Weekend Writing: Appreciating Women Writers

March is celebrated as Women's History Month. It's a month dedicated to highlighting the contributions of women to events in history. On Friday, March 8, we celebrated International Women's Day--a day to remember the beautiful women in our lives. It's a day to rejoice in women's rights and how far we have come in society. But in many areas, there's a lot that still needs to be done to empower women across the globe. 

Today on the blog, I'm celebrating women writers who have influenced me. Some of the most beautiful and most powerful writing of all time were written by women authors. These individuals celebrate the good and bad--the pretty and the ugly. They reflect on troubling situations and times that call for rejoicing. They write about what we need to read, and they will always have an important place in literary history. Women have a voice and no one can take that away from them. 

But most importantly, these women writers showed me that I, too, can be a writer. 

1. Virginia Woolf 

Virginia Woolf (photo/Wikipedia)

Virginia Woolf was a feminist writer long before the term "feminism" became a mainstream word. She helped define feminism and she broke the mold for 20th-century novelists. She is known for her experimental writing and essays that enlightened readers on gender differences. Her work impacted so many people--readers, scholars, historians, and more, including myself. 

Woolf is known for writing the following works: 

• A Room of One's Own
• Mrs. Dalloway
• To the Lighthouse
• Orlando: A Biography
• The Waves
• Three Guineas
• The Voyage Out 

Woolf once wrote, "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman." This is one of my favorite quotes--because it's very true. For centuries, women couldn't publish work under their own name. They had to publish under a pseudonym (the Bronte sisters, for example), or they had to publish their writing as "Anonymous." How sad is that? 

Thanks to feminists like Woolf, we no longer have to publish our work anonymously. Let's give thanks to Woolf, who always told us the truth about her life. She said, "A feminist is any woman who tells the truth about her life." We're glad she told her truth. 

2. Toni Morrison 

Toni Morrison (photo/Goodreads.com)

Toni Morrison is one of the most prominent writers of the late 20th century. She helped evolve multicultural literature into a powerful literary genre. In her writing, Morrison isn't afraid to write about societal struggles for African-American women. Readers are always learning new information in her writing, and that's what you always want in a good piece of literature. 

Morrison is known for writing the following works: 

• Beloved
• Song of Solomon
• The Bluest Eye
• Sula
• Paradise

Morrison once wrote, "Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another." Morrison freed herself in her writing, and her characters become free in their own way. She also remarked, "Books are a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind." 

Morrison's books changed my mind, and I know I'm not the only one who feels that way. 

Harper Lee (photo/Vulture.com)

3. Harper Lee 

Harper Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The powerful story is best remembered for showing racial inequality and injustice. All men are created equal, right? Much of the book is autobiographical and details what Lee witnessed as a child growing up in the South. I would consider the novel as another "great American novel," competing with F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. 

Lee once wrote, "The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think." Since its publication, To Kill a Mockingbird remains a novel that begs its readers to think. Lee's writing widened everyone's perspective on diversity, and she'll always be one of my favorite women writers of all time. 

4. Agatha Christie 

Agatha Christie (photo/IMDb)

Agatha Christie is known as "the world's best-selling author of all time." She wrote over 60 detective novels, short story collections, and plays. She defined detective fiction. When readers think of a great detective novel, they immediately turn to Christie's fiction. 

Christie is known for the following novels: 

• Murder on the Orient Express 
• The A.B.C. Murders
• Ordeal by Innocence
• Death on the Nile
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd 
• Crooked House 

It's hard to find a woman who defined an entire genre like Agatha Christie did with her detective novels. Writers hold her to a pedestal. If you write detective fiction, you want to be just like Agatha Christie. But all you have to do is get started. She wrote, "The secret of getting ahead is getting started." 

We're glad Christie got started on writing the novels that spoke to her. 

5. Jane Austen 

Jane Austen (photo/Famous Biographies)

I couldn't really leave Jane Austen off this list, right? Austen influenced British literature with her use of literary realism, social commentary, and she's one of the best writers (male or female) of the early 19th-century. 

Austen is known for the following novels: 

• Pride and Prejudice
• Sense and Sensibility
• Mansfield Park
• Persuasian
• Emma
• Northanger Abbey

Austen's writing featured confident, powerful female protagonists. Her female characters are the star of their stories in an era when writers were focusing on male protagonists. Austen reversed this narrative--switching to highlight a woman's feelings. While most readers do fall in love with Mr. Darcy, they can't help but love Elizabeth Bennet at the same time. 

Austen wrote, "It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do." We're glad Austen fell in love with writing. Her books have withstood the test of time, and I'm confident readers will continue to love her writing for many years to come. 

