List of biographical dictionaries of women writers
Encyclopedia
There are a large and ever growing number of biographical dictionaries
of women writers. These works reflect the emergence of women's literature as a flourishing field of academic study over the past few decades. The genre also draws on a much older literary tradition of biographical collections of exemplary women.
This list includes biobibliographical dictionaries, in which biographical detail is provided alongside bibliographical information.
Biographical dictionary
Biographical dictionaries – a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information – have been written in many languages. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country...
of women writers. These works reflect the emergence of women's literature as a flourishing field of academic study over the past few decades. The genre also draws on a much older literary tradition of biographical collections of exemplary women.
This list includes biobibliographical dictionaries, in which biographical detail is provided alongside bibliographical information.
The dictionaries
- Adelaide, Debra. Australian women writers: a bibliographical guide. Pandora, 1988. ISBN 978-0863581489
- Bell, Maureen, et al., eds. A biographical dictionary of English women writers 1580-1720. Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990.
- Berney, K. A., et al., eds. Contemporary women dramatists. St. James Press, 1994.
- Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990.
- entries for over 2700 women writing in English (in various national traditions)
- Benbow-Pfalzgraf, Taryn. American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide: From Colonial Times to the Present. 2nd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.
- Contains biographical and critical essays on 1,328 American women writers
- Bloom, Abigail B. Nineteenth-century British women writers: a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook. Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-313-30439-2
- entries for over 90 British women writers of the nineteenth century
- Bloom, Harold, ed. British women fiction writers of the 19th century. Chelsea House, 1998.
- Bloom, Harold, ed. Caribbean women writers. Chelsea House, 1997.
- Bomariot, Jessica and Jeffrey W. Hunter, ed. Feminism in Literature: A Gale Critical Companion. 6 vols. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
- Includes timelines and entries on individual authors: Vol. 1 from antiquity through the 18th century; vols. 2-3 on the 19th century; and vols. 4-6 on the 20th century.
- Buck, Claire, ed.The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature. Prentice Hall, 1992.
- Champion, Laurie and Austin, Rhonda, eds. Contemporary American women fiction writers : an A-to-Z guide. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002.
- entries for: Alice AdamsAlice Adams (writer)Alice Adams was an American novelist, short story writer, and university professor....
, Julia AlvarezJulia ÁlvarezJulia Alvarez is a Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist. Born in New York of Dominican descent, she spent the first ten years of her childhood in the Dominican Republic, until her father's involvement in a political rebellion forced her family to flee the country.Alvarez rose to...
, Toni Cade BambaraToni Cade BambaraToni Cade Bambara, born Miltona Mirkin Cade was an African-American author, documentary film-maker, social activist and college professor.- Biography :...
, Andrea BarrettAndrea BarrettAndrea Barrett is an American novelist, and short story writer. Her Ship Fever collection of novella and short stories won the National Book Award in 1996...
, Ann BeattieAnn BeattieAnn Beattie is an American short story writer and novelist. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a PEN/Bernard Malamud Award for excellence in the short story form. Her work has been compared to that of Alice Adams, J.D. Salinger,...
, Judy BlumeJudy BlumeJudy Blume is an American author. She has written many novels for children and young adults which have exceeded sales of 80 million and been translated into 31 languages...
, Rita Mae BrownRita Mae BrownRita Mae Brown is an American writer. She is best known for her first novel Rubyfruit Jungle. Published in 1973, it dealt with lesbian themes in an explicit manner unusual for the time...
, Ana CastilloAna CastilloAna Castillo is a Mexican-American Chicana novelist, poet, short story writer, and essayist.- Life and career :Castillo was born and raised in an inner city barrio of Chicago, Illinois. After completing undergraduate studies, she immediately began teaching college courses...
, Denise ChavezDenise ChavezDenise Elia Chavez is an American author, playwright, and stage director. She was born to an Hispano family in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States, and graduated from Madonna High School in Mesilla. She received her Bachelor's from New Mexico State University and Master's degrees in Dramatic...
, Alice ChildressAlice ChildressAlice Childress was an American playwright, actor, and author.-Early life:Childress was born in South Carolina, but at age nine, after her parents separated, she moved to Harlem where she lived with her grandmother on 118th Street, between Lenox Avenue and Fifth Avenue...
, Sandra CisnerosSandra CisnerosSandra Cisneros is an American writer best known for her acclaimed first novel The House on Mango Street and her subsequent short story collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories...
, J. California CooperJ. California CooperJ. California Cooper is an African American playwright and author.Alice Walker has said that "Her style is deceptively simple and direct and the vale of tears in which her characters reside is never so deep that a rich chuckle at a foolish person's foolishness cannot be heard."-Bibliography:* 1984:...
, Ellen Douglas (Josephine Ayres Haxton), Louise ErdrichLouise ErdrichKaren Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
, Mary GaitskillMary GaitskillMary Gaitskill is an American author of essays, short stories and novels. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories , and The O. Henry Prize Stories .-Life:Gaitskill was born in Lexington, Kentucky...
, Kaye GibbonsKaye GibbonsKaye Gibbons is an American novelist. Her 1987 debut, Ellen Foster, received the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Special Citation from the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, and the The Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Prize in Creative Writing from...
, Gail GodwinGail GodwinGail Kathleen Godwin is an American novelist and short story writer. She has published one non-fiction work, two collections of short stories, and eleven novels, three of which have been nominated for the National Book Award and five of which have made the New York Times Bestseller List.Godwin was...
, Mary Gordon, Elizabeth Forsythe HaileyElizabeth Forsythe HaileyElizabeth Forsythe Hailey is an American journalist and playwright.-Career:She studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and received her Bachelor's Degree from Hollins College, now Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia in 1960. In the same year she married Oliver Hailey, a playwright and the father of...
, Shelby HearonShelby HearonShelby Hearon is an American novelist and short story writer.- Biography :Hearon was born in 1931 in Marion, Kentucky. She attended the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1953...
, Amy HempelAmy HempelAmy Hempel is an American short story writer, journalist, and university professor at Brooklyn College.-Life:Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois...
, Linda HoganLinda Hogan (writer)Linda K. Hogan is a Native American poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist and writer of short stories.She is currently the Chickasaw Nation's Writer in Residence.-Early life:Linda Hogan is Chickasaw...
, Mary HoodMary HoodMary Hood is an award-winning fiction writer of predominantly Southern literature, who has authored two short story collections - How Far She Went and And Venus is Blue - and a novel, Familiar Heat...
, Josephine HumphreysJosephine HumphreysJosephine Humphreys is an American novelist.A native of Charleston, South Carolina, which is also the setting of her novels Dreams of Sleep, Rich in Love and The Fireman's Fair, Humphreys was educated at Ashley Hall , studied creative writing with Reynolds Price at Duke University , and went on to...
, Gish JenGish JenGish Jen is a contemporary American writer.-Background:...
, Diane JohnsonDiane JohnsonDiane Johnson is an American-born novelist and essayist whose satirical novels often feature American heroines living abroad in contemporary France....
, Gayl JonesGayl JonesGayl Jones is an African American writer from Lexington, Kentucky.-Early life:After earning the Frances Steloff Award for Fiction while attending Connecticut College, Jones graduated with a Masters in creative writing at Brown University.-Career:The same year, she published her first book...
, Jamaica KincaidJamaica KincaidJamaica Kincaid is a Caribbean novelist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in the city of St. John's on the island of Antigua in the nation of Antigua and Barbuda...
, Nanci KincaidNanci KincaidNanci Kincaid is an American novelist who wrote a short story collection titled Pretending the Bed Is a Raft , as well as novels Crossing Blood , Balls , Verbena , and As Hot As It Was You Ought to Thank Me . The film My Life Without Me was based on the title story in Pretending the Bed Is a Raft...
, Barbara KingsolverBarbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the former Republic of Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before...
, Maxine (Ting Ting) Hong KingstonMaxine Hong KingstonMaxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United...
, Harper LeeHarper LeeNelle Harper Lee is an American author known for her 1960 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama...
, Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le GuinUrsula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
, Beverly Lowry, Paule MarshallPaule MarshallPaule Marshall is an American author. She was born Valenza Pauline Burke in Brooklyn to Barbadian parents and educated at Girls High School, Brooklyn College and Hunter College . Early in her career, she wrote poetry, but later returned to prose...
, Bobbie Ann MasonBobbie Ann MasonBobbie Ann Mason is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and literary critic from Kentucky.With four siblings Mason grew up on her family's dairy farm outside of Mayfield, Kentucky. As a child she loved to read, so her parents, Wilburn and Christina Mason, always made sure she had...
, Jill McCorkleJill McCorkleJill Collins McCorkle is an American short story writer, and novelist.She graduated from University of North Carolina, in 1980, where she studied with Max Steele, Lee Smith, and Louis D...
, Elizabeth McCrackenElizabeth McCrackenElizabeth McCracken is an American author.McCracken, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, graduated from Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts, earned a B.A. and M.A. in English from Boston University, an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa, and...
, Colleen Johnson McElroy, Terry McMillanTerry McMillanTerry McMillan is an American author. Her interest in books comes from working at a library when she was sixteen. She received her BA in journalism in 1986 at University of California, Berkeley. Her work is characterized by strong female protagonists.Her first book, Mama, was published in 1987...
, Toni MorrisonToni MorrisonToni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
, Gloria NaylorGloria NaylorGloria Naylor is an African American novelist and educator.-Early life:Born in New York, she was the first child to Roosevelt Naylor and Alberta McAlpin. As Naylor grew up, her father was a transit worker and her mother was a telephone operator. When Naylor was young, her mother encouraged her to...
, Joyce Carol OatesJoyce Carol OatesJoyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
, Tillie OlsenTillie OlsenTillie Lerner Olsen was an American writer associated with the political turmoil of the 1930s and the first generation of American feminists.-Biography:...
, Cynthia OzickCynthia OzickCynthia Ozick is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist. She is the niece of the Hebraist Abraham Regelson.-Background:Cynthia Shoshana Ozick was born in New York City, the second of two children...
, Grace (Goodside) PaleyGrace PaleyGrace Paley was an American-Jewish short story writer, poet, and political activist.-Biography:Grace Paley was born in the Bronx to Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside, who anglicized the family name from Gutseit on immigrating from Ukraine. Her father was a doctor. The family spoke Russian and...
, Sara ParetskySara ParetskySara Paretsky is a modern American author of detective fiction.-Life and career:Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa and raised in Kansas, graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in political science. She did community service work on the south side of Chicago in 1966 and returned in...
, Ann PetryAnn PetryAnn Petry was an American author who became the first black woman writer with book sales topping a million copies for her novel The Street.-Early life:...
