Women literary/intellectual figures

April 4, 2024 6:09 AM

I was just reading an article about Susan Sontag, and was somewhat surprised to realize I've never read any of her writing. I also just recently read Joan Didion for the first time. What other significant women literary figures or public intellectuals have I missed out on? From any era. I'm not asking about women writers generally, but the kind of writers who create "culture" (in the old fashioned use of the term), about whom magazine profiles are written, and who are asked to comment on the zeitgeist. Anne Fadiman is probably another example.
posted by OrangeDisk to Media & Arts (24 answers total)

Fran Lebowitz. Iris Murdoch. Hannah Arendt. Thanks to the recent "where's Kate Middleton" thread, I've just discovered Hilary Mantel. Joyce Carol Oates. Marilynne Robinson. Barbara Ehrenreich.
posted by Don Pepino at 6:18 AM on April 4 [6 favorites]

Annie Dillard (somewhat older, but still a thing.)
posted by branca at 6:28 AM on April 4 [3 favorites]

Martha Nussbaum
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:45 AM on April 4 [5 favorites]

Doris Lessing
posted by mareli at 6:46 AM on April 4 [2 favorites]

Simone Weil. You could do a lot worse than to start with The Iliad, or The Poem of Force.
posted by BibiRose at 6:50 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

Rebecca Goldstein writes both nonfiction and fiction. My favorie of hers is The Mind-Body Problem.
posted by BibiRose at 6:53 AM on April 4 [2 favorites]

Virginia Woolf.
Gertrude Stein.
Edna St. Vincent Millay.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:18 AM on April 4

Clarice Lispector

(ditto Gertrude Stein)
posted by juv3nal at 7:20 AM on April 4

Mary McCarthy
posted by sigmagalator at 7:22 AM on April 4 [2 favorites]

Janet Flanner (aka Genêt).
posted by yellowcandy at 7:34 AM on April 4

Contemporary:
Kate Briggs
A. V. Marraccini
Anna Kornbluh
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Merve Emre

Less so:
Marta Harnecker
Helene Cixous
Natalia Ginzburg
Julia Kristeva
Katherine Mansfield
Iris Murdoch
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:40 AM on April 4

Merve Emre has been interviewing contemporary critics. You might enjoy the series, and use it as a jumping off point to these other writers. Literary Hub has the audio but NYRB has the transcripts with a subscription or use of archive.is.
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:42 AM on April 4

Toni Morrison--read Playing in the Dark and the collection of her essays, The Source of Self-Regard.
posted by TwoStride at 7:47 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

A few more:
bell hooks
Audre Lorde
Sheila Heti
Valeria Luiselli
Maggie Nelson
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:52 AM on April 4 [4 favorites]

Oh, also:
Gloria Anzaldua
Cherrie Moraga
June Jordan
posted by TwoStride at 7:57 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

Joan Didion.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 8:01 AM on April 4

Zadie Smith!!
posted by pazazygeek at 8:07 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

Arundhati Roy
posted by Don Pepino at 8:07 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

Naomi Klein is the first person I thought of who is doing this right now, from the 'public intellectual' standpoint.
posted by guessthis at 8:12 AM on April 4 [3 favorites]

Ann Powers is a super ubiquitous and wide-ranging music and culture critic.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 8:32 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

Tressie McMillan Cottom is an extraordinary public intellectual, writing about culture and society and higher education.

Roxane Gay is another one to follow. So brilliant.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:50 AM on April 4 [7 favorites]

Rebecca Solnit, definitely.
posted by cardinalandcrow at 1:27 PM on April 4 [6 favorites]

18 women have won the Pulitzer:

1. 2014: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
2. 2011: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
3. 2009: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
4. 2006: March by Geraldine Brooks
5. 2005: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
6. 2000: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
7. 1995: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields. This one is reason I put this list together. Just perfect. A of a bit dark and ironic novel that is both of the 90's and timeless.
8. 1994: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
9. 1992: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
10. 1989: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler. Overdue: should have won with previous works.
11. 1988: Beloved by Toni Morrison
12. 1985: Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
13. 1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
14. 1973: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
15. 1970: The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford
16. 1966: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
17. 1965: The Keepers Of The House by Shirley Ann Grau
18. 1961: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

posted by zenon at 1:48 PM on April 5 [1 favorite]

Ellen Willis, a rock critic who wrote cultural criticism.
posted by Arctostaphylos at 1:53 PM on April 5