Women Writers

Professional writing has traditionally been a male occupation, but despite restrictions exceptional women produced important and influential poetry, stories, novels, and plays. From ancient Sumerian priestess Enheduanna's poetic praises for her patron goddess, Inanna, to 19th-century English novelist Jane Austen's witty romances that quietly challenged social convention, and from Beatrix Potter's whimsical and timelessly popular animal tales to Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston's vivid and powerful portrayals of the African-American experience, the written word has been an effective way for women to express their own perspective on such universal themes as love, relationships, faith, death, and the meaning of life.