The 100 best books by women from the United States

No. 11 on this list. The Color Purple · Alice Walker · 1983

Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council, Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

Appears on 1,185 university syllabi according to Open Syllabus (76.8th percentile), making it a fixture of American literature, women's studies, and African American studies courses. Wikipedia articles in 22 languages reflect its global reach. Consistently listed in essential American fiction surveys, and the 1985 Spielberg film expanded its cultural footprint far beyond academic settings.

No. 12 on this list. Geography III · Elizabeth Bishop · 1976

Geography III is among the most taught American poetry collections of the postwar era, with poems like 'One Art' and 'In the Waiting Room' appearing on countless university syllabi. Though the database shows no syllabus entries — likely a data gap — the collection is a fixture in American poetry surveys and is included on numerous 'essential American poetry' reading lists. It won the 1976 National Book Critics Circle Award, one of American letters' most respected honors.

No. 13 on this list. Kindred · Octavia E. Butler · 1979

Taught in schools: CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

Kindred is required reading in African American literature, American history, and science fiction courses at universities across the United States and internationally. It appears on the Modern Library's reader list of the 100 best novels and is frequently paired with primary sources on American slavery. Octavia Butler is the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, and Kindred is her most assigned work.

No. 14 on this list. The Selected Works of Audre Lorde · Audre Lorde · 2020

Lorde is taught across literature, gender studies and Black studies.

No. 15 on this list. The Left Hand of Darkness · Ursula K Le Guin · 1969

Genly Ai, a human envoy from a galactic coalition called the Ekumen, arrives on the planet Gethen to invite its people into interstellar fellowship. The planet is locked in an ice age, and its inhabitants possess a biology that would reshape how any visitor understands human nature: Gethenians have no fixed sex, spending most of each month in a neuter state before entering 'kemmer,' a brief fertile period during which they become randomly male or female. Genly must navigate the treacherous politics of two rival nations, Karhide and Orgoreyn, while struggling against his own deeply ingrained assumptions about gender. His most important relationship is with Estraven, a disgraced Karhidish politician whose motives Genly cannot read through the fog of his own gendered expectations. Their harrowing journey across an arctic ice sheet strips away politics, culture, and prejudice, forcing a communion between two beings who must learn to see each other without the categories that have shaped their perceptions. Le Guin constructs the novel as a mosaic of voices: Genly's diplomatic report, Estraven's spare journal, Gethenian myths and legends, and anthropological field notes, each offering a partial and unreliable perspective on a world that resists totalizing description. The prose is crystalline and unhurried, moving between political intrigue, philosophical reflection, and passages of extraordinary landscape writing as the two travelers cross the Gobrin Ice. The embedded myths refract the novel's central concerns with duality, betrayal, and the inseparability of light and darkness.

No. 16 on this list. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza · Gloria Anzaldua · 1987

Foundational text of Chicana feminism, border studies, and queer theory. Universally taught in relevant fields.

No. 17 on this list. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas · Ursula K Le Guin · 1973

Widely taught in philosophy, ethics, and literature courses globally. Anthologized in hundreds of collections and featured on virtually every 'essential short fiction' list. Its presence in academic syllabi rivals Borges and Kafka in ethics curricula, where it functions as a standard thought-experiment text.

No. 18 on this list. Uncle Tom's Cabin · Harriet Beecher Stowe · 1852

Uncle Tom's Cabin holds essential historical status in American literature and history curricula. Lincoln's alleged remark—'So this is the little lady who started this great war'—marks its political impact. The novel appears on lists of books that changed America, taught in courses on 19th-century literature, abolitionism, and protest fiction. Its canonical position rests on historical consequence more than literary innovation.

No. 19 on this list. Wise Blood · Flannery O'Connor · 1952

A landmark of Southern Gothic fiction and American literature, widely taught and critically analyzed. One of the defining novels of postwar American fiction.

