Great Women of American Literature

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? Is this a homework assignment?


In any case, I would say off the top of my head

Edith Wharton
Flannery O'Connor
Sylvia Plath
Maya Angelou
Alice Walker
Toni Morrison
Willa Cather

Over-rated. Sometimes you get points for committing suicide/dying young or for being of color.

Toni Morrison overrated? The Nobel prize winning Toni Morrison?

Maybe you’re just too poorly educated to grasp the brilliance of her writing.

The overrated one is Maya Angelou.

[Anonymous]

Shirley Jackson - totally underrated

[Anonymous]

Nellie Bly

[Anonymous]

Love Toni Morrison but agree with that PP that Sylvia Plath is totally overrated.

And Nellie Bly was a reporter, no? I think this is for fiction writing?

I personally don’t like poetry so all the poets seem overrated to me but I admit I’m a terrible judge of what’s good poetry. It all looks like incomplete thoughts to me. The only poet I like is Edgar Allen Poe because he takes a whole full short story and makes it rhyme with a rhythm, which I think is cool. I like a narrative though.

[Anonymous]

Throwing a few more names in. They are all contemporary but I think female American writers are just coming into their own.

Esmeralda Santiago
Sarah Waters
NK Jemisin
Margaret Atwood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shirley Jackson - totally underrated

Totally agree! I read a fascinating biography of her during the pandemic after my interest was piqued by the Hulu movie starring Elisabeth Moss. Like many folks I knew her primarily for her infamous short story The Lottery which I read in middle or high school. I’ve since read most of her stuff and hold her in great esteem- she has a lot to say about the situation for women in our society and endured all of those issues herself in a trying marriage to a man she loved who used her miserably.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Throwing a few more names in. They are all contemporary but I think female American writers are just coming into their own.

Esmeralda Santiago
Sarah Waters
NK Jemisin
Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood is also Canadian, Sarah Waters I believe to be British.

But agree with you SO MUCH on NK Jemisin. I only wish we could lay claim to Tamsyn Muir.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Robinson and Didion (novels only), Jesmyn Ward.

And I think the following could deliver great things before they're done: Rachel Kushner, Maggie Shipstead, Ivy Pochoda, Julia May Jones, Ottessa Moshfefgh and C.E. Morgan.

Didion is one of the greats of Am Lit, but I would say CNF, not novels.

[Anonymous]

Shirley Jackson is great!

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:What about Eudora Welty? Admittedly, I haven't actually read any of her novels -- just short stories -- but I've also read about her and she seems to be held in high esteem.

Love her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like Marilynne Robinson, Joan Didion (prefer her novels to her essays and reporting) and Toni Morrison. More recently Donna Tartt.

A recent favorite that I hope joins those ranks is Rachel Kushner. Nell Zink is interesting too.

The Great Women of American Literature title may be too highfalutin', but two more writers I enjoy but forgot yesterday are Claire Messud and Jane Smiley.

I'm a third of the way through Hanya Yanagihara A Little Life (this mother is long) and am pretty blown away so far.

I think Jane Smiley is stylistically amazing. She's an incredibly versatile writer.

This! She is the most versatile American writer I can think of. She is also an amazing world builder, and her mastery of detail is just incredible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Throwing a few more names in. They are all contemporary but I think female American writers are just coming into their own.

Esmeralda Santiago
Sarah Waters
NK Jemisin
Margaret Atwood

Sarah Waters is English. Atwood is Canadian.

[Anonymous]

I agree with many of these. Would amplify a couple:

Someone mentioned Donna Tartt. Only three novels to date, but each is an immersive, mesmerizing world.

Jane Smiley I posted about above. Incredibly versatile, incredibly smart.

I would add:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche (Nigerian American, one of the very best novelists of our time)
Lauren Groff
Megan Abbott
Curtis Sittenfeld (if she produces more like American Wife and Rodham)
Joyce Carol Oates (did someone list her?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with many of these. Would amplify a couple:

Someone mentioned Donna Tartt. Only three novels to date, but each is an immersive, mesmerizing world.

Jane Smiley I posted about above. Incredibly versatile, incredibly smart.

I would add:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche (Nigerian American, one of the very best novelists of our time)
Lauren Groff
Megan Abbott
Curtis Sittenfeld (if she produces more like American Wife and Rodham)
Joyce Carol Oates (did someone list her?)

There are so many great women crime writers. (And so many terrible ones also, just like the men).

[Anonymous]

Louisa May Alcott