I don't read enough women. Does any one here have any female authors they would recommend to a Bukowski fan like myself?
Female authors
- Thread starter justin grimbol
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I've just read "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter", but that was a great book. Mick really tore my heart up. Can you recommend anything else by McCullers?
The Member Of The Wedding. Beautiful book.
I have a compilation called The Ballad of the Sad Café (which is considered a novella) and it includes her three novels, Sad Café, and several short stories. Beyond Lonely Hunter and Member of the Wedding, her only other novel is Reflections in a Golden Eye.
this one's good, too. there's a story in it called "who has seen the wind" that's pretty haunting.
"An absorbing look at the early beginnings of one of America’s finest writers, The Mortgaged Heart is an important collection of Carson McCullers’s work, including stories, essays, articles, poems, and her writing on writing. These pieces, written mostly before McCullers was nineteen, provide invaluable insight into her life and her gifts and growth as a writer. The collection also contains the working outline of “The Mute,” which became her best-selling novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"
"An absorbing look at the early beginnings of one of America’s finest writers, The Mortgaged Heart is an important collection of Carson McCullers’s work, including stories, essays, articles, poems, and her writing on writing. These pieces, written mostly before McCullers was nineteen, provide invaluable insight into her life and her gifts and growth as a writer. The collection also contains the working outline of “The Mute,” which became her best-selling novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"
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mjp
Founding member
If you're into living writers...
Miranda July; No One Belongs Here More Than You. Then maybe It Chooses You. Odd, off-kilter, literary stories, I envy her style.
It flows like friendly lava.
Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel; A Prince Albert wind, or one of many others. She is to poetry what Woodie Guthrie was to folk music. An Okie who cuts to the bone.
Lisa Teasley; Dive or Heat Signature. Los Angeles writer. Modern fiction-y novel bedside table stuff.
Miranda July; No One Belongs Here More Than You. Then maybe It Chooses You. Odd, off-kilter, literary stories, I envy her style.
Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel; A Prince Albert wind, or one of many others. She is to poetry what Woodie Guthrie was to folk music. An Okie who cuts to the bone.
Lisa Teasley; Dive or Heat Signature. Los Angeles writer. Modern fiction-y novel bedside table stuff.
I thought Clock Without Hands was sad and beautiful.
I should have known that I shouldn't believe the propaganda printed on the dust jacket of my copy of The Sad Café. It states that the book contains her three novels and her novella, The Sad Café, and "the most important of her short stories." Neither Who has Seen the Wind nor Clock Without Hands is included.
I second Miranda July and Lisa Teasley. Miranda is probably one of the best writers I have ever read - man or woman.
Lisa is also the editor for my book -- if I ever finish it that is!
I have not read Wilma McDaniel. Shame on me. I will start.
And I will come back after I think on this a while....
By the way, I do like Alice Walker, as cliche as that might sound. She's just a master. I've also been reading a first-timer novelist named Kaye Gibbons which has been so far so good.
Lisa is also the editor for my book -- if I ever finish it that is!
I have not read Wilma McDaniel. Shame on me. I will start.
And I will come back after I think on this a while....
By the way, I do like Alice Walker, as cliche as that might sound. She's just a master. I've also been reading a first-timer novelist named Kaye Gibbons which has been so far so good.
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bospress.net
www.bospress.net
Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel died in 2007. I thought that it was more recently, though...
bospress.net
www.bospress.net
yeah, she was in her 90s when she died.
LickTheStar
Sad Flower in the Sand
I will third Miranda July.
I'm also a big fan of Gloria Naylor, G Willow Wilson, and I loved Jenni Fagan's first novel The Panopticon.
Oh and Adrienne Rich was fantastic before she bit it.
I'm also a big fan of Gloria Naylor, G Willow Wilson, and I loved Jenni Fagan's first novel The Panopticon.
Oh and Adrienne Rich was fantastic before she bit it.
Skygazer
And in the end...
At least you're being honest, you could start with Aphra Behn and work your way through:wb:
Definitely - Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale (sort of Brave New Worldish; the U.S. has been taken over by the religious right).
Irene Nemirovsky: Suite francaise, published posthumously in 2004 and translated in 2006. She died in Auschwitz in 1942 (typhus, but was destined to be gassed as records show) but wrote it in tiny handwritten notes during the german invasion and occupation of France, her surviving daughters handed the notepad over to published in the 90's, it's an extraordinary and moving novel as are the letters at the back, couldn't recommend it highly enough.
