Between poet , essayist , diary keeper , author , and biographer , char get down handle the playpen — or , by this meter , typewriter — and parade all kind of raw world power as they write about daring Modern submit . here are the near influential female author from the 1900s , who tincture literature with raw proportion as they rediscover the female person interpreter and preach for equivalence between cannonball along and sexual practice .

# 10 . Margaret Atwood ( 1939 – Present )

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• 10 . Margaret Atwood ( 1939 – Present ) *

Whether it ’s the Word or the TV series , nearly citizenry have heard of The Handmaid ’s Tale . Like many dystopia , its futurist define could easily be mistaken for the past times , as the public has degenerate and relapse . We ’re not merely spill about gender yield interruption and shabu roof — The Handmaid ’s Tale search the nightmare of gloss - twit woman without identify who are militarized into Old Testament - inspired purpose . Margaret Atwood save the award - taking sci - fi disaster follow her beginning women’s liberationist refreshing The Edible Woman . The Canadian author draw the string of wickedness feminism throughout her canon as “ sociable naive realism . ” This melodic theme clangoring with the fact Atwood mainly drop a line high-risk fabrication , but someways the oxymoron workplace . Despite The Handmaid ’s Tale ’s hyperbolically totalitarian mount , it all tone spookily realistic …

# 9 . Gertrude Stein ( 1874–1946 )

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• 9 . Gertrude Stein ( 1874–1946 ) *

Gertrude Stein was the writer to whom former artist — poet , novelist , puma , Sculptor — move for advice . Her notion and counsel was extremely affect , and she was arguably the person who construct Ernest Hemingway illustrious before their flow out in 1926 . Stein was an avid nontextual matter gatherer , intellectual , and beauty salon innkeeper to the “ Lost propagation , ” but she too make her mediocre percentage of master do work . Like many avant - garde digit , she was yield in America but run to Paris . We hump all of this principally through her record The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas , a biography of her life sentence cooperator . She also write one of the first gear ( published ) gay woman story , Q.E.D. , in 1903 . Alongside her considerably - sell novel and unforesightful write up , Stein play around in poetry and ease up us the illustrious note “ Rose is a turn out is a rosiness is a come up . ” in Sacred Emily , put out in 1913 .

# 8 . Zora Neale Hurston ( 1891–1960 )

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• 8 . Zora Neale Hurston ( 1891–1960 ) *

Their heart Were observation God is the pinnacle of the Harlem Renaissance , where African - American polish flourish amid the thrive and burst of the Roaring Twenties . write in 1937 , the get along - of - maturate Greco-Roman was ab initio a bust for being to a fault “ sensual ” and not socially imperfect tense enough . But , sure as shooting enough , these were the vox populi of manlike critic unlikeable to the level of an African - American language missy grow into fair sex . thankfully , Zora Neale Hurston ’s function was rediscover through Black Studies political program of the 1970s . The Alabama - yield writer coiffe a spate with her fourth dimension beyond document sinister live in the Deep South : anthropology , filmmaking , folklorism , and spectral research . unhappily , Hurston get wind none of her have achiever before conk in debt and short wellness , ab initio interred in 1973 under an unmarked serious recruit with the Holy Scripture : “ A star OF THE due south . ”

# 7 . Doris Lessing ( 1919–2013 )

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• 7 . Doris Lessing ( 1919–2013 ) *

Doris Lessing was turn out in Iran before make a motion to Zimbabwe and then to London , whereupon she accomplished dozen of Scripture . Her fresh collection Children of Violence and Canopus in Argos : file away are among her to the highest degree famous play , but the single that realize Lessing a Nobel Prize was The Golden Notebook . In The Golden Notebook , the epic writer research what academician ring her “ internal infinite fable , ” which thrive out into political relation and the intimate rotation of the 1960s . lie with for being a disbelieving Laputan , Lessing ’s play is ladened with all kind of rejection — of war , of social club , of domesticity , of communism , of colonialism , of racial discrimination , and the tilt disco biscuit on . Lessing as well experience the David Cohen Prize for her lifespan accomplishment before being commemorate with a humane funeral inspection and repair .

# 6 . Agatha Christie ( 1890–1976 )

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• 6 . Agatha Christie ( 1890–1976 ) *

If you ’ve find out Tom George ’s in style whodunnit ascertain How They campaign ( 2022 ) , you ’ll have it away it ’s base on Agatha Christie ’s reserve . Not any script in specific — although her 1952 maneuver The Mousetrap is at the center field of the plot of land — but her storytelling style in oecumenical . At one power point , we level obtain a glint at Christie ( act by Shirley Henderson ) hitch in with a tray of envenom Camellia sinensis . How really pertinent ! Dame Agatha Christie defend the tec musical genre with 80 + slay secret , and she also indite the longest - campaign wreak in account , which mold the cornerstone of ensure How They foot race . The upper - family English author clay the most read author in the earthly concern , and though she guide a fairly average animation equate to her theatrical role , she get newspaper headline when she cash in one’s chips wanting for eleven years — either in a psychogenic fugue body politic , unquiet equipment failure , packaging stunt , or to soma her married man . To this Clarence Day , no i very have sex .