, Jayne Anne Phillips, Francine ProseFrancine ProseFrancine Prose is an American writer. Since March 2007 she has been the president of PEN American Center. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968 and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991....
, Marilynne RobinsonMarilynne Robinson-Biography:Robinson was born and grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho, and did her undergraduate work at Pembroke College, the former women's college at Brown University, receiving her B.A., magna cum laude in 1966, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her Ph.D...
, Mary RobisonMary RobisonMary Cennamo Robison is an American short story writer and novelist. She has published four collections of stories, and four novels, including her 2001 novel Why Did I Ever, winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Her most recent novel, released in 2009, is One D.O.A., One...
, Leslie Marmon SilkoLeslie Marmon SilkoLeslie Marmon Silko is a Native American writer of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, and one of the key figures in the second wave of what Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
, Jane SmileyJane SmileyJane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained an A.B. at Vassar College, then earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the...
, Lee SmithLee Smith (author)Lee Smith is an American fiction author who typically incorporates much of her home roots in the Southeastern United States in her works of literature. She has received many writing awards, such as the O. Henry Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction, and the North...
, Elizabeth Ann Tallent, Amy TanAmy TanAmy Tan is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships. Her most well-known work is The Joy Luck Club, which has been translated into 35 languages...
, Melanie Rae ThonMelanie Rae ThonMelanie Rae Thon is an American writer, "widely regarded as one of the most original stylists writing fiction today." Thon has received grants from the National Foundation for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation...
, Anne TylerAnne TylerAnne Tyler is an American novelist.Tyler, the eldest of four children, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her father was a chemist and her mother a social worker. Her early childhood was spent in a succession of Quaker communities in the mountains of North Carolina and in Raleigh...
, Alice WalkerAlice WalkerAlice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
, Joy Williams.
- entries for: Alice Adams
- Colman, Anne U. Dictionary of nineteenth-century Irish women poets. Kenny's Bookshop, 1996. Intended to complement Weekes Unveiling Treasures.
- Dagg, Anne Innis. The feminine gaze: a Canadian compendium of non-fiction women authors and their books, 1836-1945. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001.
- includes brief biographies of 473 writers
- Fister, Barbara, ed. Third World Women's Literatures: A Dictionary and Guide to Materials in English. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995.
- Listings by country and region and alphabetical by author; includes bibliography of criticism.
- Gonzalez, Alexander G., ed. Irish women writers: an A-to-Z guide. Greenwood Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-313-32883-1
- 75 entries, by over 35 contributors, on: Linda Anderson, Ivy Bannister, Mary Beckett, Sara Berkeley, Maeve BinchyMaeve BinchyMaeve Binchy is an Irish novelist, newspaper columnist and speaker. Educated at University College Dublin, she worked as a teacher then a journalist at The Irish Times and later became a writer of novels and short stories.Many of her novels are set in Ireland, dealing with the tensions between...
, Caroline BlackwoodCaroline BlackwoodLady Caroline Maureen Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood was a writer and artist's muse, and the eldest child of the 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and the brewery heiress Maureen Guinness....
, Eavan BolandEavan Boland-Biography:Boland's father, Frederick Boland, was a career diplomat and her mother, Frances Kelly, was a noted post-expressionist painter. She was born in Dublin in 1944. At the age of six, Boland's father was appointed Irish Ambassador to the United Kingdom; the family followed him to London,...
, Angela Bourke, Elizabeth BowenElizabeth BowenElizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen, CBE was an Irish novelist and short story writer.-Life:Elizabeth Bowen was born on 7 June 1899 at 15 Herbert Place in Dublin, Ireland and was baptized in the nearby St Stephen's Church on Upper Mount Street...
, Clare BoylanClare BoylanClare Boylan was an Irish author, journalist and critic for newspapers, magazines and many international broadcast media....
, Elizabeth Brennan, Frances BrowneFrances BrowneFrances Browne was an Irish poet and novelist, best remembered for her collection of short stories for children: Granny's Wonderful Chair.-Early life:...
, Mary Rose CallaghanMary Rose CallaghanMary Rose Callaghan Dublin, Ireland, is a novelist and biographer.-Education :Callaghan obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English, History, and Ethics/Politics in 1968,, followed by a Diploma in Education in 1969, both from University College, Dublin.-Career:From 1973 to 1975, she was assistant...
, Moya CannonMoya CannonMoya Cannon is an Irish author.Cannon was born in 1956 in Dunfanaghy, County Donegal. She studied History and Politics at University College Dublin, and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge....
, Marina CarrMarina CarrMarina Carr is an Irish playwright.Born in Tullamore, County Offaly, Carr attended University College Dublin before holding posts as writer-in-residence at the Abbey Theatre and Trinity College Dublin. She served as Heimbold Professor of Irish Studies at Villanova University in 2003...
, Juanita Casey, Mary (Catherine Gunning Maguire) Colum, Julia Crottie, Geraldine Cummins, Ita Daly, Suzanne Day, Teresa Deevy, Anne DevlinAnne DevlinAnne Devlin was an Irish republican who acted as housekeeper to Robert Emmet and who was also a cousin of two leading United Irish rebels, Michael Dwyer and Arthur Devlin.-Revolutionary involvement:Devlin was born in Rathdrum Co...
, Eilis DillonEilís DillonEilís Dillon was an Irish author of 50 books. Her work has been translated into 14 languages....
, Emma DonoghueEmma DonoghueEmma Donoghue is an Irish-born playwright, literary historian and novelist now living in Canada. Her 2010 novel Room was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and an international bestseller. Donoghue's 1995 novel Hood won the Stonewall Book Award and Slammerkin won the Ferro-Grumley Award for...
, Mary DorceyMary DorceyMary Dorcey is an Irish short story writer, poet and novelist.-Biography:Dorcey won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for Literature in 1990 for her short story collection A Noise from the Woodshed. She is a member by peer election of 'Aosdana' the Academy of Irish Artists...
, Ellen Mary Patrick Downing, Maria EdgeworthMaria EdgeworthMaria Edgeworth was a prolific Anglo-Irish writer of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe...
, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Anne EnrightAnne EnrightAnne Enright is a Booker Prize-winning Irish author. She has published essays, short stories, a non-fiction book and four novels. Before her novel The Gathering won the 2007 Man Booker Prize, Enright had a low profile in Ireland and the United Kingdom, although her books were favourably reviewed...
, Mary E. (Mary Blundell) Frances, Miriam Gallagher, Sarah GrandSarah GrandSarah Grand was a British feminist writer active from 1873 to 1922. Her work revolved around the New Woman ideal.- Early Life and Influences of Frances Elizabeth Bellenden Clarke:...
, Augusta, Lady GregoryAugusta, Lady GregoryIsabella Augusta, Lady Gregory , born Isabella Augusta Persse, was an Irish dramatist and folklorist. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of...
, Anne Le Marquand Hartigan, Rita Ann HigginsRita Ann Higgins-Life:A native of Ballybrit, Galway, Higgins was one of thirteen children in a working-class household. She married in 1973 but following the birth of her second child in 1977, contracted Tuberculosis, forcing her to spend an extended period in a sanatorium,...
, Norah HoultNorah HoultNorah Hoult was an Irish writer of novels and short stories.She was born in Dublin. Her mother, Margaret O'Shaughnessy, was a Catholic girl who eloped at the age of 21 with a Protestant English architect named Powis Hoult...
, Jennifer JohnstonJennifer JohnstonJennifer Johnston is an Irish novelist, winner of the Whitbread Book Award for The Old Jest in 1979, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1977...
, Biddy Jenkinson, Marie JonesMarie JonesSarah Marie Jones is a Belfast-based actress and playwright. Born into a working class family, Jones was an actress for several years before turning her hand to writing.-Charabanc/DubbelJoint:...
, Molly KeaneMolly KeaneMolly Keane was an Irish novelist and playwright . She grew up at Ballyrankin in County Wexford and was educated at a boarding school in Bray, County Wicklow . She married Bobby Keane, one of a Waterford squirearchical family in 1938 and had two daughters...
, Eva Kelly, Rita KellyRita KellyRita Kelly is an Irish poet from Ballinasloe in east County Galway and now lives along the river Barrow between Athy and Carlow. She has published several collections of poetry and has been featured in a number of magazines and journals...
, Mary LavinMary LavinMary Josephine Lavin was a noted Irish short story writer and novelist. She is regarded as a pioneering female author in the traditionally male-dominated world of Irish letters. Her subject matter often dealt explicitly with feminist issues and concerns at a time when the primacy of the Roman...
, Emily LawlessEmily LawlessEmily Lawless was an Irish novelist and poet from County Kildare.-Biography :She was born at Lyons House below Lyons Hill, Ardclough, County Kildare. Her grandfather was Valentine Lawless, a member of the United Irishmen and son of a convert from Catholicism to the Church of Ireland. Her father...
, Joan LingardJoan LingardJoan Lingard is a Scottish novel writer.- Career :Lingard has written novels for both adults and children...
, Deirdre MaddenDeirdre MaddenDeirdre Madden is an author from Toomebridge, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. She was educated at St Mary's Grammar School, Trinity College, Dublin and at the University of East Anglia . In 1994 she was Writer-in-Residence at University College, Cork and in 1997 was Writer Fellow at Trinity...
, Joy Martin, Medbh McguckianMedbh McGuckianMedbh McGuckian is a poet from Northern Ireland.-Biography:She was born the third of six children as Maeve McCaughan to Hugh and Margaret McCaughan in North Belfast. Her father was a school headmaster and her mother an influential art and music enthusiast...
, Janet McNeill, Paula MeehanPaula MeehanPaula Meehan is an Irish poet and playwright. Born in Dublin in 1955, Meehan studied at Trinity College, Dublin,and at Eastern Washington University.-Biography:...
, Maire Mhac an tSaoiMáire Mhac an tSaoi-Background:Mhac an tSaoi was born as Máire MacEntee in Dublin in 1922. Her father, Seán MacEntee, a native of Belfast, was a founding member of Fianna Fáil, a long-serving TD and Tánaiste in the Dáil and a participant in the Easter Rising of 1916. Her mother, County Tipperary-born Margaret Browne...
, Alice MilliganAlice MilliganAlice Milligan was an Irish nationalist poet and writer, active in the Gaelic League.-Life:She was born and raised a Protestant in Gortmore, near Omagh, County Tyrone. Milligan's father was the writer Seaton Milligan, antiquary and member of the RIA...
, Susan L. MitchellSusan L. MitchellSusan Langstaff Mitchell was an Irish writer and poet, known for her satirical verse.-Biography:She was born in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, one of eight children of Michael Thomas Mitchell. Her father was manager of the Provincial Bank there...
