365 Books by Women Authors to Celebrate International Women’s Day All Year

By Gwen Glazer, Librarian
March 8, 2017
International womens day

For over a century, International Women's Day has been observed on March 8 — and this year, we've compiled 365 books by women authors from across the globe to keep the celebration going all year long.

This list includes a vast range of women authors, and we hope you find some old favorites and some new discoveries. And we hope that readers can draw strength and inspiration from these 365 books — and the women who wrote them — in the year ahead.

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. )

Did we miss your favorite book written by a woman? Let us know in the comments.

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Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!