Ursula K LeGuin?

Fiction

• Ursula K. LeGuin

• Octavia Butler

• Margaret Atwood

• Tui T. Sutherland (J Fic)

• Suzanne Collins (YA)

• Lois Lowry (YA)

Non-Fiction

• Naomi Klein

• Margaret Atwood (Massey Lecture)

• Angela Y. Davis

• Tanya Talaga

• bell hooks

• Robin Wall Kimmerer

Obviously, Mary Shelley. Created the most famous character of all time and the entire genre of science fiction while still a teenager.

I'm a fan of Tanith Lee. She started weird fantasy and Neil Gaiman stole all his best ideas and most of his writing style from her.

Karen Slaughter writes detective novels that make Jack Reacher look like a school boy.

Tana French is Slaughter's Irsih cousin.

Joanna Russ was an out Lesbian back in the 1970s. "The Female Man" is still cutting edge.

Ursula le Guin is a great SF writer

No love for Jane Austen? Some of her works are all time classic. They could probably compete with top 10 literature work of 17th-18th century.

Another author that's under appreciated would be Gertrude Stein.

Mary Shelley has to be up there for inventing Sci-Fi.

Agatha Christie is definitely one. Agree with Mary Shelley Robin Hobb

Astrid Lindgren, her books are translated to 95 different languages and sold over 160 million copies. Probably the worlds most beloved children’s book author.

The only female author I am familiar enough with to have an opinion on is Anne McCaffrey because of the Dragon Riders of Pern series. Those are in my top 5 all time favorite series', tho. Above Goosebumps but below Neuromancer, LOTR, and Wheel of Time.

I don't have 'best female author of all time' but I do have favorite writers some of which happen to be female. I don't usually split them by their sex (nor by their height, distaste for bananas, or whatever) as for me they're all in the same 'people who have a great time staining paper with ink making me a happy reader' league but here it is, in absolutely no order beside the first two, as there is them and then there is all the others:

• Virginia Woolf (the only reason I would love to be able to travel in time is to meet her),
• Jane Austen,
• Edit: (how could I forget) Emily Dickinson!
• Sylvia Plath,
• Shirley Jackson (if you have not already, go read The Haunting of Hill House, it's considered a classic for reasons),
• la marquise de Sévigné (she wrote letters and they make for a great read, no idea if it's available in English),
• Margaret Atwood (imho she deserves a Nobel Prize, next to Woolf and Austen),
• Mary Shelley (like mentioned by others already, she well deserves to be read and would still have a lot to teach to some contemporary authors too, imho).
• I love reading Lizza Tuttle. Her horror short stories are different.
• In the same vein, I also quite like Mélanie Fazzi (who is also a translator of some of Tuttle's stories, btw). But I can't find that much more female writers in that specific genre (a lot more males do come to my mind).

Being French, I realize I have not listed that many French female writers I would consider a favorite. But they are a few I would consider excellent read nonetheless:

• La comtesse de Ségur (one of my childhood companion next to, say, Verne and Doyle),
• Simone de Beauvoir,
• (very) few pages of Marguerite Duras,
• Fred Vargas.
• To which I would also add Pauline Réage, because I think her 'Histoire d'O' is well worth reading for anyone into erotica.
• At one time, I also quite liked Joëlle Wintrebert (scifi) but I have not felt like reading her for a very long time so I could not tell.

Love N.K. Jemisin's books

Ursula LeGuin

Margaret Atwood

Diana Wynne Jones

and for personal preference, Robin McKinley

Agree with all of the above, would add T. Kingfisher for fantasy, Iris Murdoch for heady philosophical fiction, Agatha Christie for murder mystery, Clarissa Pinkola Estés for empowering fables and explorations of feminine archetypes, Mary Oliver for poetry, and Lady Margaret Cavendish for a great sci-fi novel from 1666.

No love for Robin Hobb?

Incorrect answer but I'm very excited every time she has a book, Mary Roach.

Marjane Satrapi

Agatha Christie. While not quite what I like there is no denying her success.

If you like Star Trek:

DC Fontana

Probably Agatha Christie

Le Guin

Mary Ann Evans, who wrote as George Eliot. Middlemarch is imho one of the best novels ever written in the English language.

A lot of folk are giving great answers here.

I just want to add Andre Norton to the list. She was a pioneer in Sci-Fi and her fantasy work was great too.

I don't know about "of all time" but "The Coming Plague" by Laurie Garrett should be required reading.

https://www.lauriegarrett.com/the-coming-plague

Nobody mentioned Margaret Atwood yet! The Handmaid's Tale is excellent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale

Also Mary Shelley for Frankenstein !

I'm disappointed that no one has mentioned Lois McMaster Bujold yet.

Toni Morrison

Angela Carter

Virginia Wolfe

Shirley Jackson

Octavia Butler

Ann Leckie and Becky Chambers are definitely up there

I don't read books that often, so I don't know if she's necessarily the best but I'd have to say Cornelia Funke. Inkheart, while I have yet to actually finish it, is the only normal book that I remember actually liking. It's currently the only book I own a copy of that isn't a manga.

Tamsyn Muir comes to mind for her excellent locked tomb series

Henriette Walter. Her works on French linguistics are both fascinating and informative.

Iris Murdoch. I've only read The Sea, The Sea, but it's one of the books that got me into literature when I was a teenager. I really need to get around to exploring more of her work.

• Rosa Luxemburg: Great German socialist thinker and revolutionary
• Emma Goldman: Lithuanian Jewish Anarchist and feminist thinker
• Voltairine de Cleyre: American Anarchist and political thinker
• Luisa Capetillo : Puerto Rican labor organizer and anarcha-feminist

My first picks have already been mentioned, but I think these women have also been influential

Flannery O' Connor, Shirley Jackson, Emily Dickinson

Miles Franklin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Franklin

Many great authors mentioned. I'll add: Marilynne Robinson is magic. Harper Lee. Zora Neale Hurston!!! I'll also add Charlotte Bronte bc Jane Eyre is such a great read.

I have no idea what this question is asking but I like Donna Tartt

I'm voting for Julian May (yes, she was female). Her best series of books were the Saga of Pliocene Exile and the Galactic Milieu trilogy (in 4 parts).

Some people are about to lose their marbles but just going by the numbers: J. K. Rowling.

She authored the 4th best selling single book of all time and the best selling book series of all time, by quite the margin.

In terms of books written for children, Gail Carson Levine is a good one. She is famous for Ella Enchanted (the book is very different from the film) and some other fairy tale books. She also wrote books for Disney in the Tinkerbell book series.

Ellen Booraem (YA, she's great at writing books from a totally different angle), Oyinkan Braithwaite (she's only written two books so far but they're great), Katharine Kerr.

On alive authors, I think Nina Allan and Niviaq Korneliussen are worth a try.

Tanith Lee, Mary Gentle, Melanie Rawn deserve mentions. (MZB I haven't been able to read since learning...) Anais Nin was mostly intentionally writing trash but is fun

A lot of greats have been mentioned already, so I’ll add Han Kang to the mix.

Off the top of my head Andre Norton is completely overlooked in this thread. Like… what?

Mercedes lackey.

Cj Cherryh.

Katherine Kurtz.