About a fortnight ago, I asked for help. In response to Maureen Johnson’s polemic against the ways publishers and critics present female writers, I asked: can you add to the list of female writers I ought to be reading?
Johnson offered several names, revealing new possibilities: “Edna Ferber, Diana Wynne Jones, Kate Chopin, Patricia Highsmith, Miles Franklin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Shirley Jackson, Lillian Hellman, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, Edith Wharton, Eudora Welty, Ursula LeGuin, Octavia Butler, Virginia Woolf, Marilynne Robinson, Lorrie Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, Grace Paley, Barbara Kingsolver, Mary McCarthy, Paula Vogel, Suzan-Lori Parks, Edwidge Danticat.”
In the comments to my post, readers made further suggestions. It seems right to draw those names into view, as opportunities for discovery:
Annie Dillard, Francine Prose, A. S. Byatt, Zora Neale Hurston, Nicole Krauss, Valerie Martin, Helen Oyeyemi, Marilynne Robinson, Zadie Smith, Eudora Welty, Clarice Lispector, Catherine Rey, Nadine Gordimer, Simone de Beauvoir, Aphra Behn, Phillis Wheatley, Herta Müller, Sigrid Undset, Katherine Anne Porter, Shirley Jackson, Shirley Hazzard, Shirley Ann Grau, Baroness Blixen (Isak Dinesen), Rebecca West, Beryl Markham, Elspeth Huxley, Jennifer Egan, Elinor Lipman, Georgette Heyer, Gail Scott, Lydia Davis, Aimee Bender, Carole Maso, Ingeborg Bachmann, Marguerite Duras, Rosalind Belben, Amélie Nothomb, Olive Moore, Evelyn Scott, Helen DeWitt, Joanna Scott, Alice Munro, Cynthia Ozick, A. M. Homes, Janice Galloway, June Akers Seese, Marguerite Young, Susan Daitch, Rikki Ducornet, A. L. Kennedy.
My thanks to Kevin of Interpolations, wrappedupinbooks, Jen of Being in Lieu, verbivore of Incurable Logophilia, Emily of evening all afternoon, Steven Riddle of A Momentary Taste of Being, and jaimie.
>Great idea to put this together and give us all a list. I've noted the ones which are new to me. Thank you!
>verbivore – You are very welcome.
>Here are a few more:Carole MasoIngeborg BachmannMarguerite DurasRosalind BelbenAmelie NothombOlive MooreEvelyn ScottHelen DeWittJoanna ScottAlice MunroCynthia Ozick
>Richard – Thank you, some wonderful additions including two favourites, Duras and Ozick
>you're welcome; here are some more that occurred to me later:Janice GallowayJune Akers SeeseMarguerite YoungSusan DaitchRikki DucornetA.L. Kennedy
>Thanks again, Richard.