poet, translator, and prose writer, born in 1926, remembered as a founder of the free verse movement in Arabic poetry.
Baek Se-hee
Baek Se-hee (백세희, born 1990) was the South Korean author of the therapy memoir I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki (죽고 싶지만 떡볶이는 먹고 싶어), about her dysthymia; a million-copy, 25-country bestseller. She died October 16, 2025, aged 35, donating organs that saved five lives.
Baek Seok
Baek Seok, real name Paek Ki-haeng, was a Korean poet, born in 1912, who wrote his main work in Japanese-occupied Korea and died in the North in the mid-1990s.
Bagdasar Dpir
Bagdasar Dpir (Պաղտասար Դպիր, ca. 1683–1768) was an Armenian poet, teacher, and printer of Constantinople who managed Armenian printing houses for over 50 years and wrote more than 200 verse works.
Bahaa Taher
Bahaa Taher (بهاء طاهر), sometimes transliterated Bahaa Tahir, was an Egyptian novelist and translator who won the first Arabic Booker in 2008 for Sunset Oasis, dying in 2022 at 87.
Bahram Sadeghi
Bahram Sadeghi (بهرام صادقی, 1937 to 1985) was an Iranian physician, poet, and modernist fiction writer best known for his novella Malakut (1961), a landmark of twentieth-century Persian fiction.
Bairagi Kainla
Bairagi Kainla (बैरागी काइँला) is the pen name of Til Bikram Nembang Limbu, a Nepali poet born in 1939 in Panchthar District who co-founded the Tesro Aayam movement.
Bal Krishna Sama
Bal Krishna Sama (बालकृष्ण सम), born Bal Krishna Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana, was a Nepali playwright whose verse play Mutuko Byatha marked the beginning of modern Nepali drama.
Bal Krishna Sharma Naveen
Bal Krishna Sharma Naveen (1897–1960) was a Hindi poet, journalist, and freedom fighter, counted among the leading poets of the nationalist stream of modern Hindi poetry.
Balachandran Chullikkad
Balachandran Chullikkad (ബാലചന്ദ്രന് ചുള്ളിക്കാട്) is a Malayalam poet, writer, and actor known for rebellious modernist poetry; his collections include Ghazal and Dracula, and he refuses literary awards.
Balagangadhara Tilak
Balagangadhara Tilak, full name Devarakonda Balagangadhara Tilak, was a Telugu poet, novelist, and short story writer (1921–1966) whose collection Amrutham Kurisina Ratri won the Kendra Sahitya Academy award in 1971.
Baldassare Castiglione
Baldassare Castiglione (1478–1529) was an Italian diplomat and man of letters whose Book of the Courtier, printed in Venice in 1528, defined the ideal Renaissance courtier.
Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen
Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen were an Australian ethnographic partnership whose studies of Central Australian Aboriginal peoples produced The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899).
Bálint Balassi
Bálint Balassi (1554–1594) was a Hungarian nobleman, soldier, and poet, considered the first great classic of Hungarian-language poetry, known for love and religious verse and the nine-line Balassi stanza.
Baltasar Gracián
Baltasar Gracián (1601–1658) was a Spanish Jesuit writer of the Baroque, the leading theorist of conceptism and author of El Criticón and the Oráculo manual.
Baltasar Lopes da Silva
Baltasar Lopes da Silva, who wrote poetry as Osvaldo Alcântara, was a Cape Verdean writer and lawyer who co-founded Claridade in 1936 and wrote the novel Chiquinho (1947).
Balwant Gargi
Balwant Gargi (1916–2003) was an Indian Punjabi-language playwright, novelist, and theater director who founded Panjab University's Indian Theatre Department and won the Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi awards.
Balwantray Thakore
Balwantray Thakore (બળવંતરાય ઠાકોર, 1869–1952) was a Gujarati poet, critic, and historian who pioneered the sonnet in Gujarati poetry, bridging the Pandit and Gandhi eras.