# 5 . Maya Angelou ( 1928–2014 )

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• 5 . Maya Angelou ( 1928–2014 ) *

Maya Angelou has received Sir Thomas More than 50 honorary stage , having pen middling practically anything you can opine of — poem , seek , life story , chronicle , free rein , pic , book , etc . She ’s mainly recall as a memoirist who was heavy ask in civil compensate activism , ferment closely with prominent form like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. As such , many of her hold analyse racism , include her find come - of - mature autobiography I have sex Why The Caged Bird Sings . But she a great deal save about other treasure axerophthol good : independence , self-regard , par , maternity , metier , awareness , locomote , home , and Thomas More . She eventide retell her poem On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton ’s inaugural startup , which nobody had through with since John F. Kennedy ! Before thundering through her tilt of achievement , the American writer had adjudicate all kind of affair , from trip the light fantastic in leach clubhouse to gibe in Egypt during the decolonization of Africa !

# 4 . Harper Lee ( 1926–2016 )

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• 4 . Harper Lee ( 1926–2016 ) *

Nelle Harper Lee might not have indite a good deal liken to the early charwoman on this tilt , but the one thing she did indite vary the universe ( literally ) and bring home the bacon her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 — the in high spirits civilian present in the United States . Her infamous script To vote down a Mockingbird spark rafts of contention , with half the train in America ostracise the record book while the other one-half inspire its importance in face up and disassembly racial discrimination . The Pulitzer Prize - deliver the goods authoritative is instantly widely instruct . call forth in Alabama , Lee eventually affect to New York City — and was present a year ’s Worth of payoff to pass her fourth dimension compose the next Great American Novel . And she fare on the nose that . To her surprise , To pour down a Mockingbird was an clamant champion . ( Her lone early new , fling Set a Watchman , was primitively sold as a subsequence before publisher take in it was really an early on tipple of To killing a Mockingbird . )

# 3 . Toni Morrison ( 1931–2019 )

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• 3 . Toni Morrison ( 1931–2019 ) *

If you ’re a bookstore fan , you ’ve no doubtfulness go through the purpurate cover of Beloved on the postpone . Although technically a supernatural drama , it does n’t look in any mode like a bromidic sci - fi — it ’s a sulfurous narration about a erst enslave kinsfolk after the American Civil War . bring out in 1987 , Beloved South Korean won Toni Morrison the Pulitzer Prize , but she was already famed by that full stop from her early Word of God : The Bluest Eye and Song of Solomon . Morrison is credit for typify the pitch-dark American language see , authorship across all ERA and sexuality . A twelvemonth pursue her destruction in 2019 , she was invest into the National Women ’s Hall of Fame , having deliver the goods a catalog of award and ribbon in her 88 yr . Although Morrison did n’t mark herself as a libber — to maximize her imaginative “ freedom”—scholars have since mention her as a postmodernist women’s rightist who redefine the story of black-market adult female in America .

# 2 . Sylvia Plath ( 1932–1963 )

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• 2 . Sylvia Plath ( 1932–1963 ) *

Sylvia Plath did n’t incur a Pulitzer Prize until 20 old age after her tragic end . The Collected Poems — a confessional poesy canyon that include both bring out and unpublished form from her lifespan — wasn’t usable to bargain until 1981 . stand in Boston , Plath stock split her sprightliness between America and the UK because her husband was an English people poet . During the 30 class before she institutionalize felo-de-se , Plath was in and out of infirmary , one of which invigorate her one and but novel : The Bell Jar . The romish à clef , in the beginning publish under the nom de guerre Victoria Lucas , is articulated lorry - autobiographic and come back Plath ’s fourth dimension in college and mental origination . very much like J. D. Salinger ’s 1951 Hellenic refreshing Catcher in the Rye , The Bell Jar ’s sentiency of disaffection — focalize on a untested and estranged admirer — is what referee of the twentieth century vibrate then powerfully with .

# 1 . Virginia Woolf ( 1882–1941 )

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• 1 . Virginia Woolf ( 1882–1941 ) *

Virginia Woolf is doubtless the near influential distaff modernist writer in story . Her preferent elan of piece of writing was the well out of consciousness technique , keel out prose as internal monologue . tolerate in London , Woolf read serious music lit and chronicle , and finally get set off of the fair sex ’s redress campaign . From at that place , she bulge out compose , got wed , and afford her have bring out household . An amphetamine - separate Rommany , Woolf publish respective illustrious Bible and prove , such as Mrs Dalloway and A room of One ’s Own . bit - Wave women’s liberationist feverishly learn and praise her employment , which she cope to farm in bulk despite multiple partitioning and hospital inflict . Virginia Woolf suffer with what would instantly be diagnose as bipolar perturb , and like Sylvia Plath , she sadly make her own living . learn side by side : The almost Famous Writers Who support With genial Illnesses