Top 7 female authors you need to watch

Zadie Smith, Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images

1. Zadie Smith (Compared to Charles Dickens)

Smith was lauded as the next big thing when her first book, White Teeth, debuted in 2000. She was only 22 years old. The best-selling novel made TIME’s 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005 list and had critics comparing her to Charles Dickens, John Irving and Salman Rushdie. Smith’s gone on to publish three more novels, all of which have received critical praise.

Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images

2. Chimamanda Adichie (Top 10 best book of 2013 NY Times)
Adichie is from Nigeria and is known for her novel Half of a Yellow Sun.  Americanah, her latest work, was named one of the 10 best books of 2013 by the New York Times. 

3. Elizabeth Gilbert  (Oprahs: The life you want tour)      
Gilbert is well known for her bestselling memoir, Eat, Pray, Love.  Her latest novel The Signature of All Things is receiving plenty of media hype as well.  Be on the look out for Gilbert debut on Oprah’s upcoming The Life You Want Weekend tour.

4. Gillian Flynn  (Book turned into film)                                                                        Check out the Flynns New York Times best-selling mystery , Gone Girl, before seeing the film starring Ben Affleck this October. 

Donna Tartt, Photo ByBruno Vincent/Getty Images)

5. Donna Tartt (Won Pulitzer Prize for The Goldfinch)

Taking 11 years to write, The Goldfinch,  won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction on Monday.  The novel was so highly anticipated it made the NY Times bestsellers list the first week on the shelves. 

6. Taiye Selasi  (Book selected for top 10 of Washington Journal)                             Rising Nigerian writer  Selasi is making a name for herself.  Her short story “The Sex Lives of African Girls” appeared in The Best American Short Stories of 2012 and her first novel, Ghana Must Go, was selected as one of the 10 best books of 2013 by the Wall Street Journal.

7. Cheryl Strayed (First author to be featured fall 2014 on Oprah's Book Club 2.0)   Popular for her advice column The Rumpus, Strayed quickly rose to critics attention with her memoir Wild, inspired from her mother dying from cancer in 1991.  Of course, the book became a New York Times best seller. 

Interested in more rising women authors?  Check out the extensive list on Times.com