It’s Women’s History Month and to celebrate just some of the women we admire,
here is a list of 31 books you've got to read by 31 women literary trailblazers!
1. Joan Didion
A screenwriter, fiction, and nonfiction writer best known for
A Book of Common Prayer, The Year of Magical Thinking, and the
film As it Happens.
2. Harriet Beecher Stowe
American writer and philanthropist, the author of the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
which contributed so much to popular feeling against slavery that it is cited among
the causes of the American Civil War.
3. Alice Walker
An American novelist, short story writer, poet and activist most famous for her novel,
The Color Purple for which she won the National Book Award for hardcover fiction
and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Since then, she has gone on to publish several more
novels, poetry collections and short stories.
4. Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was a British novelist with a number of titles under her
belt — most notably, Ms. Dalloway. Woolf was considered to be one of the most
important modernists of the 20th-century authors. She also helped pioneer stream
of consciousness in literature.
5. Octavia Butler
The recipient of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, Butler was also the first
science fiction writer to receive the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship.
6. Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson has had a deep and profound influence on American poetry.
Also known as the “Belle of Amherst“, she is ranked among the greatest
poets in English literature and she is perhaps the most famous female poet.
Initially there was mixed response to her poetry with some praising its
“rare individuality and originality” while others disapproving her unusual
non-traditional style. Interest in Dickinson’s poetry became widespread
by the early 20th century and critics realized that the irregularities in her
poems were consciously artistic.
7. Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist who was known for six major novels,
such as Emma. Her works have been turned into films, television shows
and modern adaptations since. They've also been translated into multiple
languages to transcend cultures.
8. Amy Tan
Best known for The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan's works explore
mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese-American experience.
9. Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was the woman behind the famous gothic novel,
Frankenstein. She was known as an English novelist, short story writer,
dramatist, essayist, biographer and travel writer. And her work has been
made into several adaptation both in text and on film.
10. Agatha Christie
Often referred to as, 'The Queen of Crime', Christie wrote more
than 60 detective novels.
11. Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison wears many hats. She's an American novelist, essayist,
editor, teacher and more. She won the Pulitzer Prize and the American
Book Award in 1988 for Beloved, which was later adapted into a film
of the same name a decade thereafter. She was also awarded the Novel
Prize in Literature in 1993.
12. Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic,
essayist, inventor, teacher and environmental activist. She's
most well known for her book, The Handmaid's Tale. The book
is a dystopian novel published in 1985 but set in a future New
England totalitarian state resembling a theonomy.
13. Reyna Grande
Writing about immigration, family separation, language trauma, the
price of the American Dream, and her writing journey, Reyna has
received an American Book Award, the El Premio Aztlán Literary Award,
and the International Latino Book Award.
14. Judy Blume
The children and YA novel writer addressed taboo topics like birth control
and menstration in books like Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
15. Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee was an American novelist. She's most notable for
her book, To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960. The book won a
1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become an iconic piece of American literature.
16. Ursula K. Le Guin
A Grandmaster of Science Fiction, Le Guin won multiple Hugo and
Nebula Awards and is best known for her fantasy Novel, A Wizard of Earthsea.
17. Louise Erdrich
Known for her portrayals of Native peoples and culture,
Erdrich was awarded the National Book Award for The Round House.
18. Zora Neale Huston
American writer best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
19. Alice Munro
The Canadian short story writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013.
Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of
short stories, especially in its tendency to move forward and backward in time
20. Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith is a contemporary British novelist, essayist and short-story
writer. Her first novel, White Teeth, became an immediate best-seller
and won a number of awards. Most recently, she's also published a
collection of essays, Feel Free.
21. Isabel Allende
The Chilean-American writer is best known for her magic realist
writing including The House of the Spirits. She is a recipient of the
Presendential Medal of Freedom.
22. Elena Ferrante
The Italian writer's works have been translated into many languages.
She is best known for her novel, My Brilliant Friend.
23. Donna Tartt
American author best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Goldfinch.
24. Jesmyn Ward
The American author won the Booker in 2011 for Salvage the Bones,
and again in 2017 for Sing, Unburied, Sing.
25. Jhumpa Lahiri
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author is best known for her story
collection The Interpreter of Maladies and novels The Namesake and
The Lowland.
26. Helen Oyeyemi
The award-winning British novelist is best known for her 2013
novel Boy, Snow, Bird.
27. Roxane Gay
The American writer and professor is best known for her short story
collection Bad Feminist and memoir Hunger.
28. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian novelist and writer of
short stories and nonfiction. She's the author behind Purple Hibiscus,
Half of a Yellow Sun, The Thing Around Your Neck, Americanah and
We Should All Be Feminists, all of which are phenomenal reads with
some of the most iconic feminist quotes. Her work is so well done,
it's been translated into over thirty languages and has appeared in
various publications.
29. Amanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history,
as well as an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of
Harvard University, where she studied Sociology. She has written
for the New York Times and has three published books.
30. Min Jin Lee
Min Jin Lee (born 1968) is a Korean American author and
journalist based in Manhattan. Her work frequently deals with
Korean and Korean American topics.[1] She is the author of the
novels Free Food for Millionaires (2007) and Pachinko (2017).
31. Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Kali Fajardo-Anstine is an American novelist and short-story
writer from Denver, Colorado. Her short stories have appeared in
Electric Literature, The American Scholar, and the Boston Review.
In 2020, she was the American Book Award winner for Sabrina & Corina: Stories.