On this day
June 20 in literary history
Literary history for June 20: 24 writers born and 8 writers who died from 1351 to 2005. Born on this day: Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Boaz Yakin, Mark Ovenden.
Writers born on June 20
| Born | Writer | Known as |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Mohamed Mbougar Sarr | Senegalese writer |
| 1966 | Boaz Yakin | American screenwriter and film director |
| 1963 | Mark Ovenden | British writer and journalist |
| 1959 | Robert B. Weide | Screenwriter, producer, director, documentarian |
| 1955 | E. Lynn Harris | American novelist |
| 1953 | Robert Crais | American author of detective fiction |
| 1952 | Vikram Seth | Indian novelist and poet (born 1952) |
| 1951 | Paul Muldoon | Irish poet |
| 1936 | Enn Vetemaa | Estonian writer |
| 1933 | Claire Tomalin | English biographer and journalist (born 1933) |
| 1932 | Robert Rozhdestvensky | Russian poet (1932–1994) |
| 1929 | Anne Weale | British writer (1929–2007) |
| 1923 | Peter Gay | German-American historian and author (1923–2015) |
| 1918 | Zoltán Sztáray | Zoltán Sztáray, Hungarian-American author (died 2011) |
| 1915 | Terence Young (director) | British film director and screenwriter (1915–1994) |
| 1914 | Muazzez İlmiye Çığ | Turkish librarian, writer, and supercentenarian (1914–2024) |
| 1912 | Anthony Buckeridge | English author (1912–2004) |
| 1910 | Josephine Johnson | American poet (1910–1990) |
| 1906 | Catherine Cookson | British novelist (1906–1998) |
| 1905 | Lillian Hellman | American dramatist and screenwriter (1905–1984) |
| 1897 | Elisabeth Hauptmann | German writer (1897–1973) |
| 1858 | Charles W. Chesnutt | African-American writer, activist, and lawyer (1858–1932) |
| 1813 | Joseph Autran | French poet (1813–1877) |
| 1786 | Marceline Desbordes-Valmore | French poet and novelist (1786–1859) |
Writers who died on June 20
| Died | Writer | Known as |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Larry Collins (writer) | American writer and historian (1929–2005) |
| 1997 | Cahit Külebi | Turkish poet and author (1917–1997) |
| 1995 | Emil Cioran | Romanian philosopher, aphorist, and essayist (1911–1995) |
| 1945 | Bruno Frank | German writer (1887–1945) |
| 1876 | John Neal | American writer and activist (1793–1876) |
| 1870 | Jules de Goncourt | French writer (1830–1870) |
| 1840 | Pierre Daunou | French statesman, author, archivist and historian |
| 1351 | Margareta Ebner | German Dominican nun and writer |
Featured
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (1990) — Mohamed Mbougar Sarr is a Senegalese writer. Raised in Diourbel, Senegal and later studying in France, Sarr is the author of four novels as well as a number of award-winning short stories. He won the 2021 Prix Goncourt for his novel The Most Secret Memory of Men, becoming the first Sub-Saharan African to do so.
Boaz Yakin (1966) — Boaz Yakin is an American filmmaker based in New York City. He has written screenplays to films like The Rookie, Fresh, A Price Above Rubies, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Now You See Me, and has directed the 2000 sports drama Remember the Titans and the 2012 Jason Statham action film Safe.
Mark Ovenden (1963) — Mark Ovenden F.R.G.S. is a British broadcaster and author who specialises in the subjects of graphic design, cartography and architecture in public transport, with an emphasis on underground rapid transit.
Sources & data
- Compiled from Wikipedia’s “On this day” selections (CC BY-SA 4.0), filtered for writers and literary events.