Writers and literary biographies

Elin Wägner

Elin Wägner (1882–1949) was a Swedish writer, journalist, and social critic who campaigned for women's suffrage, peace, and the environment, becoming the second woman elected to the Swedish Academy after Selma Lagerlöf.

Elio Vittorini

Elio Vittorini (1908–1966) was an Italian novelist, translator, and editor, author of Conversazione in Sicilia and founder of the postwar journals Il Politecnico and Il Menabò.

Elísabet Benavent

Elísabet Benavent, also known as Beta Coqueta, is a Spanish romantic-comedy novelist born in Gandía, Valencia, in 1984. Self-published En los zapatos de Valeria in 2013; over five million copies sold; Valeria saga adapted by Netflix.

Elisabeth Eybers

Elisabeth Eybers (1915–2007) was a South African poet who wrote in Afrikaans and in 1936 became the first woman to publish a volume of poetry in that language.

Elisaveta Bagryana

Elisaveta Bagryana (Елисавета Багряна), born Elisaveta Lyubenova Belcheva, was a Bulgarian poet whose 1927 debut, The Eternal and the Holy, introduced a frank female voice into Bulgarian poetry.

Eliza Haywood

Eliza Haywood (née Fowler, c. 1693–1756) was an English novelist, playwright, actress, and periodical publisher whose debut novel Love in Excess was a 1719 bestseller.

Eliza Orzeszkowa

Eliza Orzeszkowa, born Eliza Pawłowska, was a Polish novelist and essayist, the leading woman writer of the Warsaw Positivism movement, whose masterpiece is Nad Niemnem (1888).

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861), English Victorian poet, wife of Robert Browning; wrote Sonnets from the Portuguese (44 love sonnets, 1850) and Aurora Leigh (1857); also political verse on Italian unification, child labor, and slavery.

Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) was an American poet known for precise, descriptive verse and sparing publication, winning the 1956 Pulitzer Prize, 1970 National Book Award, and 1976 Neustadt Prize.

Elizabeth Bowen

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973), Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer of The Last September, The Death of the Heart, and the wartime London novel The Heat of the Day; MI5 reporter, ARP warden, and a modernist often compared with Virginia Woolf.

Elizabeth Day

Elizabeth Day, British novelist, journalist and broadcaster, author of Scissors Paper Stone, The Party, Magpie and One of Us, and host of the How To Fail podcast.

Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), English Victorian novelist and biographer, wife of Unitarian minister William Gaskell of Manchester; wrote Mary Barton, Cranford, North and South, Ruth, and The Life of Charlotte Brontë.

Elizabeth Goudge

Elizabeth Goudge (1900–1984) was an English novelist and children's writer whose best-known books, Green Dolphin Country and The Little White Horse, sold nearly ten million copies by 1959.

Elizabeth Hardwick (writer)

Elizabeth Hardwick (1916–2007) was an American critic, essayist, and novelist who co-founded The New York Review of Books in 1963 and wrote for it for over four decades.

Elizabeth Inchbald

Elizabeth Inchbald, née Simpson (1753–1821), was an English novelist, dramatist, actress, and critic who wrote A Simple Story (1791), Nature and Art, and about 21 plays and adaptations.

Elizabeth Montagu

Elizabeth Montagu, née Robinson (1718–1800), was an English literary critic, salon host, and businesswoman who led the Bluestocking circle; Samuel Johnson called her the "Queen of the Blues."

Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout, American novelist born in Portland, Maine, author of Olive Kitteridge (Pulitzer Prize 2009) and the Lucy Barton books, including The Things We Never Say, her 11th novel and a 2026 Booker shortlistee.

Elke Erb

Elke Erb (1938–2024) was a German poet, editor, and translator, a central figure of East German experimental poetry who received the Georg Büchner Prize in 2020.

Ella Cara Deloria

Ella Cara Deloria (Anpetu Wastéwin, "Beautiful Day Woman", 1889–1971) was a Yankton Dakota anthropologist and novelist, trained by Franz Boas at Columbia, known for Dakota Texts, Dakota Grammar, and Waterlily.

Ellen Key

Ellen Key (Ellen Karolina Sofia Key) was a Swedish author and educator whose book The Century of the Child (1900) shaped European debates on childhood and schooling.

Ellen Kuzwayo

Ellen Kuzwayo, full name Nnoseng Ellen Kate Kuzwayo, was a South African writer and activist whose autobiography Call Me Woman won the 1986 CNA Literary Award.

Ellen Niit

Ellen Niit (born Ellen Hiob, 1928–2016) was an Estonian children's writer, poet, and translator who published more than 40 children's books and was the wife of Jaan Kross.

Ellen Wood (novelist)

Ellen Wood, known as Mrs Henry Wood, was an English novelist and magazine editor whose bestseller East Lynne (1861) made her a founder of Victorian sensation fiction alongside Wilkie Collins.

Elmer Diktonius

Elmer Diktonius was a Finland-Swedish poet, writer, critic, and composer, born and died in Helsinki, who pioneered modernism in Nordic literature; his leftist-influenced debut was Min dikt (1921).

Elodie Harper

Elodie Harper, British author of the Wolf Den trilogy set in Pompeii, also known for Boudicca's Daughter; ITV News journalist, Glass Bell Award winner, formerly a Channel 4 News producer.

Elsa Joubert

Elsa Joubert, born Elsabé Antoinette Murray Joubert (1922–2020), was a South African Afrikaans writer best known for the anti-apartheid novel Die swerfjare van Poppie Nongena.

Elsa Morante

Elsa Morante (1912–1985), Italian novelist, poet, and essayist, wife of Alberto Moravia; author of Menzogna e sortilegio, Strega-winning L'isola di Arturo, the 600,000-copy bestseller La Storia (1974), and Prix Médicis-winning Aracoeli.

Else Lasker-Schüler

Else Lasker-Schüler, born Elisabeth Schüler, was a German Jewish poet and playwright, a leading voice of German Expressionism, who won the 1932 Kleist Prize and died in exile in Jerusalem in 1945.

Elvio Romero

Elvio Romero was a Paraguayan poet and journalist, exiled in Argentina after the 1947 civil war and the first winner of Paraguay's National Literature Prize.