For over a century, International Women’s Day has been observed — and this year, the New York Public Library blog has compiled 365 books by women authors from across the globe to keep the celebration going all year long. I’ll be posting one book from this list every day of 2020 — and I hope you find some old favorites and some new discoveries. And I hope that readers can draw strength and inspiration from these 365 books — and the women who wrote them — in the year ahead.
Here’s the NYPL List, which includes a vast range of women authors.
And if you’ve ever heard someone say they “just couldn’t find” a great woman author to read, now you have not one, but 365 suggestions.
1. Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies
2. Susan Abulhawa, The Blue Between Sky and Water
3. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
4. Etel Adnan, Sea and Fog
5. Marjorie Agosín, A Cross and a Star
6. Ama Atta Aidoo, An Angry Letter in January and Other Poems
7. Naja Marie Aidt, Rock, Paper, Scissors
8. Anna Akhmatova, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova
9. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow
10. Elizabeth Alexander, The Light of the World
11. Svetlana Alexievich, Voices From Chernobyl
12. Clare Allan, Poppy Shakespeare
13. Sarah Addison Allen, Lost Lake
14. Isabel Allende, Eva Luna
15. Ruth Almog, Death in the Rain
16. Karin Altenberg, Island of Wings
17. Julia Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies
18. Tahmima Anam, The Good Muslim
19. Maya Angelou, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
20. Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, Being and Things On Their Own
21. Natacha Appanah, The Last Brother
22. Hannah Arendt, Responsibility and Judgment
23. Chloe Aridjis, Asunder
24. Bridget Asher, All of Us and Everything
25. Margaret Atwood, Oryx & Crake
26. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
27. Mona Awad, 13 Ways of Looking At a Fat Girl
28. Basma Abdel Aziz, The Line
29. Mariama Bâ, Scarlet Song
30. Annie Baker, The Flick
31. Toni Cade Bambara, Those Bones Are Not My Child
32. Sara Baume, Spill Simmer Falter Wither
33. Jo Ann Beard, The Boys of My Youth
34. Gioconda Belli, The Inhabited Woman
35. Karen Bender, Refund
36. Fatima Bhutto, The Shadow of the Crescent Moon
37. Imogen Binnie, Nevada
38. Elizabeth Bishop, Geography III
39. Karen Blixen, Out of Africa
40. Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers
41. Lluba Merlina Bortolani, The Siege
42. Carmen Boullosa, Before
43. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
44. Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
45. Gwendolyn Brooks, The Bean Eaters
46. Lauren Buekes, The Shining Girls
47. NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names
48. Octavia Butler, Kindred
49. Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
50. Leonora Carrington, The hearing trumpet
51. Anne Carson, Nox
52. Ana Castillo, Black dove : mamá, mi’jo, and me
53. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee
54. Eileen Chang, Half a Lifelong Romance
55. Jade Chang, The Wangs vs. The World
56. Paulina Chiziane, The First Wife
57. Susan Choi, American Woman
58. Kate Chopin, The Awakening
59. Sonya Chung, Long for This World
60. Caryl Churchill, Top Girls
61. Sandra Cisneros, Loose Woman
62. Hélène Cixous, The Hélène Cixous Reader
63. Lucille Clifton, Mercy
64. Colette, Cheri
65. Lindsey Collen, The Rape of Sita
66. Simin Daneshvar, Sutra & Other Stories
67. Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions
68. Edwidge Danticat, Claire of the Sea Light
69. Meaghan Daum, Unspeakable
70. Lydia Davis, The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
71. Dola de Jong, The Tree and the Vine
72. Grazia Deledda, After the Divorce
73. Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
74. Anita Desai, Clear Light of Day
75. Shashi Deshpande, Writing from the Margin and Other Essays
76. Marosa di Giorgio, Diadems: Selected Poems
77. Viola Di Grado, Hollow Heart
78. Emily Dickinson, The Poems of Emily Dickinson
79. Joan Didion, Democracy
80. Dolores Dorantes, Style
81. Rita Dove, On the Bus With Rosa Parks
82. Carol Ann Duffy, The Bees
83. Emiliya Dvoryanova, Concerto for sentence
84. Yasmine El Rashidi, Chronicle of a Last Summer
85. Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero
86. George Eliot, Middlemarch
