Writers

Joy Harjo is a poet, musician and writer who became the first Native American to serve as poet laureate of the United States.

Susan Sontag was a critical essayist, cultural analyst, novelist and filmmaker. She wrote 'On Photography,' 'Illness as Metaphor,' 'The Volcano Lover' and 'In America,' among many other works.

Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks has written numerous works on patients with often unusual conditions. His titles include ‘Awakenings’ and ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.’

Ocean Vuong is an Asian American writer, best known for his 2019 debut novel, 'On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,' which is a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into 36 languages.

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

American playwright Adrienne Kennedy has influenced the theater with complex, at times surrealist, work that centers Black women.

American poet and activist Amanda Gorman reached a worldwide audience when she read her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of President Joe Biden in 2021.

Audre Lorde wrote the poetry collections 'From a Land Where Other People Live' and 'The Black Unicorn,' as well as memoirs like 'A Burst of Light.'

American author Danielle Steel has written more than 180 books, with many of her best sellers turned into television movies.

Arthur Miller is considered one of the greatest American playwrights of the 20th century. His best-known plays include 'All My Sons,' 'The Crucible' and the Pulitzer Prize-winning 'Death of a Salesman.'

Harper Lee is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'Go Set a Watchman,' which portrays the later years of the Finch family.

Madeleine L'Engle was chiefly a children's author known for such works as 'Meet the Austins' and 'A Wrinkle in Time.'

Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist, poet and award-winning author known for her acclaimed 1969 memoir, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,' and her numerous poetry and essay collections.

Emily Dickinson was a reclusive American poet. Unrecognized in her own time, Dickinson is known posthumously for her innovative use of form and syntax.

Margaret Fuller is best known for feminist writing and literary criticism in 19th century America.

Jane Austen was a Georgian era author, best known for her social commentary in novels including 'Sense and Sensibility,' 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Emma.'

Pioneering African American writer Richard Wright is best known for the classic texts 'Black Boy' and 'Native Son.'

Alex Haley was a writer whose works of historical fiction and reportage depicted generations of African American lives. He is widely known for 'Roots' and 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X.'

Lin-Manuel Miranda is an award-winning actor, performer and writer known for his groundbreaking Broadway musicals 'In the Heights' and 'Hamilton.'

Ursula K. Le Guin was an iconic writer known for her science-fiction and high fantasy works as well as her essays. Her published books include 'City of Illusions,' 'The Left Hand of Darkness' and the 'Earthsea' series.

Writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston was a fixture of the Harlem Renaissance and author of the masterwork 'Their Eyes Were Watching God.'

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

After being kidnapped from West Africa and enslaved in Boston, Phillis Wheatley became the first African American and one of the first women to publish a book of poetry in the colonies in 1773.

Playwright and activist Lorraine Hansberry wrote 'A Raisin in the Sun' and was the first Black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award.