Taurus (20 April - 20 May)

Symbolized by a bull with the gaudiest clip-on nose ring you’ve seen, the Taurus Writer is born under the auspices of the planet Venus, which ancient Romans revered as the goddess of Hallmark cards, and maximalist Tinder bios.

Tauruses are prone to sore throats, neck cramps and thyroid issues, most likely stemming from screaming love songs with the car windows rolled all the way up. As a fixed sign, they are contenders for the heavy-weight title of stubbornness.

Despite the brash, masculine imagery conjured up by its bullish namesake, this negative yin sign is naturally feminine. In fact, Tauruses often carry a torch for the strongest of female protagonists. Whether in Charlotte Bronte’s (b. April 21, 1816) Jane Eyre and her indomitable spirit, Barbara Park’s (b. April 21, 1947) foul-mouthed kindergartener, Junie B. Jones, or even Vladimir Nabokov’s (b. April 23, 1899) infamously objectified Lolita.

 The Taurus Writer is also known as the most sensual of all the signs, with characters attracted to sounds, sights, and all things umami. Thomas Pynchon’s (b. May 8, 1937) The Crying of Lot 49 takes time to pay tribute to the writing of Nabokov, the paintings of Remedios Varo, and the music of the Beatles; while Nora Ephron’s (b. May 19, 1941) Heartburn intercuts a miserable divorce with her favorite comfort food recipes.

 But this sign’s real bread and butter is best expressed in the Second House of the Zodiac, the area of personal values, and material possessions. Of tangible riches, and intangible ones. In short, the things we take with us when we die, and the things we cannot.

 Many Taurus writers question the material world they’ve been born into. Anne Dillard’s (b. April 30, 1945) Pilgrim at Tinker Creek explores the cruelness of nature, Joseph Heller’s (b. May 1, 1923) Catch-22 contemplates theodicy during war, while Robert Warren Penn’s (b. April 24, 1905) All the King’s Men mourns virtue in American politicians.

Their characters charge through obstacles to find their answers, such as Charles R. Johnson’s (b. April 23, 1948) swashbuckling Middle Passage, which examines the horrors of American slavery through philosophy, history, parable and magical realism. Even Harper Lee’s (b. April 28, 1926) To Kill a Mockingbird, which would act as a kind of dowsing rod for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s.

 But through each journey these Earth signs are often on the hunt for their own El Dorado: a lost city of gold. Just as L. Frank Baum’s (b. May 15, 1856) Dorothy Gale traverses the Land of Oz, J.M. Barrie’s (b. May 9, 1860) perpetual slumber party of Peter Pan’s NeverNever Land, and Terry Pratchett’s (b. April 28, 1948) endless adventure-scape, Discworld. Only when the Taurus Writer’s protagonists can domesticate these wild literary landscapes, can they gain their true, everlasting riches.

 Whether indulging in art, food or fantasy worlds, the Taurus Writer has the stubborn drive and endless imagination to achieve all the biggest accolades and endowments, given they can slow down on the retail-therapy, and hit pause on The Great British Bake Off long enough to put their best heroines on paper.

 Notable Mentions

Honoré de Balzac, May 20, 1799
William Shakespeare, April 23, 1564
Robert Browning, May 7, 1812
Bertrand Russel, May 18, 1872
Barry Hannah, April 23, 1942
Yusef Komunyakaa, April 29, 1947
Charles Baxter, May 13, 1947

- Forest Oliver