BOOKS BY WOMEN

Books by women can be found in all genres -novel, short stories, poetry, mysteries, science fiction, essays, travel and other non-fiction. This page  highlights our current inventory of works  by just a small selection  of these writers.

 

Find books by some women writers

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  • Julia Alvarez is a Dominican-American author renowned for exploring themes of immigration, identity, and cultural assimilation. A central influence on her work is her family’s flight from the Dominican Republic under the Trujillo dictatorship when she was 10, an experience that cultivated her sense of displacement and alienation. Her notable books, such as How the García Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies, often feature the immigrant experience and the lives of Latina women. Her lyrical style and use of both Spanish and English give a powerful voice to biculturalism. She is also a recognized poet and author of works for younger readers.
  • Margaret Atwood is an award-winning Canadian novelist, poet, and critic perhaps best known for her work in speculative and dystopian fiction. Her most famous novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, explores themes of gender, power, and oppression. Her writing is known for its sharp wit and social commentary, often addressing environmental issues and human rights. Her diverse body of work and lasting cultural influence have solidified her status as one of the world’s most significant contemporary writers.
  • Octavia Butler (1947-2006) was a trailblazing science fiction writer who challenged the genre’s white male dominance by centering Black protagonists and themes of race, power, and gender. Often hailed as the “mother of Afrofuturism,” her work explored prescient, complex social issues like racial injustice, global warming, and political disparity. Her fiction, including the acclaimed novels Kindred and Parable of the Sower, is known for its lean prose and unflinching look at power dynamics and human survival. Her unique voice and vision earned her numerous accolades, including being the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur “Genius” award.
  • Amy Clampitt (1920-1994) was an American poet who was a celebrated “late bloomer,” publishing her first major collection, The Kingfisher, at age 63 followed by four other collections in the next decade. Her work is noted for its vivid imagery, particularly in its evocation of the natural world, as she explored themes of nature, mythology, and memory. Clampitt received many prestigious honors, including a Guggenheim fellowship and a MacArthur “genius” grant, solidifying her place as a significant 20th-century poet. Her biographer describes her as “a woman of dazzling intellect, staunch progressive politics, and an inexhaustible sense of wonder for the world and the words we’ve invented to describe it.”
  • Jorie Graham
  • Ursula Le Guin
  • Lydia  Millet
  • Denise Mina
  • Joyce Carol Oates
  • Dawn Powell
  • May Sarton (1912-1995), a  novelist, poet, and memoirist, was born in Belgium, but came to the United States as a very young child. Many of her earlier works contain vivid erotic female imagery, but she often emphasized in her journals that she wanted to touch on what is universally human about love in all its manifestations. Her journals and memoirs are considered some of her best and most enduring work; her final book, Coming Into Eighty (1995), published posthumously, shows her gratitude for life even as she wrestled with the experience of aging.
  • Alice Walker
  • Mary Wesley
  • Virginia Woolf

 

A SELECTION OF SIGNED FIRST EDITIONS BY WOMEN WRITERS