Lady Writers

In light of the recent hubbub over Jonathan Franzen's Time cover and the unanimous excellent reviews for his new book, Freedom and the well-placed but misrepresented anger on behalf of female writers I have come up with a list of ten contemporary female written novels. These are authors that men, women, everyone should read because they're really fucking good.

(in no specific ranking)

1. Lorrie Moore Anagrams -- One word description (plus five more): quirky (in the best way possible).
2. Lisa Moore Alligator -- Canadian author who doesn't adhere to the ol' man versus nature, nature wins trope of which Canadian authors are so fond.
3. Julia Leigh Disquiet -- Favourite part: two children coming across the dead baby in the freezer whilst looking for ice-cream.
4. Jhumpa Lahiri Interpreter of Maladies -- Just read this after years of being told, sometimes forcefully, by my book mentor/one of the loves of my life, Derek, and now I feel ashamed for waiting so long because she is unbelievable.
5. Louise Erdrich The Antelope Wife -- A master at modernizing First Nations' mythology.
6. Alice Munro Too Much Happiness -- Why this over other Munro's? First of all, all of her stories are gold but I've chosen this one because of the sinister undertones; kind of brings to mind Southern gothic a la Flannery O'Connor.
7. Amy Hempel Reasons to Live -- The Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried is my favourite story ever. I read it every few weeks. Perfect. That is all.
8. Dorothy Allison Bastard Out of Caroline -- The kind of book that you feel in your bones.
9. A M Homes This Book Will Save Your Life -- I had this book as one of my staff picks when I worked in a bookstore and I would have customers come back to thank me because they had spent three days laughing.
10. Paula Fox Desperate Characters -- One Two words: paranoid descent. Plus, she's Courtney Love's grandma!

It's time we (society-wise) left behind the tired, out-dated, insulting and really dumb fucking idea that women who write good, literary books are not an anomaly.

What do you think? Who am I missing? (I know that this list consists mostly of white, straight women so please, leave suggestions in the comments for queer or women of colour authors who should be celebrated.)