Writers and literary biographies

Bertel Gripenberg

Bertel Gripenberg (1878–1947) was a Finland-Swedish baron and poet, born in Saint Petersburg, whose 1918 Civil War collection Under fanan made him celebrated before postwar re-evaluation.

Bertha von Suttner

Bertha von Suttner was an Austrian pacifist novelist whose anti-war novel Die Waffen nieder! (1889) made her the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1905.

Beryl Bainbridge

Dame Beryl Bainbridge (1932–2010) was an English novelist known for short, darkly comic fiction; she was shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, more than anyone without winning.

Beş Hececiler

Beş Hececiler, or Hecenin Beş Şairi, names five Turkish poets, including Faruk Nafiz Çamlıbel, who turned from aruz to syllabic meter around 1917 under Ziya Gökalp's influence.

Besiki

Besiki (ბესიკი) was the pen name of Besarion Gabashvili, an 18th-century Georgian poet and diplomat, born in Tbilisi in 1750 and known for raising Georgian love poetry to new heights.

Bessie Head

Bessie Head (Bessie Amelia Emery Head) was a South African-born novelist exiled in Botswana, known for the novels When Rain Clouds Gather, Maru, and A Question of Power.

Betti Alver

Betti Alver, born Elisabet Alver (1906–1989), was an Estonian poet and translator of the Arbujad circle who returned to poetry in 1966 after two decades of Soviet-era silence.

Bettina von Arnim, née Brentano (1785–1859), German Romantic writer of Frankfurt and Berlin; wife of Achim von Arnim, sister of Clemens Brentano; author of Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde (1835) and Die Günderode (1840).

Betty Mahmoody

Betty Mahmoody is an American author whose memoir Not Without My Daughter (1987), recounting her escape from Iran with her daughter, sold 12 million copies and became a 1991 film.

Beverly Cleary

Beverly Cleary (1916-2021), American children's author of Henry Huggins and the Ramona Quimby series set on Portland's Klickitat Street; winner of the 1984 Newbery Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw and the 1975 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award.

Bhabendra Nath Saikia

Bhabendra Nath Saikia (ভবেন্দ্ৰনাথ শইকীয়া) was an Assamese novelist, short story writer, playwright, and film director from Assam, India, who won the 1976 Sahitya Akademi Award and a Rajat Kamal for each of his seven films.

Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi

Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi (1908–23 October 1943) was an Odia writer, editor, and political organizer who founded the Nabajuga Sahitya Samsad and pioneered communism in Odisha.

Bhagwati Charan Verma

Bhagwati Charan Verma (भगवतीचरण वर्मा; 1903–1981) was a Hindi novelist, playwright, and poet best known for Chitralekha, and a winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award and Padma Bhushan.

Bhagwati Kumar Sharma

Bhagwatikumar Sharma (ભગવતીકુમાર શર્મા) was an Indian writer and journalist who wrote in Gujarati and won the 1988 Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Asooryalok.

Bhairav Aryal

Bhairav Aryal (भैरव अर्याल, roughly 1936–1976) was a Nepali satirical essayist and journalist whose collection Jaya Bhundi made the humorous-satirical essay a major genre of Nepali literature.

Bhalchandra Nemade

Bhalchandra Nemade (भालचंद्र नेमाडे) is a Marathi novelist, poet, and critic known for Kosala (1963) and for formulating the literary theory of nativism, or deshivad.

Bhanubhakta Acharya

Bhanubhakta Acharya (भानुभक्त आचार्य, 1814–1868) was a Nepali poet honored with the title Adikavi, meaning first poet, for translating the Sanskrit Ramayana into simple Nepali verse and unifying the language.

Bharathidasan

Bharathidasan (1891–1964), born Kanagasabai Subburathnam, was a Tamil poet, playwright, and rationalist writer from Pondicherry known as Puratchi Kavignar, the Revolutionary Poet, whose verse fueled the Dravidian movement.

Bhasa

Bhasa (भास) is one of ancient India's most celebrated Sanskrit dramatists, praised by Kalidasa, known through thirteen plays published in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series in 1912, including Svapnavasavadatta.

Bhattanarayana

Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa (भट्ट नारायण) was a Vaiṣṇava Sanskrit dramatist, known for his six-act play Veṇīsaṃhāra, which recalls the Mahābhārata war and Bhīma's vow of revenge.

Bhikhari Das

Bhikhari Das (भिखारीदास) was an 18th-century Hindi poet and literary theorist of the Ritikal period, regarded as the foremost expounder of all the components of poetry.

Bhisham Sahni

Bhisham Sahni (भीष्म साहनी) was an Indian Hindi writer, playwright, and actor best known for the novel Tamas, an account of the Partition of India, and received the Padma Bhushan in 1998.

Bholabhai Patel

Bholabhai Patel (ભોળાભાઈ પટેલ) was an Indian Gujarati essayist, literary critic, and translator who taught Hindi at Gujarat University and won the Padma Shri in 2008.

Bholanath Sarabhai

Bholanath Sarabhai (ભોળાનાથ સારાભાઇ) was a Gujarati poet, judge, and religious reformer who founded the Ahmadabad Prarthana Samaj in 1871 and was called the Raja Rammohan Roy of Gujarat.

Bhudev Mukhopadhyay

Bhudev Mukhopadhyay (ভূদেব মুখোপাধ্যায়, 1827–1894) was a Bengali essayist and historian who helped establish the essay as a genre in Bengali and rose to Director of Public Instructions in British India.

Bhupi Sherchan

Bhupi Sherchan (भूपी शेरचन; 1935–1989) was a Nepali poet known for satirical free verse criticizing Nepali society and politics; his 1969 collection Ghumne Mech Mathi Andho Manchhe won the Sajha Puraskar.

Bi Shumin

Bi Shumin (毕淑敏, born 1952) is a Chinese novelist, essayist, and former army physician whose novels include Red Prescription, Blood Ruby, and The Woman Psychologist.

Bian Gong

Bian Gong (邊貢, 1476–1532) was a Ming dynasty poet, writer, and official from Licheng, Shandong, one of the Former Seven Masters, whose works survive as the Huaquan Collection.

Bian Zhilin

Bian Zhilin (卞之琳) was a Chinese modernist poet, translator, and scholar who carried new poetry from the Crescent Moon school into 1930s modernism, best known for the poem Duanzhang.