I asked and you guys answered!A list of 20 female novelists from Dilettantsia readers:
1. Vendela Vida
2. Julie Orringer
3. Asali Solomon
4. Becky Curtis
5. Karen Russell
6. Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
7. Ceridwen Dovey
8. Judy Budnitz
9. Leanne Shapton
10. Nicole Krauss
11. Nell Freudenberger
12. Marisha Pessl
13. Curtis Sittenfeld
14. Jhumpa Lahiri
15. Selah Saterstrom
16. Rivka Galchen
17. Lydia Peelle
18. Rachel Cusk
19. Zadie Smith
20. Ann Patchett
There are a few ladies over 40, but really: who cares? As William but it best in the comments: "40 is a pretty tough number though. Everybody loves a phenom (for the first 10 minutes at least) but by and large the rule of 10 hits novelists just like anyone else." For the record, Virginia Woolf didn't publish her first novel, The Voyage Out, until she was 33; it had been a work in progress for nine years.
3 comments:
Amity Gaige is another excellent female novelist under 40. Her book O MY DARLING is a gem.
Thanks for the list - summer reading! What do you think of curtis sittenfeld? I know on your last post's comments, you said a few of the women mentioned were ones that you really didn't like, and I was just sort of curious if Sittenfeld was one. I've read her first two books, and I have mixed feelings.
Thanks, Kris
Thanks Anon! I'll check her out.
Kris: I've never read Sittenfeld although I know many people love her - I'd like to read her book about Laura Bush. I was not impressed by Marissa Pessel's "Special Topics in Calamity Physics."
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