In honor of Women’s History Month, I decided to
share twelve female authors who changed my life forever and who influenced me
to try my hand at writing. Some are not widely popular so you might want to try them
out.
1.
Charlotte BrontĂ© – English – Her plotting
and characters - Jane Eyre and Mr.
Rochester – are immortal.
2.
Louisa May Alcott – American – I loved
how she created a family of Little Women
that reminded me of my sisters.
4.
Emily Dickinson – American - What a
poet! Her innovation was pooh-poohed at first, but now we owe her for breaking
all those punctuation barriers.
5.
Beverly Cleary – American – She created
a little girl in Ramona that reminded me of me when I was a little girl. I wish I had met Ms. Cleary’s books sooner
instead of when I was in my 30’s.
6.
Judy Blume – American - Her female
characters said all the outrageous things I thought. (Another author I didn’t
discover until I was in my 30’s.)
7.
Laura Esquivel – Mexican - When Like Water for Chocolate came out in
1989, I turned green with envy. Her book
and the movie that followed broke all kinds of records.
8.
Julia Alvarez – Dominican-American – Her
book How the Garcia Girls Lost Their
Accents was innovative and fun to read.
9.
Isabel Allende – Chilean-American –
Her books are a strong voice for feminism and social justice, not just fluff.
10.Cynthia Rylant –
American – She tells stories in her simple poetry for children
and teens.
11.Pat Mora – Mexican
American – Writes many lovely stories and poems for children
and adults.
12.Judith Ortiz Cofer
– Puerto Rican – Writes strong poetry and short stories.
My list begins and ends with Laura Ingalls Wilder.
ReplyDeleteKnowing you, Ms. Pittman, I agree.
ReplyDeleteBeverly Cleary was one of my hero authors. I remember reading her Sister of the Bride in middle school. Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy, and Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind are on the list as well. My favorite genre as a tween was science fiction, female authors of which were few and far between at that time.
ReplyDeleteIt was always a nice surprise to find a sister had made it as an author, so I agree.
ReplyDelete