Ranging from well-known and established authors who wrote in the 1920s to authors who have only just begun their careers in recent years, these women have all moved me with their works. Here are five of my favorite writers, along with some of my recommendations of their written works. These women deserve to be highlighted because of their immersive, inventive, and impactful writing. I suggest you check out more about them and dive into their collections.
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf is an innovative British author, essayist, and feminist. She is known for her use of the stream of consciousness literary device in her writing. Stream of consciousness is a narrative technique that involves the fluidity and disjointedness of thought by showing the flow of characters’ feelings as they occur. Woolf’s writing took some getting used to for me because I found her use of stream of consciousness to be a bit confusing at first; but after I became familiar with it, I enjoyed reading these forms of expression. I also enjoyed how Woolf developed the relationships between her characters, and how she connected all of her characters’ lives despite their varying circumstances.
I recommend reading her book Mrs. Dalloway. It is a novel in which, by her characters’ interactions and the novel’s flow of consciousness and time, Woolf explores the interconnectedness of humans through their struggles and their search for happiness, meaning, and feeling in life. It is a mysterious story that takes place over the course of a single day and is set in London in 1923.
Nella Larsen
Nella Larsen wrote novels and short stories during the Harlem Renaissance and is well known for her works about the intersection of race, class, and gender. She was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in creative writing, and, according to Annenberg Learner, was the first African American woman to do so. I love Larsen’s beautiful and detailed descriptions and use of both visual and auditory imagery in her writing. I also love how her characters have bold personalities and stand true to their beliefs and values with firm opinions.
In her novel Passing, which is set in New York in the 1920s, there is a sharp contrast between two biracial women. Irene stays true to her ethical background and is married to a Black man, while Clare, her old childhood friend, marries a white man and passes as a white woman, living a more lavish life where she values wealth and status. To Clare, passing is a way for things to be easier for her in life, and she stands by this lifestyle even though it comes with risks. Irene disapproves of this and makes that clear throughout the book while continuing to stick to her inner culture and true identity. As the two childhood friends revive their friendship, Clare reconnects with her racial identity and desires to reconnect with the Black community. I would highly recommend reading this work by Larsen.
Lucy Adlington is a historian who intertwines fashion and textiles with historical fiction from World War II and the Holocaust. I appreciate that Adlington presents a unique take on historical events while also making them both entertaining and accurate. According to Adlington on Goodreads, she is “fascinated by the stories clothes can tell about the people who made, sold and wore them,” and I love this perspective of hers.
Her most recent book is called The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive, and it is about women who used their sewing skills to survive the Holocaust in a fashion workshop at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. This was drawn from interviews with the last surviving seamstress, and it tells the story of their experiences during the Holocaust.
Another book of hers that I would like to highlight is The Red Ribbon, which was written before the previous one I mentioned (in 2018) and is instead about fictional characters. It is a story about hope, friendship, love, and survival within the Upper Tailoring Studio, a sewing workshop inside a Nazi concentration camp. It follows a young girl named Ella who seeks refuge from her current reality through her passion for fashion and fabrics. The book features Ella’s journey as well as her emotional memories of her past life while working as a seamstress amid the Holocaust.
Emily J. Taylor is an author and creative director who made her debut in 2022. I discovered her writing because of her first novel, Hotel Magnifique. This is a fantasy about a girl named Jani who begins to work at a traveling hotel called Hotel Magnifique. Behind the magical and astonishing facade of the hotel, she begins to uncover the dark secrets within it as well as discoveries about herself. Interesting dynamics between family, friends, and lovers are also explored throughout the novel. In my opinion, the whole story is magical, fascinating, and suspenseful. I suggest you read this book especially because of the author’s creativity and ability to transport readers into the action and mystery of her works.
I am also looking forward to reading Taylor’s most recent book, The Otherwhere Post, which came out in February 2025. This is also fantasy, and it contains “deadly magic and dangerous secrets.” The book’s genre revolves around dark academia.
Trinity Nguyen is a Vietnamese American author who came out with her debut novel, A Banh Mi For Two, in August 2024. The book’s story is told through the point of views of Vivi, a girl who visits Vietnam during her spring break behind her parents’ backs to learn more about her family’s history and culture, and a girl named Lan, who works at a street food stand and is a food content creator and blogger. It is a sweet love story about the two girls who fall in love while unraveling their families’ histories and eating delicious street food in Sài Gòn.
I was already anticipating this book after I saw an ad for it before its release. I loved the design of the book, the plot, and the fact that the author created an official playlist for it (which is “Lan and Vivi’s playlist” from the book) to listen to while reading. I found this to be a wonderful story, and I look forward to Nguyen’s future releases!
I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about these authors’ lives, their writing styles, and their works. The works I discussed cover books within the genres of realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, and romance, so there is a wide variety of types of stories to explore and unique perspectives to learn about through these authors’ writings.