, Lady MorganLady MorganSydney, Lady Morgan , was an Irish novelist, best known as the author of The Wild Irish Girl.-Early life:...
, Val Mulkerns, Iris MurdochIris MurdochDame Iris Murdoch DBE was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about political and social questions of good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious...
, Eilean Ni ChuilleanainEiléan Ní ChuilleanáinEiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is an Irish poet born in Cork .-Life:Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is the daughter of Eilís Dillon and Professor Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin. She was educated at University College Cork and The University of Oxford. She lives in Dublin with her husband Macdara Woods, and they have one...
, Nuala Ni DhomhnaillNuala Ní DhomhnaillNuala Ní Dhomhnaill is an Irish poet.Born in Lancashire, England in 1952, of Irish parents, she moved to Ireland at the age of 5, and was brought up in the Dingle Gaeltacht and in Nenagh, County Tipperary. Her uncle is Monsignor Pádraig Ó Fiannachta of An Daingean, the leading authority alive on...
, Eilis Ni DhuibhneEilis Ni DhuibhneÉilís Ní Dhuibhne is an Irish novelist and short-story writer who writes both in Irish and English. She is also known as Elisabeth O'Hara.-Biography:...
, Aine Ni Ghlinn, Mairead Ni GhradaMáiréad Ní GhrádaMáiréad Ní Ghráda , was an Irish poet, playwright, and broadcaster born in Kilmaley, Co. Clare.Ní Ghráda's father James O'Grady was a farmer, local county councilor and a native speaker of Irish and it is thought it was from him Máiréad got her love for the Irish language.Ní Ghráda was jailed in...
, Edna O'BrienEdna O'BrienEdna O'Brien is an Irish novelist and short story writer whose works often revolve around the inner feelings of women, and their problems in relating to men and to society as a whole.-Life and career:...
, Kate O'BrienKate O'BrienKate O'Brien , was an Irish novelist and playwright.-Biography:Kathleen "Kate" Mary Louie O'Brien was born in Limerick City at the end of the 19th century. Following the death of her mother when she was five, she became a boarder at Laurel Hill convent...
, Mary O'Donnell, Julia O'FaolainJulia O'FaolainJulia O'Faolain is an Irish novelist and short story writer. Her parents were Irish writers Seán Ó Faoláin and Eileen Gould....
, Nuala O'FaolainNuala O'FaolainNuala O'Faolain was an Irish journalist, TV producer, book reviewer, teacher and author. She became internationally well-known for her two volumes of memoir, Are You Somebody? and Almost There; a novel, My Dream of You; and a history with commentary, The Story of Chicago May...
, Mary O'MalleyMary O'Malley (poet)-Life:Mary O’Malley was educated at University College, Galway. She spent many years living in Portugal before returning to Ireland in the late 1980s, and beginning a poetry career in 1990.She lives near the village of Moycullen...
, Christina ReidChristina ReidChristina Reid is a playwright.-Life:She graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast.She was a writer-in-residence at the Lyric Theatre, and at the Young Vic...
, Somerville and RossSomerville and RossSomerville and Ross were an Anglo-Irish writing team, perhaps most famous for their series of books that were made into the TV series The Irish R.M.....
, Eithne Strong, Mary TigheMary TigheMary Tighe , was an Anglo-Irish poet.She was born in Dublin to Theodosia Tighe, a Methodist leader, and William Blachford , a Church of Ireland clergyman and librarian...
, Katharine TynanKatharine TynanKatharine Tynan was an Irish-born writer, known mainly for her novels and poetry. After her marriage in 1898 to the writer and barrister Henry Albert Hinkson she usually wrote under the name Katharine Tynan Hinkson...
, Lady Wilde, Sheila Wingfield
- 75 entries, by over 35 contributors, on: Linda Anderson, Ivy Bannister, Mary Beckett, Sara Berkeley, Maeve Binchy
- Hammill, Faye, et al., eds. Encyclopedia of British women's writing, 1900-1950. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
- Harris, Sharon M., ed. American women prose writers, 1870-1920. Dictionary of Literary BiographyDictionary of Literary BiographyThe Dictionary of Literary Biography is a specialist encyclopedia dedicated to literature. Published by Gale, the 375-volumes set covers a wide variety of literary topics, periods, and genres, with a focus on American and British literature....
. Vol. v. 221. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000.- entries on: Octavia Albert / Phoebe Jackson, Mary AntinMary AntinMary Antin was an American author and immigration rights activist.Born to a Jewish family in Polotsk, she immigrated to the Boston area with her mother and siblings in 1894. She married Amadeus William Grabau in 1901, and moved to New York City where she attended Teachers College of Columbia...
/ Betty Bergland, Mary Austin / Linda K. Karell, Amelia Edith Huddleston BarrAmelia Edith Huddleston BarrAmelia Edith Barr in Ulverston, Lancashire, England, died March 10, 1919) was a British American novelist.-Biography:...
/ Rose Norman, Lillie Devereux Blake / Grace Farrell, S. Alice Callahan / Annette Van Dyke, Kate McPhelim ClearyKate McPhelim ClearyKate McPhelim Cleary was a noted 19th century American author.- Biography :Kate McPhelim was born in Richibucto, New Brunswick, Canada, the daughter of Irish immigrants James McPhelim and Margaret Kelly. Kate’s father died when she was two years old, leaving her mother Margaret Kelly McPhelim to...
/ Susanne George Bloomfield, Anna Julia Cooper / Jennifer A. Kohout, Mary Abigail DodgeMary Abigail DodgeMary Abigail Dodge was an American writer and essayist, she wrote under pseudonym Gail Hamilton. Her writing is noted for its wit and promotion of equality of education and occupation for women....
(Gail Hamilton) / Annmarie Pinarski, Alice Morse EarleAlice Morse EarleAlice Morse Earle was an American historian and author from Worcester, Massachusetts. She was christened Mary Alice by her parents Edwin Morse and Abby Mason Clary. On 15 April 1874, she married Henry Earle of New York, changing her name from Mary Alice Morse to Alice Morse Earle...
/ Katharine Gillespie, Edith Maude EatonEdith Maude EatonSui Sin Far was an author known for her writing about Chinese people in North America and the Chinese American experience...
(Sui Sin Far) / Nicole Tonkovich, Winnifred EatonWinnifred EatonWinnifred Eaton, was a Canadian author. Although she was of Chinese-British ancestry, she published under the Japanese pseudonym, Onoto Watanna.- Biography :...
(Onoto Watanna) / Maureen Honey, Sarah Barnwell ElliottSarah Barnwell ElliottSarah Barnwell Elliott was a novelist, short story writer, and an advocate of women's rights.-Biography:She was born in Savannah, Georgia to Stephen Elliott a bishop in the Episcopal Church who was one of the founders of the University of the South at Sewanee. She received private tutoring and...
/ Susan Neal Mayberry, Annie Adams FieldsAnnie Adams FieldsAnnie Adams Fields was a United States writer.- 1834 -1881 :Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she was the second wife of the publisher and author James Thomas Fields, whom she married in 1854, and with whom she encouraged up and coming writers such as Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary Freeman, and Emma Lazarus...
/ Deborah M. Evans, Mary Hallock FooteMary Hallock FooteMary Hallock Foote was an American author and illustrator. She is best known for her illustrated short stories and novels portraying life in the mining communities of the turn-of-the-century American West.-Overview:...
/ Victoria Lamont, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman / Marylynne Diggs, Charlotte Perkins GilmanCharlotte Perkins GilmanCharlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform...
/ Robin Miskolcze, Emma GoldmanEmma GoldmanEmma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
/ Priscilla Wald, Anna Katharine GreenAnna Katharine GreenAnna Katharine Green was an American poet and novelist. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories.-Life and work:...
/ Marie T. Farr, Susan HaleSusan HaleSusan Hale was an American author, traveler and artist.-Biography:She was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Nathan Hale and Sarah Preston Everett who had a total of eleven children...
/ Karen Dandurand, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper / Maggie Montesinos Sale, Constance Cary HarrisonConstance Cary HarrisonConstance Cary Harrison , was a prolific American writer. She was also known as Constance Cary, Constance C. Harrison, and Mrs. Burton Harrison, as well as her nom de plume, "Refugitta." She was married to Burton Harrison, a lawyer and American democratic politician...
(Mrs. Burton Harrison) / Kathy Ryder, Mary Jane Holmes / Barbara J. McGuire, Alice JamesAlice JamesAlice James was a U.S. diarist. The only daughter of Henry James, Sr. and sister of philosopher William James and novelist Henry James, she is known mainly for the posthumously published diary that she kept in her final years.-Life:Born into a wealthy and intellectually active family, Alice James...
/ Kristin Bourdeau, Sarah Orne JewettSarah Orne JewettSarah Orne Jewett was an American novelist and short story writer, best known for her local color works set in or near South Berwick, Maine, on the border of New Hampshire, which in her day was a declining New England seaport.-Biography:Jewett's family had been residents of New England for many...
/ Melanie Kisthardt, Mrs. A. E. Johnson (Amelia Johnson) / Wendy Wagner, Emma Dunham Kelley / Barbara McCaskill, Lucy LarcomLucy LarcomLucy Larcom was an American poet.-Biography:Larcom was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1824, the ninth of ten children and died in Boston in 1893. She left Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1835 to work cotton mills in Lowell from the ages of 11 to 21. As a mill girl she hoped to earn some extra...
/ Shirley Marchalonis, Laura Jean LibbeyLaura Jean LibbeyLaura Jean Libbey , was an American writer.The highly popular author of fiction, her works were what became known as dime novels. Today they would be categorised as formulaic romance novels....
/ Jean Carwile Masteller, Queen Lili'uokalani / Lydia Kualapai, Victoria Earle MatthewsVictoria Earle MatthewsVictoria Earle Matthews, born Victoria Earle , Born into slavery in Virginia, Earle moved with her mother and sister to New York after emancipation...
/ Shirley Wilson Logan, María Cristina Mena (María Cristina Chambers) / E. Thomson Shields, Mourning Dove (Humishuma) / Alanna Kathleen Brown, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps / Mary Bortnyk Rigsby, Agnes RepplierAgnes RepplierAgnes Repplier was an American essayist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her essays are esteemed for their scholarship and wit.-Essay collections:*Books and Men *Points of View...
/ Paul Hansom, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton / José F. Aranda, Amanda SmithAmanda SmithAmanda Berry Smith was a former slave who became an inspiration to thousands of women both black and white. She was born in Long Green, Maryland, a small town in Baltimore County. Her father's name was Samuel Berry while her mother's name was Mariam...
