Who are the "great" living women writers?

Nickelini's post below ("Just flew through Road to Urbino, by Roma Tearne, which is loved. I've read all five of her books, and think she's terrific. Possibly my favourite living writer, aside from the Greats, like Margaret Atwood.").made me wonder who your top five greatest living women writers are.

We've probably had a thread on this before. But it doesn't hurt to revisit occasionally.

Not sure whom I'd pick, but would certainly consider Karen Joy Fowler, Diane Johnson, Ursula K. LeGuin, Margaret Atwood, and Karen Russell.

Thoughts? (And, yes, I'm trolling for rec's.)

Two others to add, top of my head, would be Joyce Carol Oates and Toni Morrison, though I'm embarrassed to say that I've never read anything yet by Morrison other than her short story "Recitatif."

I would consider Janette Turner Hospital.

I guess I'll go no further than who I've favourited .....as quoted in post #1, there is Roma Tearne and Margaret Atwood. Of woman writers who are alive, I have Heather O'Neill (who only has one book, so who knows really?), Jane Urquhart, who I like very much and admire, but not sure I actually love her. And then I have two non-fiction writers who I think very highly of--Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Michelle Goldberg. Other than Atwood, not sure if any of these are "great." Off to my library to see who else I can find .....

I forgot to mention that I also have Jenifer Egan favourited, so her too. I am not really one to read new books--I'm still trying to catch up on classics. And I'm not one to discover an author and then read right through everything they wrote, so I have a long list of writers who I loved, but have only read one or two her books--so do I think one of these authors is a "great", or just someone who wrote a terrific book? These are writers who I am looking forward to reading again soon. Here's my list of those writers:

Alice Walker
Margaret Drabble
Emma Donoghue
Anita Brookner
Laura Esquivel
Roshi Fernando
Barbara Kingsolver
Toni Morrison
Mary Horlick
Jenn Farrell
Lisa Moore
Lionel Shriver
Ali Smith
AS Byatt

And here are three who I haven't favourited, but who I probably should have because I've read a handful of their books, and when they publish something new, I'm always interested.

Isabel Allende
Tracy Chevalier
Margaret George

Definitely dittos for Alice Walker, Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison, Lionel Shriver and Joyce Carol Oates (plus several more of Nickelini's suggestions who I think just escape the adjective 'great'). I'd also want to throw into the mix Francine Prose and Sarah Waters.

Plus one or two who I don't think have quite made 'great' yet but could easily do it - Sarah Dunant, Tracy Chevalier, Donna Tartt, Audrey Niffenegger, Anne Berry.

I think there are many women authors who are greats alive today. Off the top of my head my list would be:

Toni Morrison
Margaret Atwood
Barbara Kingsolver
Marilynne Robinson
A. S. Byatt
Hilary Mantel

Although I've only read one of her books and didn't particularly like it, I also think Annie Proulx would be in the mix.

Jeannette Winterson and Kate Atkinson.

I think Zadie Smith and Vendela Vida have the potential for greatness. They're both close but just not quite there yet.

I'd include Sheri Tepper and Robin McKinley.

Here are some of my favorites who I also think might be "great," whatever that means.

Hilary Mantel
Edith Pearlman
Jaimy Gordon
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Paula Fox
Nicole Krauss (based on one book)
Alice Munro

Some favorites with potential to be great.

Jennifer Egan
Amy Bloom
Bonnie Jo Campbell
Jennifer Haigh
Nathacha Appanah
Helen Oyeyemi

We're only doing fiction here, right?

11>> We're only doing fiction here, right? That's what I was assuming, because if we included non-fiction there would Juliet Barker, Jenny Uglow, and perhaps Antonia Fraser.

... "great," whatever that means.

11, that's the $64,000 question, isn't it? Might be interesting for people to explain their criteria for "great."

Here are some thoughts about what makes a "great" living woman writer. Refine, edit, delete, argue as necessary:

1. Conveys a sense of women as having individual bodies, minds, souls, virtues, and vices; sees women from the "inside"

2. Writes from a female perspective, i.e., writes things a male writer might not have thought of, or at least not in the same way

3. Acknowledges something about the current cultural forces at play in women's lives now

4. Revisits something in and adds new insights to the centuries long literary "conversation" women writers have been having since they picked up a pen

5. Is alive

13>>

I took it as "great writer who is female" not "great writer about being female" though there's certainly some overlap.

>13 nohrt4me2:
I also don't think that a great female writer needs to write from the female perspective, though I appreciate that many of them successfully do. I think of Annie Proulx who seemed to almost try to avoid that stereotype. My first criteria for considering whether a woman writer will be considered "great" is to think of the quality of the writing, i.e. character development, language use, innovative writing styles, etc. and consider whether in 50-100 years the author's book will be considered part of "the canon" (whatever that means - a topic for another thread!), still in publication, and still read. I agree that most of the suggestions made here are in the running for that kind of status; not having a crystal ball, none of us know for sure.

I agree. I wasn't thinking of writers who write about women, but about women who are great writers whatever they choose to write about.

I think I made my point poorly if people infer that I think great women writers are confined to writing about women or women's issues.

I think great women writers, in addition to having great writing and storytelling skills, are also able to offer perspectives on humankind that men do not see in the same way.

I think I have to agree with you nohrtme2, but only to a degree. I guess the problem I have is that we're making this gender divide in the first place. Are 'great' male authors offering perspectives on humankind that women do not see in the same way? In my view, of course not.
I have my list of 'great women authors' that actually accord with many of the lists here. But I truly believe that there are great authors, and whether they are male or female is neither here nor there. Male authors have had the accolades forever because it's been a 'man's world'. It's wonderful now that women are being acknowledged, but I don't believe that takes away from the work of people (i.e. men) in the past.
By all means, let's acknowledge great contemporary writers, but I would really like to think that gender does not matter. If we talk about that, we also have to talk about other 'divides' such as economics, race, even age.
So I believe the power of the author resides in the power of the writing.

I understand the desire to get away from pigeonholes, but, honestly, I think gender does affect point of view, and thank God there are women out there using it to create literature so we don't have rely on Hemingway, Hawthorne, or Updike try to tell us who we are.

Apropos of nothing, I notice nobody has nominated Joan Didion.

#19 Yes, perhaps I overstated my case. I guess what has changed for the better is that we have so many great women writers now, and they are no longer the exception as were the Brontes, Austen, George Eliot et al.

I notice nobody has nominated Joan Didion.

Well, I've never read her, although I've heard good things.

I find Didion's novels cold, at times misanthropic and snide.

Her recent memoirs, Blue Nights and The Year of Magical Thinking, have given her readership a boost, and they have received excellent reviews.

However, I have a perhaps irrational reluctance to care a whole lot about sad events in her own life, when she's so hard on her own characters.

FWIW, she's a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Interesting list; might make an interesting project to read one selection from each of the women writers listed: http://www.artsandletters.org/academicians2_current.php

I did that once with women Nobel prize winners, and it was fun.