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Fiction writers: novelists and genre

2,559 articles

Jeannette Armstrong

Jeannette Armstrong, born 1948, is a Syilx (Okanagan) writer and educator from British Columbia whose 1985 novel Slash was the first published by a First Nations woman in Canada.

Jeelani Bano

Jeelani Bano (جیلانی بانو, 1936–2026) was an Indian Urdu fiction writer and novelist from Hyderabad, best known for Aiwan-e-Ghazal and awarded the Padma Shri in 2001.

Jeet Thayil

Jeet Thayil (born 1959) is an Indian novelist, poet, and musician whose debut novel Narcopolis (2012) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the DSC Prize.

Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer is an American New Weird author of the Southern Reach series (Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance, Absolution), the Nebula and Shirley Jackson-winning Annihilation adapted by Alex Garland in 2018; also the Borne trilogy and Ambergris cycle.

Jeffery Deaver

Jeffery Deaver (born 1950, Glen Ellyn, Illinois), American thriller author, creator of Lincoln Rhyme (The Bone Collector) and Colter Shaw (The Never Game, basis of CBS's Tracker); 50 novels, Edgar nominee, MWA Grand Master, author of Carte Blanche.

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer, Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, British Conservative politician and bestselling novelist (Kane and Abel, 300 million books sold in 47 languages), jailed for perjury in 2001, died October 2026 aged 86.

Jeffrey Eugenides

Jeffrey Eugenides, American novelist born in Detroit in 1960, author of The Virgin Suicides (1993), Pulitzer-winning Middlesex (2002), The Marriage Plot (2011), and Fresh Complaint (2017).

Jelena Dimitrijević

Jelena Dimitrijević (1862–1945) was a self-taught Serbian writer and feminist, recognized as the first Serbian woman world traveler who focused on the lives of women in the East.

Jennifer Egan

Jennifer Egan, American novelist and journalist born in Chicago and raised in San Francisco; author of A Visit from the Goon Squad (2011 Pulitzer Prize), Look at Me, Manhattan Beach, and The Candy House.

Jennifer Finney Boylan

Jennifer Finney Boylan (born 1958) is an American author of 19 books, formerly James Finney Boylan; her 2003 memoir She's Not There was the first bestselling work by a transgender American, and she is former PEN America president and GLAAD co-chair.

Jennifer Hillier

Jennifer Hillier (born 1974) is a Filipino-Canadian thriller author of Jar of Hearts, Little Secrets, Things We Do in the Dark, and Heart of Glass; ITW Thriller Award winner living in Oakville, Ontario.

Jennifer Lash

Jennifer Lash (Jini Fiennes, 1938–1993), English novelist and painter, author of The Burial, The Climate of Belief, and the posthumous Blood Ties; mother of Ralph and Joseph Fiennes.

Jennifer Saint

Jennifer Saint is a British novelist and Classics scholar who studied at King's College, London. She is known for her retellings of Greek mythology, including Elektra and Atalanta.

Jens Peter Jacobsen

Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847–1885) was a Danish novelist, poet, and scientist, a central figure of Denmark's Modern Breakthrough who translated Darwin's major works into Danish.

Jeremias Gotthelf

Jeremias Gotthelf was the pen name of Albert Bitzius, a Swiss pastor and writer whose novels of peasant life in the Emmental made him a leading Swiss author.

Jerome K. Jerome

Jerome K. Jerome (Jerome Klapka Jerome, 1859–1927), English humorist and editor, author of Three Men in a Boat (1889) and Three Men on the Bummel; leading New Humour writer, founder of To-Day and co-editor of The Idler.

Jerry Pournelle

Jerry Eugene Pournelle (1933-2017), American hard SF and military science fiction author, co-author with Larry Niven of The Mote in God's Eye and Lucifer's Hammer, creator of the CoDominium sequence, Byte columnist, and space policy advisor.

Jerzy Kosiński

Jerzy Kosiński (Jerzy Kosinski, born Jerzy Lewinkopf), Polish-American novelist (1933-1991), author of The Painted Bird, Steps (National Book Award), and Being There; PEN president, undone by 1982 Village Voice plagiarism and ghostwriting accusations, died by suicide in 1991.

Jesmyn Ward

Jesmyn Ward (born 1977) is an American novelist from DeLisle, Mississippi, author of Salvage the Bones and Sing, Unburied, Sing, the only woman to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice, plus Men We Reaped, Let Us Descend, and a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship.

Jessica Durlacher

Jessica Durlacher is a Dutch novelist, columnist, and screenwriter born in Amsterdam in 1961, known for novels about children of Holocaust survivors, including the bestseller De dochter (2000).

Jessica Hagedorn

Jessica Hagedorn, born Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn, is a Filipino American playwright, novelist, poet, and performance artist best known for her debut novel Dogeaters (1990), which won the American Book Award.

Jessie R. Fauset

Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882–1961), American novelist, poet, and literary editor of The Crisis (1919–1926) and The Brownies' Book; author of four novels including Plum Bun; mentor of Hughes, Cullen, McKay, and Toomer.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri, British-American novelist and translator, born 1967 London; Pulitzer 2000 for Interpreter of Maladies; wrote The Namesake and The Lowland, then Italian works like In altre parole and Whereabouts.

Jia Pingwa

Jia Pingwa (贾平凹), born 1952 in Shaanxi, is a Chinese novelist and essayist whose fiction about rural life won the Mao Dun Literature Prize for Qinqiang (2005).

Jilly Cooper

Jilly Cooper (Jill Sallitt, 1937-2025), British journalist and author of the Rutshire Chronicles including Riders and Rivals, creator of the bonkbuster genre, selling over 11 million UK copies.

Jim Butcher

Jim Butcher is an American fantasy author and New York Times bestseller known for The Dresden Files, urban fantasy novels about Chicago wizard detective Harry Dresden.

Jin Yong

Jin Yong, pen name of Zha Liangyong, also known as Louis Cha (1924–2018), was a Hong Kong wuxia novelist and Ming Pao founder whose fifteen martial-arts novels are among the most adapted in Chinese fiction.

Jippensha Ikku

Jippensha Ikku (十返舎一九, 1765–1831) was a Japanese comic-fiction writer of the late Edo period, author of the bestselling Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige about the travelers Yaji and Kita.

Jo Nesbø

Jo Nesbø, born Jon Nesbø in Oslo in 1960, is a Norwegian crime writer and musician whose Harry Hole series has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide.

Joanna Russ

Joanna Russ (1937–2011), American feminist science fiction writer, critic, and University of Washington professor; author of The Female Man (1975), Picnic on Paradise, and How to Suppress Women's Writing; Hugo and Nebula winner.