Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Literature & Poetry

6

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Jorge Amado

Jorge Leal Amado de Faria

Brazil

1912 – 2001 (88 years old)

Foremost Brazilian novelist whose colorful, sensual chronicles of Afro-Bahian culture in Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands captivated the world.

Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

6 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

2

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Bing Xin

冰心

Qing Empire

1900 – 1999 (98 years old)

Pioneering Chinese poet, essayist, and children's author whose delicate collections A Maze of Stars and Letters to Young Readers nurtured generations of Chinese readers.

Beijing, China

2 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

2

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Nizar Qabbani

نزار قباني

State of Damascus (French Mandate)

1923 – 1998 (75 years old)

Syrian diplomat and poet hailed as the most celebrated contemporary Arab poet, renowned for his sensual romantic lyricism and searing political elegies following the 1967 Six-Day War.

Damascus, Syria

2 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

13

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Octavio Paz Lozano

Octavio Paz

Mexico

31 March 1914 – 19 April 1998 (84 years old)

Preeminent Mexican poet, essayist, and 1990 Nobel laureate whose landmark sociological essay The Labyrinth of Solitude (El laberinto de la soledad) and circular calendar poem Sunstone (Piedra de Sol) unlocked the soul of Mexican identity.

Mexico City, Mexico

13 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

1

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Amos Tutuola

Amos Tutuola

Nigeria

1920 – 1997 (76 years old)

Nigerian writer whose bizarre, intoxicating 1952 mythological novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard became the first African novel in English to achieve worldwide international fame.

Abeokuta (Ogun State), Nigeria

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

5

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Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine

محمد خير الدين

Morocco

1941 – 1995 (54 years old)

Revolutionary Moroccan Amazigh poet and novelist from the Anti-Atlas who co-founded the avant-garde literary review 'Souffles' and pioneered 'linguistic guerrilla warfare' against political and cultural censorship.

Rabat, Morocco

5 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

1

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Flora Nwapa

Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa

Nigeria

1931 – 1993 (62 years old)

Nigerian author widely recognized as the 'Mother of Modern African Literature', becoming in 1966 the first internationally published African female novelist in the English language with Efuru.

Oguta (Imo State), Nigeria

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

4

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Tahar Djaout

طاهر جاووت

Algeria

1954 – 1993 (39 years old)

Heroic Algerian investigative journalist, poet, and novelist whose assassination in 1993 marked the tragic opening of the targeted killings of intellectuals during the Algerian Civil War, immortalized by his motto 'Silence is death'.

Azeffoun (Tizi Ouzou), Algeria

4 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

1

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Kobo Abe

安部 公房

Japan

1924 – 1993 (68 years old)

Japanese avant-garde novelist and playwright dubbed the 'Japanese Kafka', whose existential masterpiece The Woman in the Dunes explored alienation and human endurance.

Tokyo, Japan

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

4

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Yahya Haqqi

يحيى حقي

Egypt

1905 – 1992 (87 years old)

Revered Egyptian diplomat, critic, and author acclaimed as the father of the modern Egyptian novella, whose 1940 masterpiece 'The Lamp of Umm Hashim' explored the philosophical clash between Western science and traditional Eastern faith.

Cairo, Egypt

4 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

4

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Yusuf Idris

يوسف إدريس

Egypt

1927 – 1991 (64 years old)

Egyptian physician, novelist, and playwright revered as the undisputed master of the modern Arabic short story, celebrated for 'The Cheapest Nights' and his revolutionary avant-garde play 'The Farfoors'.

Cairo, Egypt

4 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

5

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Ihsan Abdel Quddous

إحسان عبد القدوس

Egypt

1919 – 1990 (71 years old)

Prolific Egyptian novelist, journalist, and editor-in-chief of 'Rose al-Yusuf' whose daring novels dissected bourgeois hypocrisy, political corruption, and women's liberation, adapted into over forty classic Egyptian films.

Cairo, Egypt

5 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

1

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Birago Diop

Birago Ismael Diop

French West Africa

1906 – 1989 (82 years old)

Senegalese poet and folklorist of the Negritude movement who preserved West African oral folklore in Tales of Amadou Koumba and authored the iconic poem Souffles (Breaths).

Dakar, Senegal

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Literature & Poetry

4

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Kateb Yacine

كاتب ياسين

Algeria

1929 – 1989 (60 years old)

Algerian literary giant who revolutionized modern Maghrebi literature with his polyphonic masterpiece 'Nedjma' (1956) and pioneered revolutionary popular street theater in Algerian Arabic and Amazigh.

Algiers, Algeria

4 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

1

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Nicolas Guillen

Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista

Cuba

1902 – 1989 (87 years old)

Afro-Cuban poet acclaimed as Cuba's National Poet, who incorporated Afro-Cuban son rhythms into Spanish verse (poesia negra) and championed racial equality and anti-imperialism.

Havana, Cuba

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

5

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Mouloud Mammeri

مولود معمري

Algeria

1917 – 1989 (71 years old)

Eminent Algerian anthropologist, linguist, and author of 'The Opium and the Stick', whose pioneering codification of Tamazight grammar and Kabyle poetry sparked the Berber Spring of 1980.

Beni Yenni (Tizi Ouzou), Algeria

5 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

1

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Shen Congwen

沈从文

Qing Empire

1902 – 1988 (85 years old)

Chinese writer celebrated for his lyrical pastoral novella Border Town, who captured the traditional culture and Miao indigenous harmony of rural western Hunan.

Fenghuang (Hunan), China

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

1

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Carlos Drummond de Andrade

Carlos Drummond de Andrade

Brazil

1902 – 1987 (84 years old)

Brazilian poet widely considered the most influential Brazilian poet of the twentieth century, whose modernist verses blended introspective irony, social conscience, and linguistic simplicity.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

1 Full Record →