March is Women's History Month, so we wanted to give you a sampling of great writers from around the globe. Some may be familiar, some you may have missed, but there is no doubt that these women have made important literary contributions in their communities and abroad.

Enjoy!

Catherine Carmichael
Editor

Women Writers Around the Globe

Isabel Allende Chile Isabel Allende was raised in Chile. She is the niece of Salvador Allende, the president of Chile who was deposed by a military coup in 1973. She is best known for House of the Spirits (1985), which was hailed as a critical success around the world.

Elsa Morante Italy Morante's novels and poetry are observed by most critics to be indebted to magical realism. Morante's La Historia captures Italy's wartime history through the eyes of a Roman family.

Margaret Atwood Canada Margaret Eleanor "Peggy" Atwood is a novelist, poet, literary critic and one of the world's best-selling authors. She is perhaps best known for her tale of an future dystopia in the novel The Handmaid's Tale, her Booker Prize-winning novel The Blind Assassin, as well as other stories.

Francoise Sagan France Sagan (née Francoise Quoirez) took her pseudonym from one of Proust's characters, the Princesse de Sagan. Her debut novel, Bonjour Tristesse, put her on the literary map as a serious writer.

Christa Wolf Germany Wolf studied German literature at the University of Leipzig. Her first novel, Dividend Heaven was published in 1963; this and most of her other works are incisive explorations of East German society as it is affected by memories of its Nazi past.

Maria Edgeworth Ireland Edgeworth lived almost her entire life on her father's estate in Ireland, and is known for her novels depicting the Irish people, including Castle Rackrent and The Absentee.

Joan Didion United States Didion was an editor at Vogue until 1963 when she became a published writer. Her collections of essays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album capture her minimalist prose and cool insight.

Ama Ata Aidoo Ghana Ghanaian author, poet and playwright whose writing comments on the contemporary roles of African women. Check out Our Sister Killjoy, the prime example of her writing style.

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