January 9, 2014

2014Amiri Baraka, American poet, playwright, and academic (born 1934)^[†]

Amiri Baraka, previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He was the author of numerous books of poetry and taught at several universities, including the University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University. He received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award in 2008 for Tales of the Out and the Gone. Baraka's plays, poetry, and essays have been described by scholars as constituting defining texts for African-American culture.

2014Josep Maria Castellet, Spanish poet and critic (born 1926)^[†]

Josep Maria Castellet Díaz de Cossío, also known as José María Castellet, was a Spanish Catalan writer, poet, literacy critic, publisher and editor.

2014Paul du Toit, South African painter and sculptor (born 1965)^[†]

Paul Johan du Toit was a South African artist, working in painting, sculpture, paper and mixed media. His exhibits have been displayed globally. Most notably, three of his sculptures were selected for the 2001 Florence Biennale.

2014Dale T. Mortensen, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1939)^[†]

Dale Thomas Mortensen was an American economist, a professor at Northwestern University, and a winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.