6,282 articles
Lyn Hejinian
Lyn Hejinian (1941–2024) was an American poet and a founding figure of Language poetry, the experimental movement that emerged in the 1970s; her best-known work is the autobiography My Life.
Lynn Painter
Lynn Painter, American romance author of Better Than the Movies and Mr. Wrong Number, a #1 New York Times bestselling writer of YA and adult rom-coms based in Omaha, Nebraska, whose BookTok-driven sales led to Netflix and Sony film adaptations.
Lynne Spears
Lynne Irene Spears (née Bridges), American teacher, day care operator, and author born 1955 in Mississippi; mother of Britney, Jamie Lynn, and Bryan Spears; coauthor of Heart to Heart and A Mother's Gift and author of the 2008 memoir Through the Storm.
Lysias
Lysias (Λυσίας, ca. 445-380 BC) was an Athenian metic and one of the leading Attic orators, best known for writing courtroom speeches for clients to deliver as their own.
Lytton Strachey
Lytton Strachey (Giles Lytton Strachey, 1880-1932), English biographer, critic, and founding Bloomsbury Group member; author of Eminent Victorians (1918), Queen Victoria (1921), and Elizabeth and Essex (1928), pioneer of ironic modern biography.
Lyuben Karavelov
Lyuben Karavelov (Любен Каравелов, 1834–1879) was a Bulgarian writer, publicist, and revolutionary, born in Koprivshtitsa, who chaired the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee preparing liberation from Ottoman rule.
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, born 1938, is a Russian writer and playwright whose work depicts harsh everyday Soviet life; her story collection won the 2010 World Fantasy Award.
Lyudmila Ulitskaya (Людмила Евгеньевна Улицкая)
Lyudmila Ulitskaya (Людмила Улицкая), also Lyudmila Evgenyevna Ulitskaya, born 1943, is a Russian novelist who won the Russian Booker Prize in 2001 and lives in Germany.
M. P. Narayana Pillai
M. P. Narayana Pillai (എം.പി. നാരായണപിള്ള) was a Malayalam short story writer, novelist, and journalist whose only novel, Parinamam, won the 1991 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, which he declined.
M. P. Paul
M. P. Paul (Malayalam: എം. പി. പോൾ) was a Malayalam literary critic and teacher whose 1930 monograph Novel Sahityam was the first authoritative Malayalam study of the novel.
M. R. James
M. R. James (Montague Rhodes James, 1862-1936), English medieval scholar, provost of King's College Cambridge and Eton, vice-chancellor of Cambridge, and author of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904) and three further ghost-story collections.
M. Sukumaran
M. Sukumaran (എം. സുകുമാരൻ; 1943–2018) was a Malayalam short story writer and novelist from Kerala whose fiction gave literary form to revolutionary politics; he won both the Kerala and Kendra Sahitya Akademi awards.
M. T. Vasudevan Nair
M. T. Vasudevan Nair (Madath Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Nair, MT), 1933-2024, Malayalam novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and Mathrubhumi editor; Jnanpith 1995, author of Naalukettu and Randamoozham, director of Nirmalyam.
M. Vasalis
M. Vasalis, pseudonym of Margaretha Droogleever Fortuyn-Leenmans (1909 to 1998), was a Dutch poet and psychiatrist who published only three poetry collections yet won the P.C. Hooft-prijs.
Ma Văn Kháng
Ma Văn Kháng, born Đinh Trọng Đoàn in 1936, is a Vietnamese writer whose twelve novels center on the northwestern mountain frontier, winning the Ho Chi Minh Prize in 2012.
Ma Zhiyuan
Ma Zhiyuan (馬致遠, c. 1250–1324), courtesy name Dongli, was a Yuan-dynasty playwright and sanqu poet from Dadu, present-day Beijing, one of the Four Great Yuan Composers.
Ma'ruf al-Rusafi
Ma'ruf al-Rusafi (معروف الرصافي) was an Iraqi social poet, reformer, and statesman, 1875–1945, a leading neo-classical poet whose verse attacked ignorance, called for education, and championed women's liberation.
Maaza Mengiste
Maaza Mengiste is an Ethiopian-American novelist, essayist, and professor of English at Wesleyan University, born in Addis Ababa in 1971 and named a 2026 MacArthur Fellow.
Maciej Stryjkowski
Maciej Stryjkowski, also known as Motiejus Strijkovskis, was a Polish historian and poet whose 1582 Chronicle is the first printed history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
MacKenzie Scott
MacKenzie Scott, American novelist and philanthropist, ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, author of The Testing of Luther Albright, Traps, and the 2026 Substack serialization Last Days in Two Nations; has given $26.3 billion since 2019 through unrestricted grants via Yield Giving.
Macrobius
Macrobius (Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius) was a Latin author of provincial origin, probably North African, who wrote in the 5th century; his Saturnalia and Commentary on the Dream of Scipio survive.
Madame de La Fayette
Madame de La Fayette, born Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne (1634–1693), was a French novelist and courtier whose anonymous La Princesse de Clèves (1678) is regarded as the first modern French novel.
Madame de Sévigné
Madame de Sévigné, born Marie de Rabutin-Chantal (1626–1696), was a French letter writer whose correspondence, chiefly to her daughter, chronicles Louis XIV's reign and remains in print since 1696.
Madan Mani Dixit
Madan Mani Dixit (मदनमणि दीक्षित) was a Nepali novelist and journalist best known for Madhavi, which won the Madan Puraskar in 1983 and is considered a classic.
Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007), American author of A Wrinkle in Time, the 1963 Newbery Medal winner and first book of the Time Quintet; wrote more than 60 books blending science fiction, family life, and Christian faith.
Madeline Cash
Madeline Cash, American writer, author of Earth Angel (2023) and the debut novel Lost Lambs (FSG, 2026), and co-founder of Forever Magazine; grew up in the San Fernando Valley and studied at Sarah Lawrence.
Madeline Miller
Madeline Miller (born 1978, Boston) is an American novelist and classicist; The Song of Achilles (2011, Orange Prize 2012) and Circe (2018) are her best-known Greek myth retellings, followed by short fiction including Mestra (2026).
Madhav Prasad Ghimire
Madhav Prasad Ghimire (माधव प्रसाद घिमिरे; 1919–2020) was a Nepali poet and playwright named National Poet, Rashtra Kavi, in 2003, best known for Gauri and Malati Mangale.
Madhusudan Rao
Madhusudan Rao (ମଧୁସୂଦନ ରାଓ; 1853–1912) was an Odia poet and educator known as Bhaktakabi, the devout poet, and a pioneer of modern Odia literature alongside Radhanath Ray and Fakir Mohan Senapati.
Maeve Binchy
Maeve Binchy, an Irish novelist, wrote popular fiction about Irish life and women's lives. She published 16 novels between 1982 and 2010 and sold over 40 million copies.