I’m the mood for a list and rummaged the messy corners of my memory with a bit of a challenge: finding women writers from A to Z! Most of them are writers I’ve read and liked, but sometimes I had to cheat, for the sake of filling the slot… I tried to find names outside of the English world and from all times, but it’s hard. Don’t hesitate to play and suggest more! 

• A like… Anna Akhmatova (Russia); Margaret Atwood (Canada); Jane Austen (GB) 
• B like… The Brontë sisters (GB); Frances Burney (GB); A. S. Byatt (GB); Karen Blixen (Denmark) 
• C like… Agatha Christie (GB) ; Colette (France) 
• D like… Marie Darrieussecq (France) ; Joan Didion (US); Marguerite Duras (France) 
• E like… George Eliot (GB) 
• F like… Janet Frame (New Zealand) 
• G like… Elizabeth Gaskell (GB); Kaye Gibbons (US) 
• H like… Patricia Highsmith (GB); Nancy Huston (Canada); Sigrid Hustvedt (US) 
• I like… Laura Ingalls Wilder (US) 
• J like… Shirley Jackson (US); P. D. James (GB) 
• K like… Agota Kristof (Hungary) even though I didn’t quite like what I tried (The Notebook) 
• L like… Madame de La Fayette (France); Selma Lagerlof (Sweden) ; Rosetta Loy (Italy) 
• M like… Katherine Mansfield (New Zealand); Alice Munro (Canada) 
• N like… Amélie Nothomb (France) – I can’t say I love everything I read, but she’s quite a quirky character! 
• O like… Nuala O’Faolain (Ireland); Joyce Carol Oates (US) 
• P like… Sylvia Plath (US); Annie Proulx (US) 
• R like… Ruth Rendell (GB); Jean Rhys (GB) 
• S like… George Sand (France); Nathalie Sarraute (France); Sei Shōnagon (Japan); Jane Smiley (US) 
• T like… Marina Tsvetaeva (Russia); Anne Tyler (US) 
• U like… Sigrid Undset (Norway): an obvious cheat… I just read Danielle’s reviews of Kristin Lavrandsdatter and thought that I had to read it one day! 
• V like… Zoe Valdes (Cuba) 
• W like… Edith Wharton (US); Virginia Woolf (GB) 
• X like… Xi Xi (Hong Kong) 
• Y like… Banana Yoshimoto (Japan); Marguerite Yourcenar (France) 
• Z like… Zhang Xinxin (China)