That Harper Lee was ok. Bit of a one hit wonder though ;)
On top of some of those already mentioned, I enjoyed Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou's I Know Now Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Secret History by Donna Tartt. There must be others but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
On top of some of those already mentioned, I enjoyed Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou's I Know Now Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Secret History by Donna Tartt. There must be others but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
I've got that one sitting on the shelf here.
Skygazer
And in the end...
You have to read that before you start reading anything else:). I've asked friends to read it and all you see is the shutters coming down, as they think it's another depressing story about Auschwitz - but it isn't at all.
It isn't autobiographical, it's a novel, obviously her own family's evacuation from Paris to the country are woven into the story in terms of the descriptions of the chaos and fear etc. but it is a wonderful story to read, you get fully immersed in it.
It isn't until you start reading the excerpts of letters at the back, of people trying and failing to get her out of Auschwitz (her husband suffered the same fate, that makes it all too real again.
It isn't autobiographical, it's a novel, obviously her own family's evacuation from Paris to the country are woven into the story in terms of the descriptions of the chaos and fear etc. but it is a wonderful story to read, you get fully immersed in it.
It isn't until you start reading the excerpts of letters at the back, of people trying and failing to get her out of Auschwitz (her husband suffered the same fate, that makes it all too real again.
Thanks for this. Lots of good recommendations. Especially curious about Miranda July.
You should be.
By the way, I read Handmaid's Tale not too long ago and it was pretty hard core. It can apply to so many things, it's timeless like that.
I also read someone today that kind of amazed me. A poet named Ruth Padel. She might be too Emily Dickensony for you guys though.
LickTheStar
Sad Flower in the Sand
I've always loved Emily Dickinson. Grew up about 30 minutes from her home. I will look up Ruth Padel. Instead of sleeping.
For those that may be interested in Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, there is a "lyrical portrait of poet Wilma McDaniel and the Okie culture that inspired her." DVD available from Sageland Media:Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel; A Prince Albert wind, or one of many others. She is to poetry what Woodie Guthrie was to folk music. An Okie who cuts to the bone.
http://www.sagelandmedia.com/independent-films/down-an-old-road/
I have read some of her work and like it immensely, but I have not seen this film. I can only hope the film is as good as the one film I have seen from Sageland Media: This Ain't No Mouse Music - The Story of Chris Strachwitz and Arhoolie Records.
http://thisaintnomousemusic.com/
mjp
Founding member
"Her admirers include Pete Seeger, Sherman Alexie, and Bukowski."
I don't recall Bukowski ever mentioning her in a poem or letter...
I don't know where they got that from, but it seems there is some connection though it might be the other way around when I read this: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/mcdaniel/tributes.htm but I do not understand the reference to Bukowski Review and Pearl.
She made some great contributions to Wormwood Review, including at least one center section.
mjp
Founding member
#118-119 is all her poems. A Girl From Buttonwillow. That's the only signed chapbook I kept when I sold the Wormwood set. And I kept her signed center section (#109?).
...or we could just ask the Wormwood site: McDaniel, Wilma Elizabeth, #81/82, #47 (Wormwood Award: 1980); #86 (Flowers in a Tin Can); #104; #109 (Fourteen and Feeling It); #118/119 (A Girl from Buttonwillow); #124; #129; #133; #136; #144; #145/146
...or we could just ask the Wormwood site: McDaniel, Wilma Elizabeth, #81/82, #47 (Wormwood Award: 1980); #86 (Flowers in a Tin Can); #104; #109 (Fourteen and Feeling It); #118/119 (A Girl from Buttonwillow); #124; #129; #133; #136; #144; #145/146
She wrote a piece for each of the Bukowski Reviews. I only have #1 here, and she's right up front.
I look over to my bookcase and there's not more than a couple female authors. thanks for the reading list, definitely gonna get some mccullers, ,mcdaniel, and miranda july. Glad to have something different to dive into. The description comparing mcdaniel and guthrie and the whole okie vibe has me really intrigued.
Great thread idea too, I was just thinking about this earlier this week.
Great thread idea too, I was just thinking about this earlier this week.
You should try this one:
