Trends: Female Authors

I find again and again that my reading ends up following trends, sometimes trends I am not even aware of till I go through the list of all I have read recently. I am the first to admit that when I find an author I like I usually read all or most of their works or at least those I can get my hands on. So it should not surprise me that patters show up in my reading time and time again.

What has surprised me is that 4 of my top authors of the last few years are women, and women of faith. One Mormon and three Catholic. And a few years back it was an Episcopalian.

Terry Tempest Williams

Is a Mormon who writes extensively on Environmental Preservation Issues from a spiritual perspective. She has written children’s book’s environmental studies, natives studies and biographical works.
I would recommend starting with Red or Refuge or An Unspoken Hunger.

Liz Kelly

Liz Kelly is a jazz singer and writer who has CDs and has published both fiction and nonfiction. She received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Alaska and currently works for Harvard University.
I have yet to track down her music but both her books are great reads.
Her Books The Rosary: A Path into Prayer and May Crowning, Mass and Merton are both worth reading.

Irma Zaleski
Zaleski, who was born in Poland in 1931, she escaped to England after the second world war, and came to Canada in 1952, she has led a vivid and diverse life. She has been a professor at the University of Toronto, a translator and a writer. In 1986 she moved to Combermere, Ontario. In her youth she practiced Buddhism and has studied Christian traditions from both the east and the west. As such she brings a breadth and depth to her writings that only comes with such diverse experience.
God is Not Reasonable would be one of the best of her books and a great starting point in her canon.

Kathy Shaidle

Kathy is an award-winning Toronto author, editor and writer for print & web.
God Rides a Yamaha is a must read for anyone struggling with illness or who has journeyed with someone who has.

Madeleine L’Engle

Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918, and spent her formative years in New York City. She preferred writing stories, poems and journals for herself, rather than focusing on her schoolwork.

A Wrinkle in Time, Troubling A Star or A Ring of Endless Light would be a great intro to her children’s literature. She has won the John Newbury Award twice, one of only two authors to do so.

L’Engle though most known for her children’s writing has also published many books of adult fiction, theology, and poetry.

I highly recommend the writings of the authors. Check them out, it will be worth the Time and effort.