/ Venetria K. Patton, Harriet Prescott Spofford / Jennifer Putzi, Gene Stratton-PorterGene Stratton-PorterGene Stratton-Porter was an American author, amateur naturalist, wildlife photographer, and one of the earliest women to form a movie studio and production company. She wrote some best-selling novels and well-received columns in national magazines, such as McCalls...
/ Anne K. Phillips, Suzie King Taylor / Joycelyn K. Moody, Ida B. Wells-Barnett / Stephanie Athey, Frances E. Willard / Mary Hurd, Martha Wolfenstein / Rosalind G. Benjet, Constance Fenimore WoolsonConstance Fenimore WoolsonConstance Fenimore Woolson was an American novelist and short story writer. She was a grandniece of James Fenimore Cooper, and is best known for fictions about the Great Lakes region, the American South, and American expatriates in Europe.-In America: the story-writer:Woolson was born in...
/ Sharon L. Dean, Anzia YezierskaAnzia YezierskaAnzia Yezierska was a Polish-American novelist born in Maly Plock, Poland.- Personal life :Anzia Yezierska was born in the 1880s in Maly Plock to Bernard and Pearl Yezierski. Her family immigrated to America around 1890, following in the footsteps of her eldest brother Meyer, who arrived to the...
/ Julie Prebel.
- entries on: Octavia Albert / Phoebe Jackson, Mary Antin
- Horwitz, Barbara J. British Women Writers, 1700-1850: an Annotated Bibliography of Their works and Works about Them. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press; Pasadena CA: Salem Press, 1997.
- Hudock, Amy E. & Rodier, Katharine, eds. American women prose writers: 1820-1870. Gale Group, 2001.
- entries for: Louisa May AlcottLouisa May AlcottLouisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868...
, Sarah G. Bagley, Mary Boykin ChesnutMary Boykin ChesnutMary Boykin Chesnut, born Mary Boykin Miller , was a South Carolina author noted for a book published as her Civil War diary, a "vivid picture of a society in the throes of its life-and-death struggle." She described the war from within her upper-class circles of Southern planter society, but...
, Susan Fenimore CooperSusan Fenimore CooperSusan Augusta Fenimore Cooper was an American writer and amateur naturalist. She was born in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of the well known novelist James Fenimore Cooper. She was his second child, and the eldest to survive her youth...
, Mary Anne Cruse, Rebecca Harding DavisRebecca Harding DavisRebecca Blaine Harding Davis was an American author and journalist. She is deemed a pioneer of literary realism in American literature. She graduated valedictorian from Washington Female Seminary in Pennsylvania...
, Sarah Morgan Dawson, Silvia Dubois, Zilpha Elaw, Augusta Jane EvansAugusta Jane EvansAugusta Jane Wilson, or Augusta Evans Wilson, was an American Southern author and one of the pillars of Southern literature. She wrote nine novels: Inez , Beulah , Macaria , St. Elmo , Vashti , Infelice , At the Mercy of Tiberius , A Speckled Bird , and Devota...
, Harriet FarleyHarriet FarleyHarriet Farley was an American writer and abolitionist, editor of the Lowell Offering from 1842 to 1845.-Life:...
, Charlotte L. Forten, Margaret FullerMargaret FullerSarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism...
, Sarah Moore Grimké, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, Harriet Jacobs, Mary JemisonMary JemisonMary Jemison was an American frontierswoman and an adopted Seneca. When she was in her teens, she was captured in what is now Adams County, Pennsylvania, from her home along Marsh Creek, and later chose to remain a Seneca....
, Elizabeth Keckley, Sarah Petigru King, Susan Shelby Magoffin, Mary Peabody Mann, Katherine Sherwood Bonner McDowellKatherine Sherwood Bonner McDowellKatherine Sherwood Bonner McDowell was a female author of America's Gilded Age. She is highly significant both as an author and as a feminist icon in an age when it was difficult for women to break away from the accepted norm of husband and household and as such may be considered a romantic...
(Sherwood Bonner), Maria Jane McIntoshMaria Jane McIntoshMaria Jane McIntosh was a writer.-Biography:Maria's father, Major Lachlan McIntosh fought in the American Revolutionary War, afterwards establishing a law practice in Sunbury, and starting a family.Maria was educated in the Academy of Sunbury, and moved to New York City in 1835 to live with her...
, Lucretia MottLucretia MottLucretia Coffin Mott was an American Quaker, abolitionist, social reformer, and proponent of women's rights.- Early life and education:...
, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Sara Payson Willis Parton (Fanny FernFanny FernFanny Fern, born Sara Willis , was an American writer and the first woman to have a regular newspaper column. She was also a humorist, novelist, and author of children's stories in the 1850s-1870s. Fern's great popularity has been attributed to her conversational style and sense of what mattered to...
), Ann PlatoAnn PlatoAnn Plato was a nineteenth century mixed race educator and author. She was the second woman of color to publish a book in America and the first to publish a book of essays and poems.-Early years:...
, Margaret Junkin PrestonMargaret Junkin Preston-Biography:She was born in Milton, Pennsylvania in 1820. Her father was George Junkin, a Presbyterian minister and college president. She learned Latin and Ancient Greek at the age of twelve. She married Major John Thomas Lewis Preston in 1857, a Professor of Latin at Virginia Military Institute...
, Nancy Gardner Prince, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Lydia Huntley Sigourney, E. D. E. N. SouthworthE. D. E. N. SouthworthEmma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth was an American writer of more than 60 novels in the latter part of the 19th century. She was probably the most widely read author of that era.-Life and career:...
, Maria W. StewartMaria W. StewartMaria Stewart was an African American essayist, public speaker, abolitionist, and women's rights activist.-Life and career:...
, Lucy StoneLucy StoneLucy Stone was a prominent American abolitionist and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery at a time when women were discouraged...
, Harriet Beecher StoweHarriet Beecher StoweHarriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
, Celia Laighton Thaxter, Sojourner TruthSojourner TruthSojourner Truth was the self-given name, from 1843 onward, of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, she...
, Susan WarnerSusan WarnerSusan Bogert Warner , was an American evangelical writer of religious fiction, children's fiction, and theological works.-Biography:...
(Elizabeth Wetherell), Emma WillardEmma WillardEmma Hart Willard was an American women’s rights activist who dedicated her life to education. She worked in several schools and founded the first school for women’s higher education, the Troy Female Seminary in Troy, New York...
, Harriet Wilson.
- entries for: Louisa May Alcott
- Kester-Shelton, Pamela. Feminist Writers. Detroit: St. James, 1996.
- entries on almost 300 writers (mostly American or British), including biography, bibliography, and critical bibliography. An appendix provides a brief paragraph or identifying phrase for an additional 177 writers.
- Klein, Kathleen G., ed. Great women mystery writers: classic to contemporary. Greenwood Press, 1994.
- entries for: Catherine AirdCatherine AirdCatherine Aird is the pseudonym of novelist Kinn Hamilton McIntosh. She is the author of more than twenty crime fiction novels and several collections of short stories...
, Margery AllinghamMargery AllinghamMargery Louise Allingham was an English crime writer, best remembered for her detective stories featuring gentleman sleuth Albert Campion.- Childhood and schooling :...
/Maxwell March, Charlotte ArmstrongCharlotte ArmstrongCharlotte Armstrong Lewi was an American author. Under the names Charlotte Armstrong and Jo Valentine she wrote 29 novels, as well as working for the New York Times advertising department, as a fashion reporter for Breath of the Avenue , and in an accounting firm.Armstrong Lewi graduated from Vulcan...
/Jo Valentine, Margot ArnoldMargot ArnoldMargot Arnold is the pseudonym of Petronelle Marguerite Mary Cook. She was born in Plymouth, Devon, England. She received a B.A. with a Diploma in Prehistoric Archaeology and Anthropology in 1947, and an M.A. in 1950 from Oxford University. She is a long-time resident of Hyannis, Massachusetts....
, Marian BabsonMarian babsonMarian Babson a pseudonym for Ruth Stenstreem. She is a mystery author with a large body of work that rotates in and out of print. She was born in Salem, Massachusetts, USA, but has lived most her life in London, England....
, Nikki Baker, Linda BarnesLinda BarnesLinda Barnes is an American mystery writer who was born and raised in Detroit, and graduated cum laude from the School of Fine and Applied Arts at Boston University. She then went on to become a drama teacher and director at Chelmsford and Lexington, Massachusetts schools...
, J. S. Borthwick, Elisabeth Bowers, Mary Elizabeth BraddonMary Elizabeth BraddonMary Elizabeth Braddon was a British Victorian era popular novelist. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret.-Life:...
/Babington White, Christianna BrandChristianna BrandChristianna Brand was a British crime writer and children's author.- Background :Christianna Brand was born Mary Christianna Milne in Malaya and grew up in India. She had a number of different occupations, including model, dancer, shop assistant and governess...
/Mary Ann Ashe/China Thompson, Lilian Jackson BraunLilian Jackson BraunLilian Jackson Braun was an American writer, well known for her light-hearted series of "The Cat Who..." mystery novels...
, Gwendoline ButlerGwendoline ButlerGwendoline Butler is a writer of mystery fiction credited for inventing the "woman's police procedural" and known for her series of Inspector John Coffin novels. She has also published a series featuring female detective Charmian Daniels under the pseudonym Jennie Melville...
/Jennie Melville, P. M. Carlson, Vera CasparyVera CasparyVera Caspary was an American writer of novels, plays, screenplays, and short stories. Her best-known novel Laura was made into a highly successful movie. Though she claimed she was not a "real" mystery writer, her novels effectively merged women's quest for identity and love with murder plots...
, Sarah CaudwellSarah CaudwellSarah Caudwell was the pseudonym of Sarah Cockburn , a British barrister and writer of detective stories.She is best known for a series of four murder stories written between 1980 and 1999, centred around the lives of a group of young barristers practicing in Lincoln’s Inn and narrated by a Hilary...
, Agatha ChristieAgatha ChristieDame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
/Mary Westmacott, Mary Higgins ClarkMary Higgins ClarkMary Theresa Eleanor Higgins Clark Conheeney , known professionally as Mary Higgins Clark, is an American author of suspense novels...
, Anna Clarke, Liza CodyLiza CodyLiza Cody is an English crime fiction writer.She is the author of twelve novels and many short stories. Her Anna Lee series introduced the professional female private detective to British mystery fiction. The entire Anna Lee series was adapted for television and broadcast in both the U.K...
, Susan ConantSusan ConantSusan Conant is an American mystery writer. She is best known for her "Dog Lover's Mysteries", featuring magazine writer Holly Winter. Conant graduated from Radcliffe College with a degree in social relations, and a doctorate from Harvard in human development. She is active in and is a...
, Patricia CornwellPatricia CornwellPatricia Cornwell is a contemporary American crime writer. She is widely known for writing a popular series of novels featuring the heroine Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner.-Early life:...