87. Mona Eltahawy, Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution
88. Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood
89. Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Textbook
90. Louise Erdrich, LaRose
91. Laura Esquivel, Pierced by the sun
92. Tarfia Faizullah, Seam
93. Athena Farrokhzad, White Blight
94. Melissa Febos, Abandon Me
95. Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues
96. Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend
97. Rosario Ferré, Memoir
98. Anne Finger, Call Me Ahab
99. Penelope Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower
100. Melissa Fleming, A Hope More Powerful than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival
101. Leontia Flynn, Profit and Loss
102. Paula Fox, Desperate Characters
103. Lauren Francis-Sharma, Til the Well Runs Dry
104. Ru Freeman, On Sal Mal Lane
105. Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric Disturbances
106. Mary Gaitskill, The Mare
107. Petina Gappah, The Book of Memory
108. Elena Garro, First love ; &, Look for my obituary
109. Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist
110. Ruby Langford Ginibi, Haunted by the Past
111. Janine di Giovanni, The Morning They Came for Us
112. Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, A Shift In the Light
113. Angela Mangalang Gloria, The Complete Poems of Angela Mangalang Gloria
114. Louise Gluck, Faithful and Virtuous Night
115. Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist
116. Jorie Graham, Erosion
117. Linda LeGarde Grover, The dance boots
118. Paula Gunn Allen, America the Beautiful: Last Poems
119. Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing
120. Fariba Hachtroudi, The Man Who Snapped His Fingers
121. Marilyn Hacker, Names
122. Katori Hall, The Mountaintop
123. Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Lonliness
124. Barbara Hammer, Hammer!
125. Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
126. Githa Hariharan, Almost Home: Finding a Place in the World from Kashmir to New York
127. Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings
128. Eve Harris, The Marrying of Chani Kaufman
129. Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route
130. Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus
131. Bessie Head, The Collector of Treasures
132. Amy Hempel, Reasons to Live
133. Cristina Henriquez, The Book of Unknown Americans
134. Christine Dwyer Hickey, The Cold Eye of Heaven
135. Akiko Higashimura, Princess Jellyfish
136. Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt
137. Hilda Hilst, With My Dog Eyes
138. Arlie Hochschild, The Second Shift
139. Alice Hoffman, Survival Lessons
140. Linda Hogan, Mean Spirit
141. Sara Sue Hoklotubbe, Deception on All Accounts
142. bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
143. Jodie Houser, Faith
144. Keri Hulme, The Bone People
145. Dương Thu Hương, Paradise of the Blind
146. Hồ Xuân Hương, Spring Essence
147. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
148. Ulfat Idilbi, Grandfather’s Tale
149. Naomi Jackson, The Star Side of Bird Hill
150. Margo Jefferson, Negroland
151. Elfriede Jelinek, Women As Lovers
152. Gish Jen, Typical American
153. Amryl Johnson, Sequins For a Ragged Hem
154. June Jordan, Directed by Desire
155. Janine Joseph, Driving Without a License
156. Mieko Kanai, The Word Book
157. Han Kang, The Vegetarian
158. Ghada Karmi, Return: A Palestinian Memoir
159. Mary Karr, The Liar’s Club
160. Kazue Kato, Blue Exorcist
161. Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey
162. Hiromi Kawakami, Manazuru
163. Porochista Khakpour, The Last Illusion
164. Ausma Zehanat Khan, The Unquiet Dead
165. Vénus Khoury-Ghata, A House at the Edge of Tears
166. Suki Kim, Without You, There Is No Us
167. Jamaica Kincaid, See Now Then
168. Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
169. Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
170. Natsuo Kirino, Out
171. Katie Kitamura, Gone to the Forest
172. Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
173. Anna Kordzaia-Samadashvili, Me, Margarita
174. Sana Krasikov, One More Year
175. Megan Kruse, Call Me Home
176. Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation
177. Kang Kyong-ae, From Wonso Pond
178. Selma Lagerlöf, A Manor House Tale
179. Yanick Lahens, The Colour of Dawn
180. Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
181. Laila Lalami, Secret Son
182. Nella Larsen, Passing