6. Sylvia Plath 

When I first read Sylvia Plath's poetry, I couldn't believe what I had been missing. Plath wrote about her life. As we know, she suffered from intense struggles, but she wrote about these experiences. Her poetry is some of the best poetry ever written. 

Sylvia Plath (photo/The New Yorker)

For example, Plath is known for writing the following poems: 

• "Daddy"
• "Lady Lazarus" 
• "Ariel"
• "Morning Song"

But Plath is perhaps just as equally well-known for writing her 1963 novel, The Bell Jar. Her novel is very autobiographical, in which Plath tackles feminist issues, including sexual double standards and the search for identity. Seriously, if you haven't read The Bell Jar, what are you waiting for? 

Plath once wrote, "And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." 

I figure Plath had her moments of self-doubt, but she still wrote. She still worked up the courage to write and confess everything to us. Thank goodness she did, or we wouldn't have some of the most beautiful poetry ever written. 

7. Kate Chopin 

Kate Chopin (photo/Wikipedia)

Kate Chopin is another author who is now considered by scholars as the forerunner of American 20th-century feminist authors. Similar to Virginia Woolf, she was a "feminist" long before the term was popularized. In her most-famous 1899 novel, The Awakening, she boldly wrote about feminist issues. 

Chopin reflected on societal standards. If women were depressed (and they were), there wasn't anything for them to do. They couldn't leave their husbands. They weren't properly treated for their mental health. Chopin wasn't afraid to voice her concerns. 

She wrote, "She wanted something to happen--something, anything: she did not know what." 

We're glad Chopin wanted something to happen. We're glad she fought for women's rights, at least in her own way. Feminist writing wouldn't be the same without her. 

8. The Bronte Sisters 

The Bronte sisters (photo/express.co.uk)

The Bronte sisters were living in a time period when they were forced to publish their work under pen names. I couldn't even imagine doing something like that today. When individuals read work by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, they assumed they were men. They had no idea the writing was actually by women--Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte. 

Emily Bronte only wrote one book in her lifetime, Wuthering Heights. But the novel has become one of the most successful works in British literature. 

Charlotte Bronte famously wrote Jane Eyre and the novel is regarded as one of the best "feminist" novels ever to be written. Charlotte wrote about repressed women, making a significant mark on the literary world. 

Finally, Anne Bronte is often the "forgotten" sister in this trio of writing sisters. She wrote Agnes Gray and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. While neither two novels aren't nearly as successful as her sisters' works, Anne should be remembered just as much as her sisters for also celebrating strong women in her writing. 

9. Mary Shelley 

Mary Shelley (photo/Famous Biographies)

Mary Shelley wrote perhaps one of the most iconic Gothic novels of all time--her 1818 novel, Frankenstein. Everyone knows who Frankenstein is, and people probably assumed it was written by a male writer. Nope! Think again; it was written by a woman. 

Shelley once wrote, "Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful." Shelley had a powerful voice in literature. She had a story to tell and she wasn't going to let anyone take it away from her. She wasn't afraid, and much like Frankenstein's Monster, she rose up and demanded people to look at her. She demanded people to pay attention to her, and we do. 

We always will. 

10. Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (photo/Academy of American Poets)

I'm saving my favorite woman writer to conclude this list of influential writers. If you follow my blog, it shouldn't be a surprise that I'm featuring Emily Dickinson--my Emily. During the 1800s, Emily's poetry style was unlike anyone else's. She was an innovator who used unconventional techniques, including brief lines, slant rhyme, and the unusual capitalizations and punctuation famously associated with her poetry. 

Dickinson wrote, "Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it." We're glad she told her truth. 

Dickinson was an original pre-modernist poet. So many writers try to copy her technique, but it's impossible because it was hers. The majority of Emily's poetry wasn't published until after her death, but I hope she knows the influence she has made on others as a woman writer. 

At least, I hope she knows the influence she made on me. 

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(photo/Quote Master)

There are so many more influential women writers that didn't make this list, including Maya Angelou, J.K. Rowling, Alice Walker, S.E. Hinton, George Eliot, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ayn Rand, Margaret Mitchell, Edith Wharton, Zora Neale Hurston, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Louisa May Alcott, and so, so, so many others.

Women writers wrote about what it was like to be a woman in the past, but their writing is still influential today. We can still turn to these writers and learn from their messages. Don't give up. Don't let anyone take away your voice. We are beautiful in every way. 

Celebrate these women writers this month. And to all of my fellow women writers out there, keep writing. We need your writing. Who knows, someone might include you in a blog post like this one someday in the future. 

Keep writing. 

-KJL-