, Amanda Cross, Elizabeth Daly, Barbara D'Amato/Malacai Black, Dorothy Salisbury DavisDorothy Salisbury DavisDorothy Salisbury Davis is an American crime fiction writer.She was an adopted child, raised in Illinois. She worked in Chicago in advertising as a research librarian and as an editor of The Merchandiser, prior to taking up fiction writing.She was married to Harry Davis, the character actor,from...
, Doris Miles DisneyDoris Miles DisneyDoris Miles Disney was an American mystery writer. She was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, and died in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Disney wrote 49 novels. Many of her novels were both best sellers and the bases for major feature films.Disney was known for her character development and the...
, Susan Dunlap, Tony Fennelly, E. X. Ferrars, Leslie Ford/David Frome, Katherine V. ForrestKatherine V. ForrestKatherine V. Forrest is an American writer.Forrest is best known for her eight novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. The character was the very first lesbian police detective in the American lesbian mystery genre and is described as "Miss Marple with k.d...
, Antonia FraserAntonia FraserLady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...
, Frances Fyfield/Frances Hegarty, Elizabeth GeorgeElizabeth GeorgeSusan Elizabeth George is an American author of mystery novels set in Great Britain.Eleven of her novels featuring her lead character Inspector Lynley have been adapted for television by the BBC as The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.-Biography:George was born in Warren, Ohio to Robert Edwin and Anne ...
, B. M. Gill, Dorothy GilmanDorothy GilmanDorothy Gilman born June 25, 1923 is a United States author of mystery and spy fiction. She is most well known for the Mrs...
, E. X. Giroux/Doris Shannon, Paula GoslingPaula GoslingPaula Gosling is a US-born crime writer. She has lived in the UK since the 1960s. Gosling started her writing career as a copy-writer. She published her first novel, A Running Duck, in 1974. It won the John Creasey Award for the best first novel of the year. She has also received the Gold Dagger...
/Ainslie Skinner, Sue GraftonSue GraftonSue Taylor Grafton is a contemporary American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the 'alphabet series' featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. The daughter of detective novelist C. W...
, Linda Grant, Leslie Grant-Adamson, Anna Katharine GreenAnna Katharine GreenAnna Katharine Green was an American poet and novelist. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories.-Life and work:...
, Martha GrimesMartha GrimesMartha Grimes is an American author of detective fiction.She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to William Dermit Grimes, Pittsburgh's city solicitor, and to June Dunnington, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes...
, Carolyn G. Hart, S. T. Haymon, Joan Hess/Joan Hadley, Georgette HeyerGeorgette HeyerGeorgette Heyer was a British historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer...
, Patricia HighsmithPatricia HighsmithPatricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short-story writer most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951...
, Dorothy B. HughesDorothy B. HughesDorothy B. Hughes was an American crime writer and literary critic. Hughes wrote fourteen crime and detective novels, primarily in the hardboiled and noir styles, and is best known for the novels In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse .Born Dorothy Belle Flanagan in Kansas City, Missouri, she...
, P. D. JamesP. D. JamesPhyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL , commonly known as P. D. James, is an English crime writer and Conservative life peer in the House of Lords, most famous for a series of detective novels starring policeman and poet Adam Dalgliesh.-Life and career:James...
, Lucille Kallen, Faye KellermanFaye KellermanFaye Kellerman is an American author of mystery novels, in particular the "Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus" series, as well as three non-series books, The Quality of Mercy, Moon Music and Straight into Darkness.-Early life:...
, Susan Kelly, Susan KenneySusan KenneySusan McIlvaine Kenney is an American short story writer, and novelist.-Life:She was born in Summit, New Jersey, and spent her childhood in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York. She graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. Phi Beta Kappa, and from Cornell University, with a Ph. D...
, Karen KijewskiKaren KijewskiKaren Kijewski is a writer of mystery novels, known for her Kat Colorado series. She was born in Berkeley, California, the daughter of a University of California, Berkeley professor Clarence Glacken, and received B.A. and M.A. degrees from UC-Berkeley. She was a high school English teacher in...
, Jane LangtonJane LangtonJane Gillson Langton is an American mystery writer and author of children's literature.-Biography:Langton was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied astronomy at Wellesley College and the University of Michigan, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1944. She received an M.A. in art history from...
, Emma LathenEmma LathenEmma Lathen is the pen name of two American businesswomen: an economist Mary Jane Latsis and an economic analyst Martha Henissart ,who received her B.A. in physics from Mount Holyoke College in 1950....
/R. B. Dominic, Elizabeth Lemarchand, Elizabeth LiningtonElizabeth LiningtonBarbara "Elizabeth" Linington was a prolific American novelist. She was awarded runner-up scrolls for best first mystery novel from the Mystery Writers of America for her 1960 novel, Case Pending, which introduced her most popular series character, LAPD Homicide Lieutenant Luis Mendoza...
/Anne Blaisdell/Dell Shannon/Lesley Egan, Marie Belloc LowndesMarie Adelaide Belloc LowndesMarie Adelaïde Lowndes, née Belloc , was a prolific English novelist.Active from 1904 until her death, she had a literary reputation for combining exciting incident with psychological interest...
, Sharyn McCrumbSharyn McCrumbSharyn McCrumb is an American writer whose books celebrate the history and folklore of Appalachia. McCrumb is the winner of numerous literary awards, and the author of the Elizabeth McPherson series, the Ballad series, and the St...
, Val McDermidVal McDermidVal McDermid is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of suspense novels starring her most famous creation, Dr. Tony Hill.-Biography:...
, Jill McGownJill McGownJill McGown was a British writer of mystery novels. She was best known for her mystery series featuring Inspector Lloyd and Judy Hill, one of which was made into a television series...
/Elizabeth Chaplin, Charlotte MacLeodCharlotte MacLeod- Life and work :Born in Bath, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1922, Charlotte MacLeod emigrated to the United States in 1923, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1951. She attended the Art Institute of Boston. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, she worked as a copy writer for Stop and Shop...
/Ailsa Craig, Claire McNabClaire McNabClaire McNab is the pseudonym of Claire Carmichael. She was born in Melbourne, Australia. While pursuing a career as a high school teacher in Sydney, she began her writing career with comedy plays and textbooks. She left teaching in the mid-eighties to become a full-time writer...
, Margaret MaronMargaret MaronMargaret Maron is an American writer, the author of award-winning mystery novels.-Biography:Maron was born and grew up in central North Carolina. She has also lived in Italy. She and her husband, artist Joe Maron, lived in Brooklyn before returning to her home state where they now...
, Ngaio MarshNgaio MarshDame Ngaio Marsh DBE , born Edith Ngaio Marsh, was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900...
, Lia Matera, M. R. D. Meek, Annette Meyers/Maan Meyers, Margaret MillarMargaret MillarMargaret Ellis Millar was an American-Canadian mystery and suspense writer.Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she was educated there and in Toronto. She moved to the United States after marrying Kenneth Millar...
, Gladys MitchellGladys MitchellGladys Mitchell was an English author best known for her creation of Mrs. Bradley, the heroine of numerous detective novels. She also wrote under the pseudonyms Stephen Hockaby and Malcolm Torrie...
/Malcolm Torrie, Gwen MoffatGwen MoffatGwen Moffat is a British climber and writer.Moffat was a free spirit who loved and lived the Bohemian lifestyle through the forties, fifties and sixties, making a living from climbing, and becoming the first female British guide...
, Susan MoodySusan MoodySusan Moody is the principal nom de plume of Susan Elizabeth Donaldson, née Horwood, a British novelist best known for her suspense novels...
, Anne Morice/Felicity Shaw, Patricia MoyesPatricia MoyesPatricia Pakenham-Walsh, a.k.a. Patricia Moyes was an Irish-born British mystery writer.- Life and work :Moyes was born in Dublin on 19 January 1923 and was educated at Overstone girls' school in Northampton. She joined the WAAF in 1939. In 1946 Peter Ustinov hired her as technical assistant on his...
, Marcia MullerMarcia MullerMarcia Muller is an American author of fictional mystery and thriller novels.Muller has written many novels featuring her Sharon McCone female private detective character. Vanishing Point, won the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Novel...
, Magdalen NabbMagdalen NabbMagdalen Nabb was a British author, best known for the Marshal Guarnaccia detective novels.Born near Blackburn in Lancashire as Magdalen Nuttal, she was educated at the Convent Grammar School, Bury, before going on to art college in Manchester, where she studied arts and pottery, which she taught...
, Shizuko Natsuke, Lillian O'Donnell, Emmuska Orczy, Orania Papazoglou/Jane HaddamJane HaddamJane Haddam is an American mystery writer. She is best known for her series of books featuring Gregor Demarkian, a former FBI agent. She has also written a number of murder mysteries under her real name Orania Papazoglou featuring the romance author Patience McKenna. She was married to mystery...
, Sara ParetskySara ParetskySara Paretsky is a modern American author of detective fiction.-Life and career:Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa and raised in Kansas, graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in political science. She did community service work on the south side of Chicago in 1966 and returned in...
, Barbara PaulBarbara PaulBarbara Paul is an American writer of detective stories and science fiction. She was born in Maysville, Kentucky, in 1931 and was educated at Bowling Green State University and the University of Pittsburgh, among others....
, Anne PerryAnne PerryAnne Perry is an English author of historical detective fiction. Perry was convicted of the murder of her friend's mother in 1954.-Early life:Born Juliet Marion Hulme in Blackheath, London, the daughter of Dr...
, Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels, Ellis Peters/Jolyon Carr/John Redfern/Edith PargeterEdith PargeterEdith Mary Pargeter, OBE, BEM , also known by her nom de plume Ellis Peters, was a British author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translations of Czech classics; she is probably best known for her murder mysteries, both...
, Nancy PickardNancy PickardNancy Pickard is a US crime novelist. She has won five Macavity Awards, four Agatha Awards, an Anthony Award, and a Shamus Award. She is the only author to win all four awards. She also served on the board of directors of the Mystery Writers of America...
, Joyce PorterJoyce PorterJoyce Porter is an English crime fiction author.Porter created the characters of Eddie Brown, Constance Ethel Morrison Burke, and Wilfred Dover....
, Sheila Radley, Seeley Regester, Ruth RendellRuth RendellRuth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an English crime writer, author of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries....
/Barbara Vine, Craig RiceCraig Rice (author)Craig Rice was an American author of mystery novels and short stories, sometimes described as "the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction." She was the first mystery writer to appear on the cover of Time Magazine, on January 28, 1946.- Early Life :In 1908, Mary Randolph Craig reluctantly interrupted...
