Favorite Women Authors: Tracing Our Feminine Literary Influences
I have been writing for as long as I can remember.
Irish writer Ellie Rose McKee is working on her novel, Rising from Ashes
But it’s only lately that I’ve realised how much my writing has been influenced by the great women of literature who have gone before me.
Growing up my favourite authors were women – Enid Blyton and Jenny Oldfield – and their characters still mean a lot to me even now.
Over the years my list of favourite authors has grown but the majority of it is still female – Malorie Blackman, Jilliane Hoffman, Sarah Strohmeyer and of course J.K. Rowling.
Then there is Nicola Morgan.* She has influenced my writing so much more than the rest, via her latest book ‘Write to be Published’, and for that I am eternally grateful. With the guidance her book has given me I have completely overhauled my first novel and I am now confident ‘Rising from Ashes’ will ‘hook’ a literary agent once complete.
But the role women play in my writing doesn’t end there because the majority of the characters in my short stories and other works are female.
I love creating strong feminine characters that just battle through life’s toughest trials, so much so I do it automatically. It has never been a conscious decision to make my main character female, it just always seems inevitable.
With literature like this, I’m proud to be a woman. Now who’s your favourite woman author?
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Follow Ellie Rose McKee on Twitter. Facebook. Website and Blog.
*Editors Note: See our Interview with Nicola Morgan
Category: Women's Books and Writings
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I find it really difficult to pick just one favourite writer, male or female. I love lots of the women crime writers – Denise Mina is a particular favourite because she is from and writes about my home town of Glasgow, Scotland.
Glad to hear others have been influenced by the great women on literature too. And of course I’ll come back and tell you all about my novel when it’s ready for publication!
Jane Smiley – especially A Thousand Acres.
And yes – I agree that Nicola Morgan has encouraged a small army of us.
Margaret Atwood is a huge influence for me, and recently Jane Rusbridge has inspired me to experiment with POV and tenses.
AS posted in response to your Tweet on Twitter, Jodie Piccoult has been a great influence on my writing.
Ellie, thank you for this post about the women writers you’ve loved and been influenced by. Exciting to hear that you’ve already read Nicola Morgan’s latest book. Let us know when your novel is finished. I hope we’ll get a good cross-section of women writers in comments to your post.