183. Jeanne Marie Laskas, Concussion
184. Radmila Lazic, A Wake for the Living
185. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
186. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Random Family
187. Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
188. Jill Leovy, Ghettoside
189. Robin Coste Lewis, Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems
190. Yiyun Li, Kinder Than Solitude
191. Rosa Liksom, Compartment No. 6
192. Adriana Lisboa, Crow Blue
193. Gloria Lisé, Departing at Dawn
194. Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star
195. Marjorie Liu, Monstress: Awakening
196. Inverna Lockpezer, Cuba: My Revolution
197. Joan London, The Golden Age
198. Audre Lorde, The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde
199. Dulce Maria Loynaz, Absolute Solitude
200. Valeria Luiselli, Sidewalks
201. Fiona Maazel, Woke Up Lonely
202. Suah Mae, A Greater Music
203. Nguyen Phan Que Mai, The Secret of Hoa Sen
204. Janet Malcolm, Forty-one False Starts
205. Alia Mamdouh, The Loved Ones
206. Dacia Maraini, The Silent Duchess
207. Dawn Lundy Martin, Life In A Box Is A Pretty Life
208. Bobbie Ann Mason, Clear Springs
209. Ronit Matalon, The Sound of Our Steps
210. Ayana Mathis, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
211. Jane Mayer, Dark Money
212. Imbolo Mbue, Behold the Dreamers
213. Eimear McBride, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing
214. Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
215. Charlotte McDonald-Gibson, Cast Away
216. Francesca Melandri, Eva Sleeps
217. Rigoberta Menchu, I, Rigoberta Menchu
218. Claire Messud, The Woman Upstairs
219. Ai Mi, Under the Hawthorn Tree
220. Jung Mi-kyung, My Son’s Girlfriend
221. Qiu Miaojin, Last Words From Monmartre
222. Amanda Michalopoulou, Why I Killed My Best Friend
223. Lydia Millet, Sweet Lamb of Heaven
224. Gabriela Mistral, Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral
225. Minae Mizumura, A True Novel
226. Nadifa Mohamed, Black Mamba Boy
227. Lorrie Moore, Bark
228. Marianne Moore, The Poems of Marianne Moore
229. Cherrie Moraga, Heroes and Saints & Other Plays
230. Nancy Morejón, Querencias/Homing Instincts
231. Toni Morrison, Sula
232. Scholastique Mukasonga, Cockroaches
233. Bharati Mukherjee, The Tree Bride
234. Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums
235. Alice Munro, Family Furnishings
236. Iris Murdoch, A Severed Head
237. Eileen Myles, School of Fish
238. Azar Nafisi, The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books
239. Maggie Nelson, Bluets
240. Guadalupe Nettel, Natural Histories
241. Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You
242. Hualing Nieh, Mulberry and Peach
243. Dorthe Nors, Karate Chop
244. Sara Nović, Girl at War
245. Alissa Nutting, Tampa
246. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, I Do Not Come to You by Chance
247. Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water
248. Silvia Ocampo, Thus Were Their Faces
249. Yoko Ogawa, Revenge
250. Nnedi Okorafor, Binti
251. Chinelo Okparanta, Happiness, Like Water
252. Sharon Olds, What Love Comes To
253. Yewande Omotoso, The Woman Next Door
254. Wendy C. Ortiz, Excavation
255. Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic
256. Helen Oyeyemi, Mr. Fox
257. Kaori Ozaki, The Gods Lie
258. Ruth Ozeki, All Over Creation
259. Cynthia Ozick, Foreign Bodies
260. ZZ Packer, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
261. Grace Paley, The Little Disturbances of Man
262. Morgan Parker, There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce
263. Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog
264. Shahrnush Parsipur, Kissing the Sword
265. Ann Patchett, Bel Canto
266. Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
267. Anna Politkovskaya, A Russian Diary
268. Katha Pollitt, Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights
269. Dorit Rabinyan, All the Rivers
270. Dawn Raffel, Carrying the Body
271. Claudia Rankine, Citizen
272. Laura Restrepo, Isle of Passion
273. Parisa Reza, The Gardens of Consolation
274. Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
275. Adrienne Rich, Collected Poems, 1950-2012
276. Alifa Rifaat, Distant View of a Minaret and Others Stories
277. Suzanne Rivecca, Death Is Not An Option
278. Riverbend, Baghdad Burning
279. Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Hiroshima in the Morning
