Writers and literary biographies

Hans Fallada

Hans Fallada, pen name of Rudolf Ditzen (1893–1947), was a German novelist whose bestsellers Little Man, What Now? (1932) and Every Man Dies Alone (1947) brought him fame.

Hans Henny Jahnn

Hans Henny Jahnn, born Hans Henny August Jahn (1894–1959), was a German writer and organ reformer whose novels Perrudja and Fluß ohne Ufer rank among German modernism's most demanding works.

Hans Henrik Holm

Hans Henrik Holm (1896–1980) was a Norwegian poet and folk-life researcher who wrote in difficult archaic Nynorsk, debuting with the lyrical epic Jonsoknatt in 1933.

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (c. 1622–1676) was a German Baroque novelist whose picaresque Simplicissimus, set in the Thirty Years' War, became the era's most widely read German novel.

Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1929–2022), also published as Andreas Thalmayr, was a German poet, essayist, editor, and translator; Gruppe 47 member, founder of Kursbuch, editor of Die Andere Bibliothek, Georg Büchner Prize winner 1963.

Hans Sahl

Hans Sahl, born Hans Salomon (1902–1993), was a German journalist, poet, and translator who fled the Nazis in 1933 and spent over 50 years in exile.

Hans Scherfig

Hans Scherfig (Hans Christian Scherfig, 1905–1979) was a Danish writer, painter, and communist known for satirical novels like Det forsømte forår and naivist jungle paintings.

Hans Verhagen

Hans Verhagen, full name Hans Pieter Verhagen (1939–2020), was a Dutch poet, journalist, and filmmaker, a leading figure of the neorealist movement De Nieuwe Stijl.

Hans Warren

Hans Warren, full name Johannes Adrianus Menne Warren (1921–2001), was a Dutch poet and literary critic whose candid diary series Geheim dagboek, published from 1981, made him one of the most discussed Dutch diarists.

Hanya Yanagihara

Hanya Yanagihara (born 1974) is an American novelist and editor-in-chief of T Magazine, author of The People in the Trees, A Little Life (Booker-shortlisted, 1.5 million copies), and To Paradise.

Haraprasad Shastri

Haraprasad Shastri (হরপ্রসাদ শাস্ত্রী), born Hara Prasad Bhattacharya, was an Indian Sanskrit scholar and historian of Bengali literature who discovered the Charyapada in Nepal in 1907.

Hari Krishna Kaul

Hari Krishna Kaul (1934–2009) was a Kashmiri short story writer and playwright, a major figure of the modern Kashmiri short story and winner of the 2000 Sahitya Akademi Award.

Hari Kunzru

Hari Kunzru (born 1969) is a British novelist and journalist, author of The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions, Gods Without Men, White Tears, and Red Pill; a 2003 Granta Best Young British Novelist who refused the 2003 John Llewellyn Rhys prize and teaches at NYU.

Hari Narayan Apte

Hari Narayan Apte, often written Ha. Na. Apte (1864–1919), was a Marathi novelist credited with giving the Marathi novel its first modern form in social and historical fiction.

Harihara (poet)

Harihara, also called Harisvara or Hampeya Harihara, was a Kannada poet of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, the first to compose entire works in the ragale meter.

Harischandra of Benares

Harischandra of Benares (हरिश्चन्द्र), known as Bharatendu Harishchandra, was a Hindi poet, playwright, and editor of Benares who lived 1850 to 1885 and wrote eighteen plays.

Harivansh Rai Bachchan (हरिवंश राय बच्चन)

Harivansh Rai Bachchan (हरिवंश राय बच्चन), 1907–2003, Hindi poet and translator of Madhushala; also translator of Khayyam and Shakespeare; Sahitya Akademi 1968, Padma Bhushan 1976; father of Amitabh Bachchan.

Harivara Vipra

Harivara Vipra, also written Haribar Bipra, was an Assamese poet of the pre-Sankari era who wrote verse kavyas retelling Mahabharata and Ramayana episodes at the court of King Durlabhnarayana of Kamata.

Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben, American thriller author born in Newark, New Jersey, wrote 35 novels including the Myron Bolitar series and Tell No One, won the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, and built a major Netflix adaptation franchise.

Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison was an American writer of speculative fiction, known for his combative persona and over 40 awards. He preferred to describe his work as "hyperactive magic realism."

Harold Alvarado Tenorio

Harold Alvarado Tenorio is a Colombian poet and editor born in Buga, Valle del Cauca, in 1945, founder and director of the poetry magazine Arquitrave and a Premio Simón Bolívar winner.

Harold Bloom

Harold Bloom (1930–2019), American literary critic and Yale Sterling Professor of the Humanities, author of The Anxiety of Influence (1973) and The Western Canon (1994); theorist of poetic influence, not the Harvard or other Blooms.

Harold Robbins

Harold Robbins (1916-1997), born Francis Kane and also Harold Rubin, American novelist of sex-and-money blockbusters like The Carpetbaggers (1961); Universal Pictures executive turned author, reported 750 million copies sold, many film adaptations.

Haroldo de Campos

Haroldo de Campos (1929–2003) was a Brazilian poet, critic, and translator who co-founded Concrete poetry in Brazil and coined transcreation, his theory of creative literary translation.

Harper Lee

Harper Lee, born Nelle Harper Lee, was an American novelist from Monroeville, Alabama, best known for To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), which won the Pulitzer Prize and sold over 40 million copies.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896), American abolitionist author of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), the anti-slavery novel serialized in The National Era and best-selling after the Bible.

Harry Crews

Harry Crews (1935-2012), American Southern Gothic novelist and memoirist, author of A Feast of Snakes and A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, longtime University of Florida writing professor.

Harry Martinson

Harry Martinson (1904–1978) was a Swedish modernist poet, novelist, and travel writer who won the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature, shared with Eyvind Johnson, and wrote the space epic Aniara.

Harry Mathews

Harry Mathews (1930–2017) was an American novelist, poet, and translator known for experimental fiction built on formal constraints and as the first American member of the Oulipo, the Paris-based group of constrained writing.