Since its inaugural year in 1948, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded to a woman 18 times. America's National Book Award, launched in 1950, shares the same number, while the Man Booker, beginning in 1969, boasts 16. As of February 2018, that makes the number of times one of these prestigious literary awards has been awarded to a woman just one in four (or, a whopping 26.9% of awards granted, to be exact).
Something I noticed while tallying the winners is that, for the most part, the share of female winners is densely packed into the last 20 years. While that could be seen as a sign of promise, the imbalance is still glaringly obvious which strikes me as odd considering the wealth of literary talent among women. I set out to create a list of 50 essential female authors, and upon hitting 50 in under five minutes I decided to shoot for 100. It wasn't a hard list to fill - what was hard was choosing just 100. I cringe to think of the names that were omitted (please, tell us in the comment section).
How do we change this? We start with the obvious - we read women. In 2014 writer Joanna Walsh launched The Year of Reading Women (#readwomen2014). What started as a nudge encouraging friends to read female authors became a powerful movement to raise awareness in the book industry and encourage publishers, distributors, and promoters to pull women writers into the spotlight so readers like you and I could better discover them. If step one is to read women, then step two is to talk about them - to review them, to critique them, to press their books into the hands of our book-loving friends.
Whatever stage you're at in the endeavor to read more women, here are 100 talented female authors to get you started or keep you going. We suspect the list will grow longer in the comments section, so please do give those a read and leave your own suggestions!
100 Essential Female Writers
Ursula K. Le Guin
A Grandmaster of Science Fiction, Le Guin won multiple Hugo adn Nebula Awards and is best known for her fantasy Novel, A Wizard of Earthsea.
Virginia Woolf
The author of Room of One's Own is considered a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Louisa May Alcott
Before publishing her iconic book Little Women in 1868, Alcott wrote under the pen name A. M. Barnard.
Harper Lee
The literary icon made famous for her classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
Charlotte Brontë
The eldest Bronte sister and author of Jane Eyre first published her works under the pen name Currer Bell.
Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights, Emily's only novel and a staple of English Literature, was origianlly published under a male pen name Ellis Bell.
Elizabeth Strout
American author best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Olive Kitteridge.
Jane Austen
Loved for her critique of British society, Austen is the iconic author of Pride & Prejudice, Emma, and more.
Toni Morrison
The author of Beloved has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 2012, Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Geraldine Brooks
The Australian journalist and author received a Pulitzer Prize for her novel March.
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English writer best known for her novel Middlemarch.
Margaret Atwood
Prolific Canadian author, poet, and essayist best known for novels including The Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace.
Gertrude Stein
The American expat molded young writers and artists including Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Picasso. Her most famous work is The Autobiography of Alice B. Tolkas.
Edith Wharton
Her novel The Age of Innocance won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1921, making Wharton the first woman to receive the award.
Donna Tartt
American author best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Goldfinch.
J.K. Rowling
Made famous for her creation of literature's favourite wizard, Rowling branched out with The Casual Vacancy.
Joyce Carol Oates
Prolific American author best known for her National Book Award-winning novel Them and bestselling title, We Were the Mulvaneys.
Anne Tyler
The American novelist, short-story writer, and literary critic as awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her 1989 novel Breathing Lessons.
Annie Proulx
The American novelist is best known for her books Brokeback Mountain and The Shipping News.
Alice Munro
The Canadian short story writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013.
Octavia Butler
The recipient of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, Butler was also the first science fiction writer to receive the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship.
Alice Walker
The American novelist and activist is best known for her award-winning novel, The Color Purple.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
American abolitionist and author best known for her iconic novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
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.
Marilynne Robinson
Best known for her 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Gilead.
PD James
Phyllis Dorothy James was an English crime writer best known for her series of detective novels starring police commander and poet Adam Dalgliesh.
Georgette Heyer
The English historical romance and detective fiction writer invented the Regency Romance genre.
Willa Cather
The American writer was known for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers!
Zadie Smith
The British writer is best known for her award-winning debut novel White Teeth, published in 2000.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Nigerian author and recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant is best known for her novel Americah and essay We Should All be Feminists.
Doris Lessing
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Lessing is best known for her novels The Grass is Singing and The Golden Notebook.
Mary Shelley
Born in 1797, iconic for her creation of Frankenstein.
Madeleine L'Engle
American author best known for her YA book A Wrinkle in Time.
Roxane Gay
The American writer and professor is best known for her short story collection Bad Feminist and memoir Hunger.
Angela Carter
English novelist, short story writer and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism wroks including Nights at the Circus.
Elena Ferrante
The Italian writer's works have been translated into many languages. She is best known for her novel, My Brilliant Friend.
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.
Jeanette Winterson
British writer made famous by her 1985 book, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
Lucy Maud Montgomery
The iconic Canadian author is best known for creating the beloved children's series Anne of Green Gables.
Hilary Mantel
Historical Fiction writer best known for her Booker-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.
Louise Erdrich
Known for her portrayals of Native peoples and culture, Erdrich was awarded the National Book Award for The Round House.
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.
Connie Willis
Her 1993 novel Doomsday Book won numerous awards, including The Hugo and Nebula awards.
