History proves that there will always be exceptional and extraordinary women who will rise above the manacles of patriarchy to bring a revolutionary stir in the system, making everyone else uncomfortable and nervous. Well, women in the literary world top this category. These women authors have inspired and continue to inspire us to tell a story of our own.

Here are 5 inspiring and famous women writers (in no particular order of preference or genre) you should read

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf is an English writer, considered to be the 20th century’s most innovative writer and a modernist author who pioneered in using her ‘stream of consciousness as a narrative device in her writings.

While she lived, Virginia Woolf had a large impact on the socio-cultural situation surrounding her. Perhaps, even today her writings continue to shape some of the modern ideas about feminism.

Some of her very popular books are Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando the Autobiography, To the Light House, The Waves, and between the Acts

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi is a Nigerian writer. She is a novelist, short story writer as well as a nonfiction writer. The Times Literary Supplement had described her as ‘the most prominent’ of a ‘procession of critically acclaimed young Anglophone authors succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature”.

Adichie’s novels include Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Americanah, The Thing Around Your Neck, and We Should All Be Feminists. In the year 2008, she was presented with the MacArthur Genius Grant.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri is an American author better known for her short stories, novels, and essays. She has been awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2014. Her writing can be easily characterized as simple dialectal with complex characters, (often immigrants) in America crossing paths between their cultural values and adapted lifestyle.

Her early work began with a collection of short stories Interpreter of Maladies. Her very first novel, The Namesake, has been adapted into the popular film of Bollywood carrying the same name. Some of her other popular books are Unaccustomed Earth, The Lowland.

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood is a novelist, poet, critic, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Her published work comprises 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, 9 collections of short fiction, 8 children’s books, and 2 graphic novels, as well as several small press editions of both poetry and fiction.

Atwood’s works cover varied themes like gender, religion, environment, and politics. It was she who started the Griffin Poetry Prize and The Writers’ Trust of Canada and invented the LongPen device. She continues to associate herself with all that facilitate remote robotic writing of documents.

Atwood has won numerous awards and recognition for her writing. Some of her best work is Hand Maid’s tale, The Testaments, The Heart Goes Last, The Penelopiad, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin

Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy is a popular Indian author, a human rights activist, and an environmentalist. She attained popularity by winning the ‘Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997’ for her novel, The God of Small Things. The book was the only best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author.

She has to her name numerous accolades, and special recognitions for her takes on Human Rights, Culture diversities, Freedom, Peace, Justice, Non-Violence through various campaigns and social works. She also featured in the Time 100 list for the 100 most influential people in the world in the year 2014.

Some of her best work includes The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, The Cost of Living, War Talk, The Algebra of Infinite Justice. Capitalism- A Ghost Story

Having launched many women authors’ and their books themselves, Vishwakarma Publications believes that a women author’s narrative is unadulterated, and there is a definite need to bring it into the mainstream. Our top picks from the in-house names of popular authors are Rochelle Potkar, Rupangi Sharma, Sujata Parashar, Menaka Ramakrishnan, Sangeeta Puranik, Ritu Lalit, Lata Gwalani to name a few.