Zadie Smith. Pick pretty much any line from “White Teeth” or “On Beauty.”

Agreed. Also, Hilary Thayer Hamann. I’m reading Anthropology of an American Girl at the moment, and taking the longer way home to have more commuting time with it.

Gillian Flynn, author of “Sharp Objects” and “Dark Places”

The line that made me fall for her: “I was not a lovable child, and I’d grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it’d be a scribble with fangs.”

Julie Orringer, who just published her first full novel, had a collection of stories, “How To Breathe Underwater”, that stopped my heart with every line.

Agree — loved How To Breathe Underwater.

Sloane Crosley-Unfunny, pretentious and vastly uninteresting. A comparison to David Sedaris does another not particularly talented writer a disservice. However, Sarah Vowell is pretty solid.

@Jackson – Pretentious? I feel like her writing is both accessible and welcoming. Whether you find her funny or interesting, well, that’s totally a matter of taste.

@Caroline She knows who her target audience is and she markets directly to them. Much of her writing has the feel of “I will take part in this event that is below me, but I will exhibit a trademark ironic detachment to show my cool disdain.” She presents her story for everyone, but hides the experiences behind a veneer of snark and greater-than-thou posturing.

[...] published a slideshow of their favorite female writers, including Sarah Vowell (pictured at right), who (whom?) I adore. She’s a regular contributor [...]

@Caroline The only brick of a book I’d bother toting on a commute. It is devastating.

Also: Lydia Peelle’s The Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing (short stories).

It is a brick. But it must be good for toning the arms, right? You must loan me the Peelle.

Allegra Goodman anyone? Her novel Intuition was astounding…also Marisha Pessl. It will be interesting to see if she can match Special Topics in Calamity Physics, and her “hotness” gets way too much media attention, but her explorations of postmodernism kept me begging for more.

Glad to see Beverly Cleary’s getting some love!

kendra wilkinson? really? in the same list as erica jong, barbara kingsolver and sarah vowell? really?

Can’t believe you didn’t include Amy Hempel; without her this list is useless.

@Jim I sort of feel Hempel’s easy to appreciate, hard to love.

Laurie Colwin, my favorite “next Jane Austen” & superb food writer, taken much too soon. Penelope Fitzgerald and Barbara Pym both deserve to be better appreciated in the U.S.

and what about Amy Bloom? “Away” was an original piece of writing

Kendra Wilkinson… or do you mean (insert Ghost Writer’s name & face here). How could you even put her on the list as a writer?

Margaret Atwood! Jeez…

Diana Wagman. Skin Deep is a book everyone should read. and her story in Electric Literature slays me.
http://www.dianawagman.com/

sarah vowell, you’re my hero.

Sloane Crosley being included on this list is a joke. She was manufactured by a PR/marketing (her background) blitz. Nothing groundbreaking and just marginally entertaining anecdotes from cautious suburban girl having cautious adventures in the big city.

Kendra?!? No, we should judge.

So many other greats, this is a poor list.

Hmmm…the list was prefaced with a lot of reeling in of expectations – not an end all be all list, just one bloke’s perspective, etc, but still and wow to the lack of diversity and notable omissions. Shrugging shoulders…I can appreciate learning new authors, though I’m scratching my head re: how Kendra Wilkinson makes it.

My list?
- Toni Morrison
- Margaret Atwood
- Zadie Smith
- Nikki Giovanni – poet so I get an extra
- Anchee Minn
- Frances Hwang
- Sarah Waters
- Patricia Cromwell, mystery writer who shakes up the usually very masculine dominated genre
- Julia Alvarez
- Nancy Mairs, essayist
- Jane Hamilton
- Joyce Carol Oates, output and quality of writing
- Jodi Picoult, for sheer output and the great heart-wrenching sappy stories

Mary Gaitsgill!! Lorrie Moore, Anne Tyler, Carolyn See, Alicia Erian, Donna Tartt, Meghan Daum, Curtis Sittenfeld, Jincey Willet, Ayelet Waldman

Ann Patchett, anyone?

I am just glad you didn’t put Donna Tartt on that list.

Where, I ask, is Canadian short-story author ALICE MUNRO? Or American poet and memoirist MARY KARR? Methinks your list is way-y-y-y heavy on chick-lit, as opposed to real lit.

Sorry, Mary Gaitskill :)

seems silly to try to even justify a list that would have Kendra on it…
Caroline Knapp & Brooke Berman are missing here.

Lorrie Moore. Mary Robison!

No Kelly Link?

Where’s Margaret Atwood?

Also, Joan Didion.

And Rebecca Solnit.

What about Joan Didion? In my mind, Didion easily vies for the top spot on the list of best writers in English to pen a phrase ever and particularly since 1960.

Also agree that Amy Hempel should be mentioned.

Heidi Durrow was an excellent pick. I hope to read a lot more from her in the future! M.L. Malcolm (Heart of Lies) and Helen Simonson (Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand) are also two to watch! Things to look forward to!

I’m surprised by your list of women authors. Seems like most of them write for the under 30 crowd that statistically doesn’t read as much as older generations. How can you leave off authors like Amy Tan, Joan Dideon, Julia Alverez, Anna Quindlin.. to name a few? These women have each produced numerous great books and have track records that span decades not just several years.

Whatever one’s opinion of the contentious Sloane Crosby, it’s most offensive to this particular feminist reader to encounter a list of contemporary women writers wherein the first writer’s merits are described in their relation to a male writer. A rather blatant editorial oversight by Flavorwire!