/Daphne Saunders/Michael Venning, Virginia RichVirginia RichVirginia Rich was a mystery author who pioneered the 'culinary mystery' sub genre.In three novels written 1982 to 1985 she introduced sleuth Eugenia Potter, a widow and chef who divided her time between a ranch in Arizona and a small town on the Maine coast. The books included recipes, the...
, Mary Roberts RinehartMary Roberts RinehartMary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it", although she did not actually use the phrase. She is considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing...
, Dorothy L. SayersDorothy L. SayersDorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...
, Sarah Shankman/Alice Storey, Dorothy Simpson, Gillian SlovoGillian SlovoGillian Slovo is a South African born novelist, playwright and memoirist.Her novels were at first predominantly of the crime and thriller genres, including a series featuring the detective Kate Baeier but she has since written more literary fiction...
, Joan Smith, Julie Smith, Susannah StaceySusannah StaceySusannah Stacey is a pseudonym used by writers Jill Staynes and Margaret Storey. Under this name, the team have produced a series of mystery novel featuring widowed British police Superintendent Bone...
, Dorothy SucherDorothy SucherDorothy Sucher was an American author and psychotherapist who worked as a reporter at the Greenbelt News Review, where an article that she wrote that quoted critics of a developers calling his plans "blackmail" initially resulted in a $17,500 judgement against the paper. The U.S...
, Phoebe Atwood TaylorPhoebe Atwood TaylorPhoebe Atwood Taylor was an American mystery author.Phoebe Atwood Taylor wrote mystery novels under her own name, and as Freeman Dana and Alice Tilton. Her first novel, The Cape Cod Mystery, introduced the "Codfish Sherlock", Asey Mayo, who became a series character appearing in 24 novels...
/Alice Tilton/Freeman Dana, Josephine TeyJosephine TeyJosephine Tey was a pseudonym used by Elizabeth Mackintosh a Scottish author best known for her mystery novels. She also wrote as Gordon Daviot, under which name she wrote plays with an historical theme....
/Gordon Daviot, June ThomsonJune ThomsonJune Thomson , is a detective novelist. A former teacher, she was educated at Chelmsford High School. She is the creator of the Chief Inspector Jack Finch and Sergeant Tom Boyce series of novels...
, Masako Togawa, Margaret TrumanMargaret TrumanMary Margaret Truman Daniel , also known as Margaret Truman or Margaret Daniel, was an American singer who later became a successful writer. The only child of US President Harry S...
, Dorothy UhnakDorothy UhnakDorothy Uhnak was an American novelist.-Biography:Uhnak was born in New York City. She attended City College of New York and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice....
, Patricia WentworthPatricia WentworthPatricia Wentworth was a British crime fiction writer.She was born in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India . She was educated privately and at Blackheath High School in London. After the death of her first husband, George F. Dillon, in 1906, she settled in Camberley, Surrey...
, Barbara WilsonBarbara WilsonBarbara Wilson is an African American singer, she is considered a "Hook Singer", singing the hooks on several classic West Coast hip hop songs. She was born in Hawthorne, California August 8, 1973. She is known best for her sensual soulful voice, most notably on the classic 1995 Dr.Dre song "Keep...
, Chris Wiltz, Mary WingsMary WingsMary Wings is an American writer, artist, and musician.In 1973 Mary Wings made history by releasing Come Out Comix, the first lesbian underground comic book. She may be best known for her series of detective novels featuring lesbian heroine Emma Victor...
, Sara WoodsSara WoodsLana Hutton Bowen-Judd was a British mystery writer, better known under her pseudonym Sara Woods, but using also the pen names of Anne Burton, Mary Challis, and Margaret Leek.-Biography:...
/Anne Burton/Mary Challis/Margaret Leek, L. R. WrightL. R. WrightLaurali Rose Wright was a Canadian writer of mystery novels.Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Wright worked as an actor and journalist before publishing her first novel, Neighbours, in 1979...
, Margaret YorkeMargaret YorkeMargaret Yorke is an English crime fiction writer, real name Margaret Beda Nicholson .-Life and work:Born in Compton, Surrey, she spent her childhood in Dublin, moving to England in 1937. During World War II she worked as a hospital librarian, then at eighteen she joined the WRNS as a driver...
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- entries for: Catherine Aird
- Knight, Denise D. and Emmanuel S. Nelson. Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.
- Mainiero, Lina, American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Ungar, 1979.
- Mann, David, et al. Women playwrights in England, Ireland, and Scotland, 1660-1823. Indiana University Press, 1996.
- Miller, Jane Eldridge, ed. Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing. Routledge, 2001.
- entries on over 400 writers whose careers began from the 1960s onwards: see list of writers in Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing
- Mulford, Carla, et al., eds. American women prose writers to 1820. Detroit: Gale Research, 1999.
- entries on: Abigail AdamsAbigail AdamsAbigail Adams was the wife of John Adams, who was the second President of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth...
, Hannah AdamsHannah AdamsHannah Adams was a Christian author, born in Medfield, Massachusetts and died in Brookline. She was the first woman in the United States who made literature a profession.-Biography:...
, Susanna AnthonySusanna AnthonySusanna Anthony was an American diarist.Born in Newport, Rhode Island as the youngest daughter of a goldsmith, she was raised as a Quaker but converted to a Congregationalist in the midst of the First Great Awakening in 1741. Anthony never married and lived an uneventful life but her diary...
, Elizabeth AshbridgeElizabeth AshbridgeElizabeth Ashbridge was an 18th century Quaker minister born in Cheshire, England.-Early life:Elizabeth was born in 1713 in the town of Middlewich in Cheshire, England to Thomas and Mary Sampson. Thomas was a surgeon on sea vessels and Mary was a pious follower of the Church of England...
, Abigail Abbot Bailey, Martha Moore Ballard, Ann Eliza BleeckerAnn Eliza BleeckerAnn Eliza Bleecker was an American poet and correspondent. Following a New York upbringing, Bleecker married John James Bleecker, a New Rochelle lawyer, in 1769. He encouraged her writings, and helped her publish a periodical containing her works.The American Revolution saw John join the New York...
, Bathsheba Bowers, Esther Edwards BurrEsther Edwards BurrEsther Edwards Burr was the mother of U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr, Jr. and the wife of Princeton University President Aaron Burr, Sr. whom she married in 1752. Esther Burr's father was the great preacher of the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards...
, Jane ColdenJane ColdenJane Colden was an American botanist described as the "first botanist of her sex in her country" by Asa Gray in 1843...
, Hannah Mather CrockerHannah Mather CrockerHannah Crocker was an American essayist and one of the first advocates of women's rights in America. She was born into the illustrious Mather family of Boston, and heir to its long history of Puritan activism...
, Elizabeth Drinker, Hannah DustonHannah DustonHannah Duston was a colonial Massachusetts Puritan woman who escaped Native American captivity by leading her fellow captives in killing their captors at night. Duston is believed to be the first woman honored in the United States with a statue...
, Sarah Pierpont Edwards, Jenny Fenno, Hannah Webster FosterHannah Webster FosterHannah Webster Foster was an American novelist.Her epistolary novel, The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton, was published anonymously in 1797. Although it sold well in the 1790s, it was not until 1866 that her name appeared on the title page...
, Winifred Marshall Gales, Grace Growden Galloway, Sarah Prince Gill, Anne MacVicar Grant, Sarah Ewing Hall, Elizabeth HansonElizabeth HansonElizabeth Hanson is a territorial politician from the Yukon, Canada. She is the leader of the Yukon New Democratic Party and has held the position since September 26, 2009. On December 13, 2010 she was elected MLA for Whitehorse Centre.-Early life:...
, Anne Hart, Elizabeth HartElizabeth HartElizabeth Hart may refer to:*Beth Hart , American singer*Betsy Hart , American columnist*Betty Harte , American actress*Eliza Hart Spalding , American Presbyterian missionary, wife of Henry H. Spalding...
, Jane Fenn HoskensJane Fenn HoskensJane Fenn Hoskens Author of .In 1712, nineteen-year-old Jane Fenn left her home, family, and friends in London to obey an inner voice that said ——“Go to Pennsylvania! ” Arrived in Philadelphia, she was soon cast into debtors’ prison for refusing to sign an indenture dictated by the man who had...
, Anne Hulton, Sophia HumeSophia HumeSophia Wigington Hume was an author and preacher associated with the Quakers. Hume was born in South Carolina in 1702, and died in London in 1774...
, Susan Mansfield Huntington, Susanna Johnson, Mary Lewis Kinnan, Sarah Kemble KnightSarah Kemble KnightSarah Kemble Knight was a teacher and businesswoman, who is remembered for her diary of a journey from Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, to New York City, Province of New York, in 1704–1705, a courageous adventure for a woman to undertake.She was born in Boston, to Thomas Kemble and Elizabeth...
, Anne Home Livingston, Deborah Norris Logan, Martha Daniell Logan, Margaret MorrisMargaret MorrisMargaret Morris was an American film actress of the silent film era, and into the 1930s.Morris, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was the great-niece to former US President Benjamin Harrison. She became interested in acting by her late teens, and moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting career...
, Judith Sargent MurrayJudith Sargent MurrayJudith Sargent Murray was an early American advocate for women's rights, an essayist, playwright, poet, and letter writer. She was one of the first American proponents of the idea of the equality of the sexes—that women, like men, had the capability of intellectual accomplishment and should be...
, Sarah OsbornSarah OsbornSarah Osborn was an American author.-References:* Gould, Phillip. "Sarah Osborn." Mulford, Carla, Vietto, Angela, and Winans, Amy E., American women prose writers to 1820, Dictionary of Literary Biography vol. 200, Gale, 1999.-External link:* at Google Books...
, Eliza Lucas Pinckney, Martha Laurens Ramsay, Martha Meredith Read, Maria van Cortlandt van Rensselaer, Mary RowlandsonMary RowlandsonMary Rowlandson was a colonial American woman who was captured by Native Americans during King Philip's War and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. After her release, she wrote a book about her experience, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and...
, Susanna RowsonSusanna RowsonSusanna Rowson, née Haswell was a British-American novelist, poet, playwright, religious writer, stage actress and educator....
, Rebecca RushRebecca RushRebecca Rush was a writer in the early United States. She published her only known book, Kelroy, in 1812 at the age of thirty-three. Unfortunately, the book was not much noticed because it appeared on the eve of the War of 1812, which overshadowed its publication.Very little is known about...
, Leonora SansayLeonora SansayLeonora Sansay was an American novelist. She was the author of Secret History, or The Horrors of St. Domingo and Laura , and possibly three other novels: Zelica: The Creole , The Scarlet Handkerchief , and The Stranger in Mexico .-Biography:Leonora Sansay was...
