Famous Fiction Authors a to z

Paulina Porizkova is a Czechoslovakian model and actress best known for being the first woman from Eastern Europe to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated.

William Sydney Porter was a prolific short story writer whose work appeared under the name O. Henry.

Rabbi and author Chaim Potok wrote The Chosen, along with several other novels featuring characters grappling with clashing secular and religious views.

Mario Puzo became famous when he adapted his novel The Godfather into a screenplay for director Francis Ford Coppola in the 1960s.

Howard Pyle was an American illustrator, author and teacher who produced dozens of classic illustrated volumes, including fables, fairy tales and adventure stories.

Thomas Pynchon is an award-winning novelist known for works like The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow.

Anna Quindlen is the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and bestselling novelist who wrote the books One True Thing and Object Lessons.

Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga penned short stories inspired by the jungle before committing suicide in 1937. Anaconda is considered his greatest work.

Anne Rice wrote supernatural novels. Her most famous series was Vampire Chronicles, which included the book Interview with the Vampire.

Faith Ringgold is an American artist and author who became famous for innovative, quilted narrations like Tar Beach that communicate her political beliefs.

Paraguayan author Augusto Roa Bastos received the Premio Cervantes prize in 1989 for books like I, the Supreme (1947).

American novelist and short-story writer Philip Roth is best known for his provocative explorations of Jewish and American identity.

J.K. Rowling is the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, one of the most popular book and film franchises in history.

Salman Rushdie is a British-Indian novelist best known for the novels Midnight's Children (1981) and The Satanic Verses (1988), for which he was accused of blasphemy against Islam.

With his landmark novel Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger was an influential 20th-century American writer.

José Saramago was a Portuguese novelist and man of letters who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998.

May Sarton was a writer of poetry, novels and memoirs including her Journal of a Solitude.

Jean-Paul Sartre was a 20th century intellectual, writer and activist who put forth pioneering ideas on existentialism.

Alice Sebold is an American writer and best-selling author of the book, The Lovely Bones, which has been hailed the most successful debut novel since Gone with the Wind.

Maurice Sendak is a Caldecott award-winning children's book author and illustrator best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are.

Emmy Award–winning television and film writer Rod Serling created and hosted the sci-fi fantasy series The Twilight Zone and co-wrote Planet of the Apes.

Throughout his career, cartoonist and writer Dr. Seuss published 60 children's books, including The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. 

Anna Sewell was the British author of the classic children's horse story Black Beauty.

Sidney Sheldon was a best-selling novelist who won Oscar, Tony and Emmy awards for his work on the stage and screen.

English writer Mary Shelley is best known for her horror novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818). She was married to poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Known for his lyrical and long-form verse, Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of the most highly regarded English Romantic poets of the 19th century. His works include The Masque of Anarchy and Queen Mab.

Sam Shepard is a prolific, Oscar-nominated actor and playwright who’s won the Pulitzer Prize.

Shel Silverstein was a poet and musician known for children’s books such as The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends.

French novelist Claude Simon’s novels include The Wind; The Grass; and The Flanders Road. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1985.

Born in 1957, Mona Simpson spent her early years in Green Bay, Wisconsin. She moved with her mother to Los Angeles as a teenager. While earning her M.F.A. degree at Columbia, Simpson became an editor at the Paris Review. She won accolades for her first novel Anywhere But Here (1986). After that initial success, Simpson has continued to produce well-regarded literary works, including My Hollywood (2010).

Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Jewish-American writer who won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Zadie Smith is a novelist whose first book, White Teeth, was a sensation, instantly putting her on the literary map.

Writer Lemony Snicket became well-known for his series of children's novels, A Series of Unfortunate Events, featuring the Baudelaire siblings.

Dame Muriel Spark was a Scottish novelist, poet and literary critic best known for her novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

William Thomas Stead was a writer of journalistic pieces and ghost stories whose life came to an end on the Titanic.

Gertrude Stein was an American author and poet best known for her modernist writings, extensive art collecting and literary salon in 1920s Paris.

John Steinbeck was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist whose book The Grapes of Wrath portrayed the plight of migrant workers during the Depression.

Robert Louis Stevenson was a 19th century Scottish writer notable for such novels as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Author R.L. Stine is famous for writing Goosebumps, the best-selling horror series for kids. He also created the successful Fear Street series.

Irish writer Bram Stoker is best known for authoring the classic horror novel Dracula (1897).

Sir Tom Stoppard is a Czech-born British playwright whose famous works include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1964) and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1978). He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1998 Academy Award winning film Shakespeare in Love. 

Rex Stout was an American crime writer best known as the man who brought the world the fictional New York City detective Nero Wolfe.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an author and social activist best known for her popular anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Novelist William Styron won a Pulitzer Prize for The Confessions of Nat Turner and wrote Sophie’s Choice, the basis of an Academy Award-winning film.

A counterculture icon, Hunter S. Thompson was an American journalist best known for writing 1971's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and creating "Gonzo journalism."

J.R.R. Tolkien is an internationally renowned fantasy writer. He is best known for authoring The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Russian author Leo Tolstoy wrote the acclaimed novels War and Peace, Anna Karenina and The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and still ranks among the world's top writers.

Poet, novelist and short-story writer Jean Toomer was a major figure during the Harlem Renaissance. He is best known for his first book, Cane.

Anne Tyler is an American novelist best known for writing The Accidental Tourist (1985) which was made into a movie in 1988 starring William Hurt and Geena Davis.

Irish author Colm Tóibín is famous for literary works about Irish society, creativity and homosexuality. His most popular novels include The Blackwater Lightship and The Master.

Writer John Updike's works are known for their subtle depiction of American middle-class life. His popular Rabbit series earned him two Pulitzer prizes.

Jules Verne was a 19th-century French author whose revolutionary science-fiction novels—such as Around the World in Eighty Days and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea—have entranced readers for over a century.

Gore Vidal was best known as a prolific American writer, but was also famous for frequent talk-show appearances and witty political criticisms.

Kurt Vonnegut was an American author best known for the novels Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions.

Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, African-American novelist and poet most famous for authoring The Color Purple.

Australian Aboriginal writer and political activist Kath Walker is considered the first of the modern-day Aboriginal protest writers.

David Foster Wallace was a writer known for his dense short stories, magazine articles and novels, most notably the 1,200-page Infinite Jest.

H.G. Wells was a writer of science-fiction works—including The Time Machine and War of the Worlds—who had a great influence on our vision of the future.

Dorothy West is a writer remembered for her sharp observations of varied issues within the African American community.

T.H. White was an English writer known for his novel series about King Arthur, The Once and Future King.

Actor Gene Wilder became a children's hero as the star of Mel Brook's film adaptation of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

Pioneer author Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the autobiographical “Little House” kids’ book series, the basis of the popular television show Little House on the Prairie.

Thornton Wilder is a multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright known for works like The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Ides of March and Our Town.