Good morning, class.

It’s National Women’s History Month, and as usual, I’m celebrating through literature! Out of the many, I’ve picked my favorite female authors and poets who have changed the game (and just to be clear, it may be a national holiday, but my picks are global).

These are in no order, and I’ve included their most notable works (and links to previous blog posts, if you want to hear more of my ramblings . . . enter at your own risk).

  1. Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion
  2. J. K. Rowling: The Harry Potter Series
  3. Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman
  4. S. E. Hinton: The Outsiders
  5. Lois Lowry: The Giver and Number the Stars
  6. The Brontë Sisters: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
  7. Alice Walker: The Color Purple
  8. Emily Dickinson: various poetry
  9. Maya Angelou: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and various poetry
  10. Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar and various poetry
  11. Claudia Rankine: Citizen: An American Lyric
  12. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
  13. Elizabeth Bishop: various poetry
  14. Phillis Wheatley: various poetry
  15. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women
  16. Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and A Room of One’s Own
  17. Aphra Behn: Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave

We all know that this is the tip of the iceberg . . . none of these women were stopped by the male-dominated-ness of the world of literature, and neither were millions of others. So, small as it may be, consider this post an act of feminism.

Happy National Women’s History Month!

Prof. Jeffrey