, Elizabeth Ann SetonElizabeth Ann SetonSaint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church . She established Catholic communities in Emmitsburg, Maryland....
, Eunice Smith, Sarah Pogson Smith, Tabitha Gilman TenneyTabitha Gilman TenneyTabitha Gilman Tenney was an early American author from Exeter, New Hampshire. Her novel Female Quixotism first appeared in 1801. She married Samuel Tenney, a politician....
, Caroline Matilda Warren Thayer, Mary Palmer Tyler, Sukey Vickery, Mercy Otis WarrenMercy Otis WarrenMercy Otis Warren was a political writer and propagandist of the American Revolution. In the eighteenth century, topics such as politics and war were thought to be the province of men. Few women had the education or training to write about these subjects. Warren was the exception...
, Helena WellsHelena WellsHelena Wells, later Whitford was an American-English novelist and writer at the end of the eighteenth century.-Biography:Helena Wells was born in South Carolina between 1758 and 1765, the daughter of the printer and bookseller Robert and Mary Wells, who had emigrated from Scotland in 1753...
, Eliza Yonge Wilkinson, Anna Green Winslow, Margaret Tyndal Winthrop, Sarah Wister, Sally Sayward Barrell Keating Wood.
- entries on: Abigail Adams
- O'Toole, Tina, ed. Dictionary of Munster women writers 1800-2000. Cork University Press, 2005.
- Partow, Elaine T. The Female Dramatist: Profiles of Women Playwrights from the Middle Ages to Contemporary Times. New York: Facts on File, 1998.
- Pollack, Sandra, et al., eds. Contemporary lesbian writers of the United States: a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook. Greenwood Press, 1993
- entries on 100 'authors who, at some point during the 1970-1992 period, had written as self-identified lesbians': Donna Allegra, Paula Gunn AllenPaula Gunn AllenPaula Gunn Allen was a Native American poet, literary critic, lesbian activist, and novelist.Born Paula Marie Francis in Albuquerque, Allen grew up in Cubero, New Mexico, a Spanish-Mexican land grant village bordering the Laguna Pueblo reservation...
, Dorothy AllisonDorothy AllisonDorothy Allison is an American writer, speaker, and member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.-Early life:Dorothy E. Allison was born on April 11, 1949 in Greenville, South Carolina to Ruth Gibson Allison, who was fifteen at the time. Ruth was a poor and unmarried mother who worked as a...
, Gloria E. AnzaldúaGloria E. AnzaldúaGloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was considered a leading scholar of Chicano cultural theory and Queer theory. She loosely based her most well-known book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza on her life growing up on the Mexican-Texas border and incorporated her lifelong feelings of social and...
, Nuala ArcherNuala ArcherNuala Archer is an Irish American poet, author of five books, most recently, Inch Aeons . Her first book, Whale on the Line, won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 1980...
, June Arnold, Judith Barrington, Terry Baum, Robin BeckerRobin BeckerRobin Becker is an American poet, critic, feminist, and professor. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is author of seven collections of poetry, most recently, Domain of Perfect Affection . Her All-American Girl , won the 1996 Lambda Literary Award in Poetry. Becker earned a B.A...
, Becky Birtha, Julie Blackwomon, Alice Bloch, Sdiane Adams Bogus, Sandy BoucherSandy BoucherSandy Boucher is an American author, Buddhist and feminist. She lives in Oakland, California.-Works:*Turning the Wheel: American Women Creating the New Buddhism, Boston: Beacon Press, 1993. ISBN 006250097X...
, Blanche McCrary BoydBlanche McCrary BoydBlanche McCrary Boyd is an American author whose novels are known for their eccentric characters. Her most recent novel is Terminal Velocity, written in 1997...
, Maureen Brady, Beth BrantBeth BrantBeth E. Brant is a Mohawk writer.-Life:...
, Olga BroumasOlga BroumasOlga Broumas , is a Greek poet, resident in the United States.-Biography:Born and raised in Greece, Broumas secured a fellowship through the Fulbright program to study in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania; she earned her Bachelor's degree in architecture...
, Rita Mae BrownRita Mae BrownRita Mae Brown is an American writer. She is best known for her first novel Rubyfruit Jungle. Published in 1973, it dealt with lesbian themes in an explicit manner unusual for the time...
, Patrick CalifiaPatrick CalifiaPatrick Califia , born 1954 near Corpus Christi, Texas is a writer of nonfiction essays about sexuality and of erotic fiction and poetry. Califia is a bisexual trans man.-Biography:...
, Jane Chambers, ChrystosChrystosChrystos is a Menominee rights activist and poet. Prior to being published, she worked as a home caretaker, and an activist for Turtle Mountain Band of Chipewa, Norma Jean Croy , and Leonard Peltier....
, Cheryl ClarkeCheryl ClarkeCheryl L. Clarke is a writer, educator and lesbian Black feminist activist, born in Washington DC in 1947.-Writing:Raised in Washington DC, some of her earliest work reflected the troubled times of the 1960s and the rebellions that ripped through the District of Columbia following the...
, Jan Clausen, Michelle CliffMichelle CliffMichelle Cliff is a Jamaican-American author whose notable works include No Telephone to Heaven, Abeng and Free Enterprise.Cliff also has written short stories, prose poems and works of literary criticism...
, Clare Coss, Martha Courtot, Doris DavenportDoris DavenportDoris Davenport, also known as Doris Jordan was an American film actress during the 1930s and early 1940s.Davenport was born in Moline, Illinois, but raised in Hollywood, California...
, Nancy Dean, Jacqueline de Angelis, Terri de la Peña, Alexis DeVeaux, Rachel Guido DeVries, Sarah Anne Dreher, Elana DykewomonElana DykewomonElana Dykewomon is a Jewish lesbian activist, award-winning author, editor and teacher.- Childhood :...
, Katherine V. ForrestKatherine V. ForrestKatherine V. Forrest is an American writer.Forrest is best known for her eight novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. The character was the very first lesbian police detective in the American lesbian mystery genre and is described as "Miss Marple with k.d...
, Suzanne GardinierSuzanne Gardinier-Life:Suzanne Gardinier grew up in Scituate, Massachusetts. She completed her B.A. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1981, and her MFA at Columbia University, in 1986. She is the author of a long poem called The New World...
, Sally Miller GearhartSally Miller GearhartSally Miller Gearhart is an American teacher, feminist, science fiction writer, and political activist. In 1973 she became the first open lesbian to obtain a tenure-track faculty position when she was hired by San Francisco State University, where she helped establish one of the first women and...
, Jewelle L. Gomez, Melinda Goodman, Janice GouldJanice GouldJanice Gould is a Koyangk'auwi Maidu writer and scholar. She is the author of Beneath My Heart, Earthquake Weather and co-editor with Dean Rader of Speak to Me Words: Essays on Contemporary American Indian Poetry....
, Camarin Grae, Judy GrahnJudy GrahnJudy Rae Grahn is an American poet. She has written many lesbian / feminist works.-Activities:Judy Grahn is a poet who writes about women's lives, including lesbian experience. She was a member of the Gay Women's Liberation Group, the first lesbian feminist collective on the west coast, founded...
, Susan GriffinSusan GriffinSusan Griffin is an eco-feminist author. She describes her work as "draw[ing] connections between the destruction of nature, the diminishment of women and racism, and trac[ing] the causes of war to denial in both private and public life." She received a MacArthur grant for Peace and International...
, Rosa (Cuthbert) Guy, Marilyn HackerMarilyn HackerMarilyn Hacker is an American poet, translator and critic. She is Professor of English at the City College of New York....
, Eloise Klein HealyEloise Klein HealyEloise Klein Healy is an American poet. She has published five books of poetry and a chapbook. Her collection of poems, Passing, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Poetry and the Audre Lorde Lesbian Poetry Prize from The Publishing Triangle...
, Terri L. Jewell, Melanie Kaye/KantrowitzMelanie Kaye/KantrowitzMelanie Kaye/Kantrowitz is a lesbian essayist, poet, activist and academic, born in 1945 in Brooklyn, New York.-Early life:Her grandparents emigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe, Poland and Russia....
, Willyce Kim, Irena KlepfiszIrena KlepfiszIrena Klepfisz is a Jewish Lesbian author, academic and activist.-Early life:Klepfisz was born in the Warsaw Ghetto on April 17, 1941 and was 2 years old during the "varshever geto oyfshtand",...
, Lola Lai Jong, Jacqueline Lapidus, Joan LarkinJoan LarkinJoan Larkin is an American poet and playwright. She was active in the small press lesbian feminist publishing explosion in the 1970s, co-founding the independent publishing company Out & Out Books. She is now in her fourth decade of teaching writing...
, Andrea Freud Loewenstein, Audre LordeAudre LordeAudre Lorde was a Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist.-Life:...
, Lee Lynch, Paula Martinac, Vicki P. McConnell, Judith McDaniel, Isabel Miller, Kate MillettKate MillettKate Millett is an American lesbian feminist writer and activist. A seminal influence on second-wave feminism, Millet is best known for her 1970 book Sexual Politics.-Career:...
, Valerie MinerValerie MinerValerie Miner is an American novelist, journalist, and professor.-Biography:Valerie Miner is the award-winning author of thirteen books. Her novels include After Eden, Range of Light, A Walking Fire, Winter's Edge, Blood Sisters, All Good Women, Movement: A Novel in Stories, and Murder in the...
, Honor MooreHonor MooreHonor Moore is an American writer of poetry, creative nonfiction and plays.She is the author of three collections of poems: Red Shoes, Darling, and Memoir; two works of nonfiction, The White Blackbird and The Bishop's Daughter; and the play Mourning Pictures, which was produced on Broadway and...
, Cherríe MoragaCherríe MoragaCherríe L. Moraga is a Chicana writer, feminist activist, poet, essayist, and playwright.-Biography:Moraga was born in Whittier, California. She earned her Bachelor's degree from Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California and her Master's from San Francisco State University in 1980...
, Robin MorganRobin MorganRobin Morgan is a former child actor turned American radical feminist activist, writer, poet, and editor of Sisterhood is Powerful and Ms. Magazine....
, Eileen MylesEileen MylesEileen Myles is an American poet who has also worked in fiction, non-fiction, and theater.She won a 2010 Shelley Memorial Award.-Early life and career:...
, Joan NestleJoan NestleJoan Nestle is a Lambda Award winning writer and editor and the co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives.-Life:Nestle's father died before she was born, and she was raised by her widowed mother Regina Nestle, a bookkeeper in New York City's garment district, whom she credits with inspiring her...
, Lesléa NewmanLesléa NewmanLesléa Newman, born in 1955 in Brooklyn, New York, is an American author and editor. She is Jewish, a feminist and openly lesbian.She has written and edited 57 books and anthologies. She has written about such topics as being a Jew, body image and eating disorders, lesbianism, gay parenting, and...
