In honor of International Women’s Day coming, we at The Career Woman’s Map decide to write about a few of the women that have inspired us and their accomplishments. This particular post is about two of my favorite female authors, both well-known and accomplished in their fields.
The first author I discovered when I was young, after borrowing one of her books from my local library. From then on I was hooked, I couldn’t get enough of her first series and then the second and the third. The world she built and her characters captured my imagination and inspired me to make up my own stories as a child and her heroes inspired me to be strong and courageous myself. The second author I encountered in college through a creative writing course. One of her short stories was featured in the anthology we had to do for class. Rushing to read the story before the class we would discuss it she stopped me in my tracks with her writing. I had to stop and sit down to finish that story and the power of the ideas woven into the story I had just read left me speechless.
The first author is Tamora Pierce. Her books began with the Song of the Lioness Quartet about a young girl named Alanna who went through all sorts of trials to become a knight in a world and time where young girls were not allowed to fight. Four of her other series, all following different heroines, take place in the same world but tackle various other issues. All the books have a strong feminist sentiment running through them and show how strong girls can be. All the characters are so well developed and the issues they face range from dealing with crushes to the realities of war and assault. Pierce also has authored stories which take place in different worlds but are still within the fantasy fiction genre. She won the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Literary Association in 2013.
The second author is Ursula K. Le Guin. I confess, I have only ever read her short stories and not her longer works. But this is a woman who is a genius at her craft and well recognized for it. She has won numerous awards and has influenced many great writers in the science fiction and fantasy genres. And for good reason. Her works leave your mind bursting with ideas and concepts and the worlds which she creates are so intricate and somehow so foreign and yet so familiar at the same times. The first work I read by her was The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. I recently read her short story The Birthday of the World. She is also the author of the Earthsea series. The way Le Guin portrays concepts of gender and religion and sexuality as well as politics and the very essence of what makes us human in just a few short pages is what makes her so extraordinary. In 2014 she won the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
Both of these authors are amazing in their own right and have influenced many individuals with the stories they’ve won. They’ve certainly inspired me on many occasions and have expanded the boundaries of my own imagination through the worlds and characters they created. Who are the women that have inspired you?
Read Part 2 and Part 3!
Both of these authors are amazing in their own right and have influenced many individuals with the stories they’ve won. They’ve certainly inspired me on many occasions and have expanded the boundaries of my own imagination through the worlds and characters they created. Who are the women that have inspired you?
Read Part 2 and Part 3!
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