6 inspiring female writers
We all need a pick-me-up every now and then, and what better way to get some easy inspiration than with a good book? These 6 incredible female writers will change the way you see the world.
Maya Angelou
Born to a struggling African American family in 1928, Angelou experienced great hardship growing up. Living off food stamps, suffering sexual abuse and family deaths, Angelou became involved in the civil rights movement. Her stunningly emotive semi-autobiographical book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) chronicles the struggles she faced in her youth. Angelou, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 86, is renowned as one of the most influential civil rights activists of our time.
Margaret Atwood
76-year-old Atwood grew up in Canada and began writing at the age of 6. Her poems and novels are famed for their social commentary and feminist overtones, particularly in her book The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). The dystopian work predicted (at times, almost accurately) the US’ bleak future, including a totalitarian political state, stark division of the sexes, classes and races. Reading the novel, you’ll agree the world she describes isn’t too far off our own.
Helen Keller
Helen Keller overcame tremendous odds to become one of the prominent figures of her time. Struck deaf and blind after an illness at 19 months old, Keller never let her disability define her or stop her from living her life. She wrote 12 articles and many essays, but was mostly known for her political activism – in particular, women’s rights, worker’s rights. She was also a celebrated advocate for disabled people, right up until her death in 1968, aged 87. Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life (1903) is a must-read. The trials she has had to overcome are simply astonishing.
Doris Lessing
Nobel Prize-winning British author Doris Lessing had an illustrious career despite being born to a poor family and growing up in Zimbabwe. Her novels draw on her childhood and life as the daughter of a WWI veteran and showcase her radical (at the time) views. Her 1962 novel The Golden Notebook explores life after WWII and follows the story of Anna Wulf, a writer who suffers a mental breakdown. It is considered a feminist classic, inspiring women for over 50 years.
Sylvia Plath
It’s a well-known fact that Sylvia Plath’s life was not an easy one. Born in 1932, her father passed away when she was only 8. After missing the chance to meet one of her idols and being rejected from a Harvard writing seminar, Plath attempted to commit suicide. Subjected to shock treatment for six months, she wrote her famous semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, chronicling Esther Greenwood’s descent into madness, based on her experiences in college. Plath sadly succeeded in ending her life at the age of just 30, and The Bell Jar was released a month after in the UK.
Virginia Woolf
Woolf made a name for herself in the ‘20s with works like Mrs Dalloway (1925) and A Room of One’s Own (1929), despite fighting mental illness for most of her life. As her most popular books, these novels highlighted Woolf’s progressive views about the roles of women, their access to education and their sexuality. Believed to have suffered what would come to be known as bipolar disorder, Woolf committed suicide in 1941 at the age of 59.
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