Jeannette Winterson… so smart, so inventive, so much fantasy, such sharp wit…almost poetic. Written on the Body, to name only one, is a book that has moved me emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.

“I feel my middle fill up with sounds that no one else understands. Then they reach my throat. What if these sounds get stuck in me?”
Really?! The is one of the worst lines I’ve come across.

Are we only allowed to compare women writers to other women writers? Isn’t that where Lilith Fair went horribly wrong?

Katherine Weber, whose last two novels, True Confections and Triangle, knocked me out.

Yes, Laurie Colwin in “Happy All the Time” brought a delicate cynicism but a touch of joy to the observation of urban lives. In a way, Barbara Pym does the same thing, but her work is funny almost to the point of real humor. Finally, the British writer, Anita Brookner, belongs in this trio. While she tends to tell the same story (reserved controlled person is disrupted by unreserved person later in life) over and over, the long sentences are structured precisely, and ultimately the “same” story feels different from the previous one.

julie klausner, sadie smith

I realize she’s a genre writer, but Laura Lippman’s “Every Secret Thing” remains one of the most devastating books I’ve ever read. Nothing else by her has been quite as good, but several of her other books (What the Dead Know, the short story collection Hardly Knew Her) come very close.

alice munro, ann patchett, amy tan….yes, yes! What’s so cool is seeing what authors are being added. Yes…so many fantastic womyn writers!

Meghan Daum, Zadie Smith, Joanna Hershon, Jami Attenberg, ZZ Packer, Nelly Reifler, Joanna Smith Rakoff, Heidi Julavits, A.M. Homes, Donna Tartt

ELIZABETH STROUT.

Yes, I’m shouting.

My sentiments exactly, Hannah. “I feel my middle fill up with sounds that no one else understands. Then they reach my throat.” Sounds like she’s describing acid reflux.

This list should have been 100 authors long. Luckily, literature is less of a boys club than comedy writing. This list is not very multicultural. I agree with Zadie Smith, but I’d add Banana Yoshimoto and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni to my favorites list. Also, so many British and Irish authors like Denise Mina, Emma Donaghue, Maggie O’Farrell, Barbara Trapido, and Sue Townsend (those Adrian Mole books are hilarious!) And for the teens, Kristen Miller’s Kiki Strike books and E. Lockhart’s books put Stephenie Meyer’s wimpy Bella character to shame.

This is the most patronizing headline and list I’ve seen in a long, long time. The whole thing is in scarily bad taste.

Her book’s not out yet, but come August 17th, Stephanie Dolgoff should definitely be on this list for My Formerly Hot Life: Dispatches from Just the Other Side of Young. Check it out: http://www.formerlyhot.com/2010/04/buy-the-book/

Yes to Julie Orringer, Alice Munro, Donna Tartt, Mary Karr, Barbara Kingsolver. And howzabout Jhumpa Lahiri, Louise Erdrich, and Deborah Eisenberg? And let’s jump out of genre and acknowledge PD James. (It walks without talking that lists are inherently dumb…)

Did it not occur to you that Kendra most likely had the help of a ghostwriter? There’s nothing wrong with enjoying her book, but it’s just silly to include her in this list.

Nicole Krauss.

Glad to see this topic got so much feedback! Yes, there are TONS of fantastic women writers, and it’s great to see so many of them heralded, debated and celebrated here. All the added names are worth reading, and don’t be too harsh on Kendra (or her ghostwriter) – everyone’s allowed a guilty pleasure or two, right? Right now, she’s mine..

I cannot stand Sloane Crosley’s insipid writing and I hope she goes away soon. Kendra Wilkinson is likable, I guess, but I’m a little confused about how she got on this list. Your other choices are pretty good, but I’m only really happy about Beverly Cleary and Aimee Bender.

No Egan either?

Thanks for the article, I have read about some writers that sound interesting and look forward to reading. Although I have a weakness for trashy celebrity biographies, I too don’t get how Kendra can be considered ‘required reading’ or a ‘writer’, and was confused to see her on this list.
I would add Mary Gaitskill, Kelly Link, Lydia Davis and Nicole Krauss

A remarkable writer is Yael Politis, her debut novel The Lonely Tree has just been published by Holland Park Press and is getting rave reviews. For example: ‘…Yael Politis is an excellent author who really knows how to make a story readable, this is a book that everyone should read at some point.’ Curious Book Fans. You should definitely check out this moving novel about the soul of Israel.

As for living female authors, I would add to this list:

Deborah Eisenberg
Joyce Carol Oates
Pam Houston
Banana Yoshimoto
Jhumpa Lahiri
Melissa Pritchard
ZZ Packer
Lorrie Moore
Hope Larson
Belle Yang
Sandra Cisneros
and
Alison Bechdel

[...] letter from TDS’s female staff members, the website Flavorwire has elected to post a list of 10 women writers they love. The 10 are: Sloane Crosley Aimee Bender Kendra Wilkinson Miranda July Barbara Kingsolver Heidi W. [...]

Anne Lamott (surprised I haven’t seen her mentioned yet) and I second (or third or fourth or whatever) Jhumpa Lahiri.

I read I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley and it was fine but not the most amazing book of all time as some. Defintely more buzz than a great book. But her new book…uggg. It’s so damn good. I tried to fight but: a little in love with her.

No Anne Lamont either.

Where are,
Toni Morrison
Margaret Atwood
and
Isabel Allende? (or is this just for writers of the English language?)

[...] Required Reading: 10 Women Writers We Love [...]