Writers and literary biographies

Jaime Jaramillo Escobar

Jaime Jaramillo Escobar, who wrote under the pseudonym X-504, was a Colombian poet from Antioquia and co-creator of the Nadaísmo movement; he died in Medellín in 2021 at 89.

Jaime Sabines

Jaime Sabines Gutiérrez (1926–1999) was a Mexican poet from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, one of the most widely read Mexican poets of the late twentieth century.

Jaime Sáenz (Jaime Sáenz Guzmán, 1921–1986) was a Bolivian poet, novelist, and essayist regarded as Bolivia's most important writer, known for poetry linked to alcohol, night, and marginality in La Paz.

Jainendra Kumar

Jainendra Kumar (जैनेंद्र कुमार) was a Hindi novelist, born Anandilal in 1905, regarded as the founder of the psychoanalytic tradition in the Hindi novel and awarded the Padma Bhushan.

Jaishankar Prasad (जयशंकर प्रसाद)

Jaishankar Prasad (जयशंकर प्रसाद), 1889–1937, Varanasi Hindi poet, dramatist, and novelist; one of the Four Pillars of Chhayavad with Pant, Nirala, and Mahadevi; author of Kamayani (1936), Skanda Gupta, and Dhruvasvamini.

Jakob Balde

Jakob Balde (1604–1668) was a German Jesuit priest and Neo-Latin poet, court preacher to Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria, acclaimed "the German Horace" and ranked among the greatest Neo-Latin poets.

Jakob Hurt

Jakob Hurt (1839–1907) was an Estonian folklore scholar, linguist, and Lutheran pastor who organized a nationwide network that collected some 260,000 items of Estonian folklore.

Jakob Knudsen

Jakob Knudsen (1858–1917) was a Danish clergyman and writer of nearly twenty books, remembered for the hymn "Se, nu stiger solen" and the two-part Luther novel Angst and Mod.

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1751–1792) was a Baltic German dramatist of the Sturm und Drang movement, known for the comedies Der Hofmeister and Die Soldaten.

Jakob van Hoddis

Jakob van Hoddis was the pen name of Hans Davidsohn (1887–1942), a German-Jewish Expressionist poet best known for "Weltende" (1911), considered the opening work of German Expressionism.

Jakob Wassermann

Jakob Wassermann was a German novelist and essayist from Fürth, one of the most widely read German-language authors of the early twentieth century, best known for Der Fall Maurizius (1928).

Jakob Wimpfeling

Jakob Wimpfeling (1450–1528) was a German humanist, historian, and poet from Schlettstadt in Alsace and a central figure of Upper Rhine humanism, called the "Schoolmaster of Germany" for shaping German education through his pedagogical writings.

Jakuren

Jakuren (寂蓮), born Fujiwara no Sadanaga around 1139, was a Japanese waka poet and Buddhist monk named in 1201 as a compiler of the imperial anthology Shin Kokin Wakashū.

Jalada Africa

Jalada Africa is a pan-African writers' collective and digital publisher founded in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2013, best known for its themed anthologies and translation project.

Jalal Al-e-Ahmad (جلال آل‌احمد)

Jalal Al-e-Ahmad (جلال آل‌احمد), 1923–1969, Iranian fiction writer, translator, and social critic from Tehran; author of Gharbzadegi (Westoxication, 1962), Modir-e Madraseh, and political allegories; married Simin Daneshvar.

Jalil Mammadguluzadeh

Jalil Mammadguluzadeh (Cəlil Məmmədquluzadə, known to contemporaries as Mirza Jalil, 1869–1932) was an Azerbaijani writer and satirist who founded the magazine Molla Nasreddin and pioneered critical realism in Azerbaijani literature.

Jalol Ikromi

Jalol Ikromi (1909–1993) was a Tajik novelist and playwright, considered Tajikistan's most important Soviet-period fiction writer, best known for the historical trilogy The Twelve Gates of Bukhara.

Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid (Elaine Potter Richardson, born 1949, St. John's, Antigua) is an Antiguan-American novelist and essayist, New Yorker staff writer from 1974, author of Annie John, Lucy, A Small Place, and My Brother, and Harvard professor emerita.

James A. Michener

James A. Michener (1907–1997), American novelist of place-based epic historical fiction; author of Tales of the South Pacific (1948 Pulitzer), Hawaii, Centennial, and The Covenant; about 100 million copies sold.

James Agee

James Agee (1909–1955) was an American writer known for Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Death in the Family.

James Baldwin

James Baldwin (1924–1987), Harlem-born American novelist and essayist of Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni's Room, and The Fire Next Time; civil rights witness, Cambridge Union debater, and subject of I Am Not Your Negro.

James Blish

James Blish (1921-1975), American science fiction author of Cities in Flight and Hugo-winning A Case of Conscience, Futurians member, critic as William Atheling Jr., and adapter of Star Trek episodes for Bantam.

James Boswell

James Boswell (1740–1795), ninth laird of Auchinleck, Scottish lawyer and diarist, author of the Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) and Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785); his recovered journals were published by Yale from 1950.

James Bowen (author)

James Anthony Bowen (born 1979), English author of A Street Cat Named Bob; recovering heroin addict and busker whose 2007 rescue of stray cat Bob led to a memoir series sold over 8 million copies in 40-plus languages and two films.

James Branch Cabell

James Branch Cabell (1879-1958), Richmond-born American fantasy and satire author of Jurgen (1919) and the 18-volume Biography of the Life of Manuel set in Poictesme; acquitted of obscenity in 1922.

James Clavell

James Clavell (1924-1994), Australian-born British novelist and Hollywood screenwriter, author of the Asian Saga (King Rat, Tai-Pan, Shogun, Noble House, Whirlwind, Gai-Jin); a Changi POW whose 1975 novel Shogun sold millions and inspired 1980 and 2024 miniseries.

James Cousins

James Cousins (1873–1956) was an Irish poet, playwright, and critic of the Irish Literary Revival alongside Yeats, who moved to India in 1915 and coined the term "Indo-Anglian".

James Dashner

James Dashner, American young adult author from Georgia, creator of the #1 New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series (The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure), also the Mortality Doctrine and Infinity Ring series; over 21 million copies sold and a $949 million film trilogy.

James Dickey

James Lafayette Dickey (1923–1997), American poet, novelist, and critic; National Book Award winner for Buckdancer's Choice, Library of Congress poetry consultant, and author of the best-selling novel Deliverance.