March, a.k.a. Women’s History Month — one of the best months of the year — has officially come to a close, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop celebrating women! One of my favorite ways as a busy (and frankly overwhelmed) college student to honor this month is by simply reading. Writing has always communicated unique perspectives and given a voice to historically silenced and unheard groups. By reading books from different authors, not only are we shifting our worldview for the better, but we’re also strengthening our compassion.
This year, I encourage you to explore different perspectives from female authors you may not have heard of before. We know Jane Austen, Suzanne Collins, Emily Henry, Colleen Hoover, J.K. Rowling, etc., but have you heard of these authors?
- bharati mukherjee
-
I recently read Mukherjee’s novel, Wife, and the ending caught me so off guard that I was left thinking about it for the rest of the week. Born in India and a former professor emerita at the University of California, Mukherjee has published eight novels, two short story collections, three books of nonfiction, and a memoir co-authored with her husband, Clark Blaise. Her work often explores the trials and tribulations of the immigrant experience, focusing on the subsequent search for identity and belongingness. She was honored as the first major South Asian American writer and naturalized American citizen to win the National Book Critics Circle Award and hailed as a pioneer of Indian-American literature.
If you’d like to read more of her work, Wife is an enticing read; the protagonist, a young girl named Dimple, moves from India to the U.S. with her new husband Amit, and the resulting culture shock leads to a series of events that’ll have you sitting by the edge of your seat.
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
-
I was first introduced to Adichie in my World Literature II class at UCF. A classmate attached a TED Talk where Adichie discusses the dangers of developing a “single story,” and the talk resonated with me so deeply that her name has stuck with me ever since. Her TED Talk, “We Should All Be Feminists,” received even more critical acclaim, with Beyoncé sampling the talk on her track titled “***Flawless,” and Dior directly referencing the talk by featuring t-shirts with the slogan “we should all be feminists.”
In short, she is a force to be reckoned with. Born in Nigeria, Adichie has published four novels and two collections of short stories. Her book, Half of a Yellow Sun, takes place in Nigeria during the 1960s and focuses on the many effects of the Nigerian Civil War. Adichie has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the PEN Open Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction, and in 2013, Half of a Yellow Sun was adapted into a movie. If you’re interested in reading her work, this novel, along with Americanah or Purple Hibiscus, is a great place to start!
- Warsan shire
-
Most know the Kenyan-born, Somali-British poet Warsan Shire for collaborating with Beyoncé on the visual album Lemonade and the Disney film Black is King. You might also know her as the first Young Poet Laureate of London, but she’s also the youngest member of the Royal Society of Literature and is featured in the Penguin Modern Poets series. Her poetry gives a voice to historically marginalized groups, touching on identity, community, oppression, and mental health themes among refugees.
I would definitely suggest exploring her poetry; the first poem I read by her was “For Women Who Are Difficult to Love,” and the first lines drew me in immediately. If poetry isn’t your thing, perhaps because it’s always seemed too complicated to understand, Shire’s poetry is a breath of fresh air. It is beautifully complex without sounding too ornate.
- r.f. kuang
-
I cannot recommend reading R.F. Kuang’s work enough. You might have seen her best-selling novel Yellowface on the bookshelves of Target, Books-A-Million, and Barnes & Noble, as its bright yellow cover with striking eyes is impossible not to catch your attention.
In short, the book focuses on aspiring author June Hayward after she publishes her dead friend’s work as her own and hits the jackpot. The novel follows June as she deals with the subsequent consequences of the crime and is a captivating commentary on racism, cultural appropriation, and the publishing industry as a whole. You’re gonna want to set aside hours to read this book in one sitting — you quite literally will not be able to put it down once you start (nothing could have prepared me for the ending).
Aside from Yellowface, Kuang currently has five other published novels, many of which have also received critical acclaim. Her first novel, The Poppy War, was written when she was just 19 years old, and Barnes & Noble went on to include the novel on their list of Favorite Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2018.
Born in China and a recipient of the prestigious Marshall Scholarship, Kuang is also an Oxford, Cambridge, and Yale graduate. With two novels on the way, Kuang has certainly made a name for herself as a trailblazer for Asian American representation in literature.
- jhumpa lahiri
-
Last but certainly not least, Jhumpa Lahiri remains one of my favorite authors of all time. You might have heard of the 2007 movie The Namesake starring Irrfan Khan, Tabu, and Kal Penn, but you might not have known that it was based on her best-selling novel.
Born in London to Bengali parents, Lahiri has cited Bharati Mukherjee as a prominent inspiration in her writing. Lahiri is similarly a fierce advocate for South Asian representation in literature, as her work also focuses on cultural assimilation, community, and diasporic identity. I recently read The Namesake, and it was a beautiful, thought-provoking story of a young man’s struggle to accept his identity, culture, and name over decades. Her prose is sharp, clever, graceful, and easy to fall completely in love with.
Shortly after finishing The Namesake, I purchased her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, which similarly evokes an existential crisis in me. She has amassed numerous other accolades throughout her writing career, including the PEN/Hemingway Award, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and the National Humanities Medal. I truly cannot recommend Lahiri’s work enough. Any of her novels are worth adding to your to-read list.
We tend to read novels by authors who share our worldview. We gravitate towards stories we can relate to and characters we can see ourselves in. Very rarely do we decide to pick up a novel written by an author on the other side of the world, but writing is all about sharing different perspectives. Reading is not just a form of entertainment or a way to relax. It’s a way to learn something new about history, culture, and the multifaceted human experience. It’s a practice that consequently helps us to be more empathetic and understanding towards others. I am neither Nigerian, Indian, Somali, or Chinese, and you don’t have to be to learn about their experiences.
As April begins, I encourage you to maybe hesitate before reading another novel by Emily Henry or Colleen Hoover. Take a little more time to explore the bookshelves of Barnes & Noble, and who knows? You might emerge with newfound wisdom and compassion.