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.
Elizabeth Gilbert
The author of the famous memoir Eat, Pray, Love broke into fiction in 2013 with The Signature of All Things.
Diana Gabaldon
The American author is best known for the Outlander series.
Sarah Waters
The Welsh novelist is known for her Victorian novels with lesbian protagonists.
Eleanor Catton
Her second novel, The Luminaries, won the Man Booker Prize in 2013.
Nadine Gordimer
The South African writer and political activist received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991.
Karen Russell
The author of Swamplandia!, Russell received the MacArther Foundation Genius Grant in 2013.
Ruth Ozeki
The American-Canadian author of A Tale for the Time Being and other novels is also a filmmaker.
Edna O'Brien
The novelist, memorist, playwright, poet and story writer is the recipient of Irish PEN Award.
Miriam Toews
Best known for her novels A Complicated Kindness and All My Puny Sorrows.
Kate Atkinson
Award-winning British author best known for Life After Life and Behind the Scenes at the Museum.
Ann Patchett
Best known for her award-winning novel, Bel Canto.
Emma Donoghue
Irish-Canadian writer best known for Room, a novel about a captive woman and child.
Barbara Kingsolver
The prolific American author best known for The Poisonwood Bible and The Lacuna founded the Bellwhether Prize to support literature of social change.
Agatha Christie
The Queen of Crime wrote more than 60 detective novels.
Sue Monk Kidd
Best known for The Invention of Wings and The Secret Life of Bees.
Penelope Lively
The award-winning British author writes for both children and adults.
Jennifer Egan
Best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad.
Arundhati Roy
The Indian author is best known for her 1997 book, The God of Small Things.
A.S. Byatt
Award-winning writer known for Possession and Babel Tower.
Kiran Desai
The Indian writer won both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Cirlce Fiction Award for The Inheritance of Loss.
Keri Hulme
The New Zealand writer won the Man Booker Prize in 1985 for her only novel, The Bone People.
Penelope Fitzgerald
Booker Prize-winning author best known for The Blue Flower and The Bookshop.
Iris Murdoch
Born in 1919, the writer and philosopher wrote about good and evil, sexual relationships, and the power of the unconscious.
Emma Straub
The author of The Vacationers and Modern Lovers and owner of Books Are Magic, a bookstore in New York.
Yaa Gyasi
Yaa Gyasi is a Ghanaian-American novelist known for her award-winning debut novel Homegoing.
Emily St. Mandel
Canadian author best known for her 2014 apocolyptic novel Station Eleven.
Sylvia Plath
The American poet, novelist, and short-story writer was best known for her coming-of-age novel, The Bell Jar.
Zora Neale Hurston
American writer best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Lauren Groff
The American writer is best known for her 2015 novel, Fates and Furies.
Maria Semple
Best known for her hilarious book Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
Ami McKay
The historical fiction writer known for The Birth House, The Vigin Cure, and The Witches of New York.
Ali Smith
The Scottish writer is known for her award-winning novel How to Be Both.
Meg Wolitzer
Best known for The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, and Belzhar.
Miranda July
Author, film director, and artist best known for her novel The First Bad Man.
Tayari Jones
The award-winning author of Silver Sparrow, Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling, and most recently, An American Marriage.
Helen Oyeyemi
The award-winning British novelist is best known for her 2013 novel Boy, Snow, Bird.
Daphne du Maurier
The award-winning author and playwright best known for her novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn.
NoViolet Bulawayo
The Zimbabwean author is known for her 2013 debut novel, We Need New Names.
Jesmyn Ward
The American author won the Booker in 2011 for Salvage the Bones, and again in 2017 for Sing, Unburied, Sing.
Julia Glass
Best known for her National Book Award-winning debut novel, Three Junes.
Susan Sontag
Primarily known for her powerful essays, Sontag also wrote novels including 1992's The Volcono Lover.
Alice McDermott
Best known for Charming Billy, winner of the 1998 National Book Award for Fiction.
Flannery O'Connor
The prolific American writer is best known for her short story collections including A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories.
Evie Wyld
Anglo-Australian writer best known for her award-winning novel, All the Birds, Singing.
Anna Funder
Best known for her 2011 award-winning novel All That I Am.
Ann-Marie MacDonald
Canadian writer best known for Fall on Your Knees and The Way the Crow Flies.
Cynthia Bond
American author best known for her 2014 novel Ruby.
Carol Shields
Best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Stone Diaries.
Jane Smiley
Best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Thousand Acres.
Alison Lurie
Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Literature for her 1984 novel Foreign Affairs.
Edwidge Danticat
The award-winning Haitian-American author writes stories, novels, essays, and children's books.
Rachel Kushner
Best known for her 2013 novel The Flame Throwers.
Claire Messud
Best known for The Emperor's Children and The Woman Upstairs.
Amy Tan
Best known for The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan's works explore mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese-American experience.
Celeste Ng
Best known for her 2014 debut novel Everything I Never Told You.
Elizabeth Poliner
Known for As Close to Us as Breathing, the 2016 novel about grief and family.
Which outstanding female authors did we miss?
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