Influential women writers of the 20th c

Joan Didion - IMPOSSIBLE TO UNDERRATE; LIKE CRACK COCAINE FOR WRITERS, IF CRACK COCAINE WROTE IN THE ELEGIAC MODE

Angela Carter?

Yes, James,not to mention Ivy Compton-Burnett and Sylvia Townsend Warner, two of my favourite NYRB finds. They also released a stories collection by Eileen Chang, a well known author in China and the surrounding areas but not in North America, I think. By all accounts she's an excellent writer.

Name, Angela Carter is on my reading list this year. England seems to produce a lot of great weird fantasy/fantastical authors.

Oh yeah, Sylvia Townsend Warner. She has to go on this list. I don't know how influential she is, but she's bloody great. And Barbara Comyns is another writer NYRB recovered, similarly uninfluential but brilliant. I Think Virago in the UK also do a few of her other books, which are well worth seeking out.