Margaret Atwood (full name: Margaret Eleanor Atwood) is definitely among the best female authors of the 21st century. She grew up in Canada, Ontario, Ottawa, and was born on 18 November 1939). This Canadian writer has always been known for her feminist viewpoints and prose fiction.

During most of her adolescence, Margaret Atwood divided most of her free time between her family's residence in Toronto and the bush countryside regions in Canada, in which her dad (who was an entomologist) often conducted much research. The author started her writing habit at the mere age of five and decided to take her writing career more seriously 10 years later. After graduating from Victoria College, she successfully earned an English literature master's degree in Massachusetts, Radcliffe College, in 1962.

Margaret Atwood has always been a lot of things - and "boring" is definitely not among them. She's a novelist, poet, teacher, essayist, and also an environmental activist - all of which are the exact opposite of "mundane" and "boring”!

Margaret Atwood is most famous for the novel "The Handmaid's Tale", in which women are made to take rigid society roles due to the surge of totalitarian regimes. The book's immense success spawned a critically-acclaimed film series on Hulu, as well as a follow-up novel released in 2019.

Born: 1939

Notable works: The Handmaid’s Tale, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin

Sally Rooney is also considered by many as one of the best female authors of the 21st century. We cannot deny that the number of her published books is much less than some of her colleagues on this list. Still, her works are, without a doubt, very influential and critical to the world's literary industry.

Best known for the fiction story "Normal People" (released in 2018), Sally Rooney tends to write incredibly grounded novels, revolving around regular people with regular and daily-life problems.

Some of our readers might think such introductions are pretty generic and vague. We guess you are thinking: "Yes, many authors write books about daily problems. So what's the deal with this author?" Well, what makes Sally Rooney so different is that her stories often shed light on complex relationships between families and friends, exploring such complicatedness in vivid detail. Her stories can be heart-wrenching at one point and heart-warming at another. Regardless of the book you choose, the author will definitely take her readers on emotional roller coasters!

Since most of her characters are intelligent and ready to do in-depth self-analysis, all of them are well aware that some of their relationships are toxic and will not give them the happy endings they deserve. Such understandings are on par with the trend of contemporary fiction, which leans more into analytical and investigative plotlines these days.

Born: 1991

Notable works: Conversations with Friends, Normal People, Two Stories

Elena Ferrante has been a household name in Italy - her hometown - for years before she eventually got her global success. Elena's very first novel - called L’amore Molesto, translated as "Troubling Love" - was first released in 1992, before her second one, Days of Abandonment, arrived ten years later.

Elena's Italian publisher firmly believed her writing had wider audiences than at first glance, and strived to find some US publishers willing to release this book. Nobody seemed interested, leading them to establish their own publishing house, named Europa Editions, to release Elena Ferrante's works in both US and UK. That was the start of her immense success.

When one of her latest works "Adults' Lying Life", got released in Italy in 2019, thousands of people queued to get on one copy, and "vigils for reading" were organized throughout the country. The success of the novel is so great that Netflix even decided to adapt it into a series. That's because Elena always defies all expectations of how stories writers - particularly women - should narrate their stories. By doing so, she has changed our literary landscape - both Italian and global scenes. Pick one of her books, and you will understand why she became the famous author she is today.

Born: 1943

Notable works: My Brilliant Friends, The Lost Daughter

Louise Erdrich (full name: Karen Louise Erdrich) was born on 7 June 1954 and grew up in the US, Minnesota, Little Falls. This American author often writes about Objibwa Indians living in northern Midwest regions in most of her literary works.

During her childhood, Louise Erdrich was greatly influenced by her American German dad and half-Ojibwa mom, who was a teacher at an Indian Affairs school. Louise later attended John Hopkins University (1979) and Dartmouth College (1976). At Dartmouth, Louise met the anthropologist and writer Michale Dorris, with whom she later married and collaborated in lots of her written novels, including The Columbus Crown (published in 1991).

Her children's books and novels shed light on Native Americans by including lots of Native American settings and characters that suffer from underrepresentation in lots of literature and media. As a daughter of a German father and Indian mom, she explores German, Native American, Scandinavian, and Polish themes quite often.

Aside from some surface issues about Native Americans, her works also break down existential questions of life meaning and identity. The author counts on her own experiences with heritage comprehension and converts them into stories, creating immersive tales that resonate with all readers that come from Native American origins.

Born: 1954

Notable works: The Round House, Love Medicine, The Sentence

Colleen Hoover was birthed on 11 December 1979 in Texas, Sulphur Springs, to her dad Eddie Fennell and her mom Vannoy Fite. The author graduated in 1998 from Saltillo school, and married Heath Hoover 2 years later, having three sons together. Later on, she continued to enroll and graduated from Texas Commerce with one social network degree.

Collen Hoover has been held in a very special position in many readers' hearts, which is why she's included in the list of the best 21st-century female authors. Many readers claim that her novels destroy them emotionally - and in the greatest ways possible. One case in point is "It Ends With Us" (published in 2016), which holds the renowned and coveted title of being the most heart-wrenching book you could have ever read. It will make you cry - and not just single-drop-of-tear crying. No, you will have to close the book, and take one deep breath (but not too deep) to avoid ugly and violent choking (Thanks so much for that, Hoover!)

In essence, her books - like those written by Sally Rooney - tend to tackle daily human problems, which makes them so real and heartfelt. "It Ends With Us" revolves around emotional complexity that often arrives with domestic abuse, while “Verity” (published in 2018) keeps readers up all night thinking and thinking - even after they have reached the last page.

Born: 1979

Notable works: It Ends With Us, Verity

Alice Walker (full name: Alice Malsenior Walker) is a famous American author. Her short stories, poems, and novels are lauded by the general public and critics alike for their careful treatment of American-African cultures. Most of her works (particularly The Color Purple released in 1982) focused solely on women.

Alice never had an easy childhood; for starters, she was born in a family of American-African sharecroppers. During her later years, an accident made one of her eyes blind, which prompts her mom to give Alice a typewriter and let her write stories rather than do chores. Despite such difficulties, she still excelled in her academic studies and started to write books more seriously after graduation.

Alice Walker has touched many people with her books ever since then, to the point that some of them were even adapted into movies. The Color Purple, as we mentioned above - is one of her most successful works; it was adapted into an Oscar-nominated movie, a 2005 Broadway musical, and another movie adaptation that will come in 2023.

Walker's poetry collections are as remarkable as her fiction stories. They lend critical insights into the Civil Rights movements, demonstrating and emphasizing African-American racial oppressions that people have to face on a frequent basis. Thanks to these works, the author has inspired thousands of people in the world to keep battling for equal rights.

Born: 1944

Notable works: The Color Purple, Everyday Use