No. 20 on this list. The Fifth Season · N.K. Jemisin · 2015

The Fifth Season won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2016, the first book in what became an unprecedented trilogy of consecutive Hugo wins for Jemisin—a feat unmatched in the award's history. It appears on contemporary science fiction and fantasy syllabi and in critical discussions of the genre's formal and political possibilities. Its position in the canon is still consolidating, but its influence on subsequent speculative fiction is already evident.

No. 21 on this list. The Haunting of Hill House · Shirley Jackson · 1959

The Haunting of Hill House is widely recognized as the definitive American haunted-house novel and one of the finest works of Gothic fiction in the English language. It has been continuously in print since 1959 and is regularly taught in university courses on American literature, Gothic studies, and the horror genre. Stephen King called its opening paragraph the finest in the history of horror fiction. It appears on virtually every serious list of essential horror and Gothic novels and has been adapted for film (twice) and television (the acclaimed 2018 Netflix series).

No. 22 on this list. The Plague of Doves · Louise Erdrich · 2008

Pulitzer Prize finalist (2009) and the first entry in a trilogy whose second volume, The Round House, won the National Book Award. Taught in university courses on contemporary American and Native American literature, with an established academic presence in postcolonial and ethnic studies. Widely regarded as one of Erdrich's most formally accomplished novels.

No. 23 on this list. Diving into the Wreck · Adrienne Rich · 1973

The title poem appears in virtually every major American poetry anthology and is standard reading in feminist literature, American poetry, and contemporary poetry courses. The collection sits firmly in the literary canon, comparable to Beloved (85) in academic reach if not in the broadest syllabi. No database data was returned, but Rich's place in American poetry curricula is well established.

No. 24 on this list. Women, Race & Class · Angela Davis · 1981

A fixture on syllabi in Women's Studies, African American Studies, Sociology, and History courses across US universities since its 1981 publication. Required reading in virtually every Black feminist theory course and central to the canon of intersectional scholarship. Widely included on lists of essential texts in feminist and critical race theory.

No. 25 on this list. The Age of Innocence · Edith Wharton · 1921

The Age of Innocence is a cornerstone of American literature curricula, taught extensively in courses on American Realism, the Gilded Age, and women's writing. It appears on virtually every list of essential American novels and is a standard text in both high school AP courses and university seminars.

No. 26 on this list. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter · Carson McCullers · 1940

A staple of American literature curricula and frequently anthologized. The novel appears consistently in college surveys of 20th-century fiction and Southern Gothic literature. Academic recognition centers on its inaugural treatment of diverse characters and psychological depth rather than universal canonicity.

No. 27 on this list. The Awakening · Kate Chopin · 1899

Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

Required reading in virtually every American literature survey course and a fixture on feminist literary syllabi. The novel was suppressed and dismissed as scandalous at publication in 1899, then recovered and canonized in the 1960s–70s by feminist critics; it now appears on thousands of university syllabi and is considered one of the foundational texts of American women's literature.

No. 28 on this list. Regarding the Pain of Others · Susan Sontag · 2003

Regarding the Pain of Others is a standard text in media studies, photography, visual culture, and war journalism courses worldwide. It appears on hundreds of university syllabi as a primary theoretical text. Wikipedia articles exist in over 40 languages. The book is the go-to theoretical reference whenever questions of war photography and the ethics of looking arise in public discourse.

No. 29 on this list. Gilead · Marilynne Robinson · 2005

Gilead won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and sits firmly within the American literary canon. It appears on university syllabi and in lists of essential contemporary American literature, securing Robinson's place among 21st-century literary institutions. However, it lacks the canonical inevitability of works like Gatsby or Beloved.

No. 30 on this list. The Journalist and the Murderer · Janet Malcolm · 1990

The Journalist and the Murderer is a staple of journalism school curricula across North America and is widely assigned in media ethics, creative nonfiction, and literary journalism courses. Its opening sentence is among the most frequently quoted lines in American nonfiction. While it does not appear on general literary canons as broadly as major novels, within its domain — journalism studies and media ethics — it is as close to required reading as any single text.