280. Merce Rodoreda, The Time of the Doves
281. Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
282. Vedrana Rudan, Night
283. Mary Ruefle, The Most of It
284. Dale Russakoff, The Prize
285. Nelly Sachs, Glowing Enigmas
286. Elif Şafak, Ask
287. Trish Salah, Wanting in Arabic
288. Sonia Sanchez, Does Your House Have Lions?
289. Sappho, The Complete Works of Sappho
290. Noo Saro-Wiwa, Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria
291. Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis
292. Åsne Seierstad, The Angel of Grozny
293. Shanthi Sekaran, Lucky Boy
294. Julia Serano, Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive
295. Anne Sexton, The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton
296. Sonia Shah, Pandemic: Tracking Contagions from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond
297. Kamila Shamsie, Kartography
298. Ntozake Shange, Freedom’s A-Calling Me
299. Solmaz Sharif, Look
300. Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
301. Kyung-sook Shin, Please Look After Mom
302. Sun Yung Shin, Unbearable Splendor
303. Sei Shonagon, The Pillow Book
304. Ana Maria Shuah, The Weight of Temptation
305. Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice-Candy Man
306. Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead
307. Zadie Smith, Swing Time
308. Tracy K. Smith, Life on Mars
309. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
310. Marivi Soliven, The Mango Bride
311. Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost
312. Susan Sontag, Styles of Radical Will
313. Ahdaf Soueif, The Map of Love
314. Gertrude Stein, Fernhurst, Q.E.D., and other early writings
315. Ruth Stone, What Love Comes To
316. Aoibbhean Sweeney, Among Other Things, I’ve Taken Up Smoking
317. Mary Szybist, Incarnadine
318. Wislawa Szymborska, Monologue of a Dog
319. Elizabeth Crane, When the Messenger Is Hot
320. Amy Tan, The Valley of Amazement
321. Yoko Tawada, Memoirs of a Polar Bear
322. Valerie Taylor, The Girls in 3-B
323. Teffi, Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea
324. Lygia Fagunda Telles, The Girl in the Photograph
325. Ece Temelkuran, Book of the Edge
326. Lynne Tillman, No Lease on Life
327. Taeko Tomioka, Building Waves
328. Tereska Torres, By Cecile
329. Monique Truong, The Book of Salt
330. Marina Tsvetaeva, Moscow in the Plague Year
331. Magdalena Tulli, In Red
332. Dubravka Ugresic, Thank You For Not Reading
333. Sigrid Undset, Gunnar’s Daughter
334. Chika Unigwe, On Black Sisters Street
335. Kirstin Valdez Quade, Night at the Fiestas
336. Jean Valentine, Little Boat
337. Lara Vapnyar, There Are Jews in My House
338. Marja-Liisa Vartio, The Parson’s Widow
339. Josefina Vicens, The Empty Book
340. Alice Walker, The Color Purple
341. Park Wan-suh, Lonesome You
342. Jesmyn Ward, Men We Reaped
343. Sarah Waters, Fingersmith
344. Shannon Watters, Lumberjanes
345. Laurie Weeks, Zipper Mouth
346. Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter
347. Phyllis Wheatley, The Poetry of Phyllis Wheatley
348. Zoe Wicomb, You Can’t Get Lost In Cape Town
349. Joy Williams, The Visiting Privilege
350. G. Willow Wilson, Ms. Marvel
351. Charlotte Wood, The Natural Way of Things
352. Virginia Woolf, Orlando
353. Alexis Wright, Carpentaria
354. Sarah E. Wright, This Child’s Gonna Live
355. Sylvia Wynter, The Hills of Hebron
356. Xuē Xīnrán, The Good Women of China
357. Can Xue, The Last Lover
358. Tiphanie Yanique, Land of Love and Drowning
359. Samar Yazbek, Cinnamon
360. Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen
361. Monica Youn, Barter
362. Kang Young-sook, Rina
363. Hsia Yu, Salsa
364. Jessica Zafra, Twisted
365. Haifa Zangana, Dreaming of Baghdad
(List compiled by Gwen Glazer, Sara Beth Joren, Lynn Lobash, Tracy O’Neill, and Nicholas Parker. )