, Elisabeth Nonas, Karen Lee Osborne, Pat ParkerPat ParkerPat Parker was an African-American lesbian feminist poet.-Early life:Parker grew up working class poor in Third Ward, Houston, Texas, a mostly African-American part of the city...
, Minnie Bruce PrattMinnie Bruce PrattMinnie Bruce Pratt is an U.S. educator, activist, and award-winning poet, essayist, and theorist. Pratt was born in Selma, Alabama, grew up in Centreville,...
, Margaret Randall, Adrienne RichAdrienne RichAdrienne Cecile Rich is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century."-Early life:...
, Ruthann RobsonRuthann RobsonRuthann Robson is a Professor of Law and University Distinguished Professor. As well as her writings in legal scholarship and theory, she has also published fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.- Career :...
, Aleida Rodriguez, Mariana Romo-Carmona, Muriel RukeyserMuriel RukeyserMuriel Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism...
, Jane RuleJane RuleJane Vance Rule, CM, OBC was a Canadian writer of lesbian-themed novels and non-fiction.-Biography:Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Jane Vance Rule was the oldest daughter of Carlotta Jane and Arthur Richards Rule. She claimed she was a tomboy growing up and felt like an outsider for reaching six...
, Kate Rushin, Joanna RussJoanna RussJoanna Russ was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as How to Suppress Women's Writing, as well as a contemporary novel, On Strike Against God, and one children's book, Kittatinny...
, Barbara Ruth, Canyon SamCanyon SamCanyon Sam is an author, performance artist, and Tibetan rights activist. Her honors include the 2010 PEN American Center's Open Book Award, a National Endowment for the Arts scholarship, a San Francisco Commission Individual Artist's grant in literature, and a Screenwriting Fellowship from the...
, SapphireSapphireSapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red or dark pink; in which case the gem would instead be called a ruby, considered to be a different gemstone. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give...
, May SartonMay SartonMay Sarton is the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton , an American poet, novelist, and memoirist.-Biography:...
, Sarah SchulmanSarah SchulmanSarah Miriam Schulman is an American novelist, historian and playwright. An early chronicler of the AIDS crisis, she wrote on AIDS and social issues, publishing in The Village Voice in the early 1980s, and writing the first piece on AIDS and the homeless, which appeared in The Nation...
, Patricia Roth SchwartzPatricia Roth Schwartz-Background:Born Patricia Roth in West Virginia, she received her B.A. in English literature from Mount Holyoke College in 1968 and her M.A. in English literature from Trinity College. She also has an M.A...
, Sandra ScoppettoneSandra ScoppettoneSandra Scoppettone is an American author whose career spans the 1960s through the 2000s. She is known for her mystery and young adult books.She also wrote Suzuki Beane...
, Susan Sherman, Sheila Ortiz Taylor, Nancy Toder, Kitty Tsui, Luz Maria Umpierre-Herrera, Chea Villanueva, Jess Wells, Barbara WilsonBarbara WilsonBarbara Wilson is an African American singer, she is considered a "Hook Singer", singing the hooks on several classic West Coast hip hop songs. She was born in Hawthorne, California August 8, 1973. She is known best for her sensual soulful voice, most notably on the classic 1995 Dr.Dre song "Keep...
, Mary WingsMary WingsMary Wings is an American writer, artist, and musician.In 1973 Mary Wings made history by releasing Come Out Comix, the first lesbian underground comic book. She may be best known for her series of detective novels featuring lesbian heroine Emma Victor...
, Terry WolvertonTerry WolvertonTerry Wolverton is an American novelist, memoirist, poet, and editor. Her book Insurgent Muse: Life and art at the Woman’s Building, a memoir published in 2002 by City Lights Books, was named one of the “Best Books of 2002” by the Los Angeles Times, and was the winner of the 2003 Publishing...
, Jacqueline WoodsonJacqueline WoodsonJacqueline Woodson is an American author who writes books targeted at children and adolescents. She is best known for 'Miracle's Boys' which won the Coretta Scott King Award in 2001 and her Newbery Honor titles 'After Tupac & D Foster', 'Feathers' and 'Show Way'...
- entries on 100 'authors who, at some point during the 1970-1992 period, had written as self-identified lesbians': Donna Allegra, Paula Gunn Allen
- Richardson, Sarah, et al., eds. Writing on the line: 20th century working-class women writers: an annotated list. Working Press, 1996.
- Sage, LornaLorna SageLorna Sage was a Welsh-born academic, as well as an award-winning literary critic and author, known widely for her contribution to the consideration of women's writing.-Biography:...
, ed. The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in EnglishThe Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in EnglishThe Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English is a bio-bibliographical dictionary of women writers and women's writing in English published by Cambridge University Press in 1999 . It was edited by Lorna Sage, with Germaine Greer and Elaine Showalter as advisory editors, and contains over 2,500...
. Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-49525-3 - Schlueter, Paul, and June Schlueter, eds. An Encyclopedia of British Women Writers. Revised and expanded edition. Rutgers University Press, 1998.
- approx. 600 biographical-critical entries, arranged alphabetically by name: 'In part, the project was a recovery effort, validating the work of a large cast of women writers, many of whom wrote anonymously or under male pseudonyms or who, in their time, were for the most part, neglected.'
- Shapiro, Ann R., ed. Jewish American women writers: a bio-bibliographical and critical sourcebook. Greenwood Press, 1994.
- Shattock, Joanne, ed. The Oxford guide to British women writers. Oxford University Press, 1993.
- Shelton, Pamela L., ed. Contemporary women poets. St. James Press, 1998. ISBN 978-1558623569
- 250 entries, each including a biography, listing of works, personal statement by the poet, and a critical essay.
- Showalter, Elaine, et al., eds. Modern American women writers. Maxwell Macmillan International, 1991.
- entries on: Maya AngelouMaya AngelouMaya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...
, Elizabeth BishopElizabeth BishopElizabeth Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956 and a National Book Award Winner for Poetry in 1970. Elizabeth Bishop House is an artists' retreat in Great Village, Nova Scotia...
, Louise BoganLouise BoganLouise Bogan was an American poet. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945.-Early years:...
, Gwendolyn BrooksGwendolyn BrooksGwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was an American poet. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.-Biography:...
, Willa CatherWilla CatherWilla Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
, Kate ChopinKate ChopinKate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty , was an American author of short stories and novels. She is now considered by some to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century....
, Emily DickinsonEmily DickinsonEmily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
, Joan DidionJoan DidionJoan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...
, Hilda Doolittle, Jessie Fauset, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Charlotte Perkins GilmanCharlotte Perkins GilmanCharlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform...
, Ellen GlasgowEllen GlasgowEllen Anderson Gholson Glasgow was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist who portrayed the changing world of the contemporary south.-Biography:...
, Susan GlaspellSusan GlaspellSusan Keating Glaspell was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actress, director, novelist, biographer and poet. She was a founding member of the Provincetown Players, one of the most important collaboratives in the development of modern drama in the United States...
, Elizabeth Hardwick, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Lillian HellmanLillian HellmanLillian Florence "Lily" Hellman was an American playwright, linked throughout her life with many left-wing causes...
, Zora Neale HurstonZora Neale HurstonZora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...
, Sarah Orne JewettSarah Orne JewettSarah Orne Jewett was an American novelist and short story writer, best known for her local color works set in or near South Berwick, Maine, on the border of New Hampshire, which in her day was a declining New England seaport.-Biography:Jewett's family had been residents of New England for many...
, Maxine Hong KingstonMaxine Hong KingstonMaxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United...
, Amy LowellAmy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.- Personal life:...
, Mary McCarthyMary McCarthy (author)Mary Therese McCarthy was an American author, critic and political activist.- Early life :Born in Seattle, Washington, to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Therese Preston, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918...
, Carson McCullersCarson McCullersCarson McCullers was an American writer. She wrote novels, short stories, and two plays, as well as essays and some poetry. Her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South...
, Edna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work...
, Marianne MooreMarianne MooreMarianne Moore was an American Modernist poet and writer noted for her irony and wit.- Life :Moore was born in Kirkwood, Missouri, in the manse of the Presbyterian church where her maternal grandfather, John Riddle Warner, served as pastor. She was the daughter of mechanical engineer and inventor...
, Toni MorrisonToni MorrisonToni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
, Anaïs NinAnaïs NinAnaïs Nin was a French-Cuban author, based at first in France and later in the United States, who published her journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death, her erotic literature, and short stories...
, Joyce Carol OatesJoyce Carol OatesJoyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
, Flannery O'ConnorFlannery O'ConnorMary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...
, Grace PaleyGrace PaleyGrace Paley was an American-Jewish short story writer, poet, and political activist.-Biography:Grace Paley was born in the Bronx to Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside, who anglicized the family name from Gutseit on immigrating from Ukraine. Her father was a doctor. The family spoke Russian and...
, Dorothy ParkerDorothy ParkerDorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
, Sylvia PlathSylvia PlathSylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer...
, Katherine Anne PorterKatherine Anne PorterKatherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her short stories received much more critical acclaim...
, Adrienne RichAdrienne RichAdrienne Cecile Rich is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century."-Early life:...
, Anne SextonAnne SextonAnne Sexton was an American poet, known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967...
, Susan SontagSusan SontagSusan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
, Gertrude SteinGertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, Anne TylerAnne TylerAnne Tyler is an American novelist.Tyler, the eldest of four children, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her father was a chemist and her mother a social worker. Her early childhood was spent in a succession of Quaker communities in the mountains of North Carolina and in Raleigh...
, Alice WalkerAlice WalkerAlice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
, Eudora WeltyEudora WeltyEudora Alice Welty was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published...
, Edith WhartonEdith WhartonEdith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
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- entries on: Maya Angelou
- Thesing, William B., ed. Victorian women poets. Gale Group, 1999.
- Thesing, William B., ed. Late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century British women poets. Gale Group, 2001.
- Todd, Janet, ed. British Women Writers: a critical reference guide. London: Routledge, 1989.
- Todd, Janet, ed. A Dictionary of British and American women writers, 1660-1800. Rowman & Allanheld, 1985.
- 450 entries, 68 of which are American
- Weekes, Ann Owens. Unveiling treasures: the Attic guide to the published works of Irish women literary writer: drama, fiction, poetry
- Wilson, Katherina M., et al. An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. Vol. v. 698. New York: Garland Pub., 1991.
- Wilson, Katharina M., et al. Women writers of Great Britain and Europe: an encyclopedia. Garland Pub., 1997.
- Reprints, with photos, selections from An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers (above)
External links
- Research Guide: Irish Women Writers at Boston College