authoresses
Women who write
Authoresses is the plural of authoress, a female author.
The word was once standard but now sounds dated or condescending, since author applies to writers of any gender.
The authoresses of the Victorian era faced significant barriers to publication.
You might encounter it in older texts or in deliberately old-fashioned usage.
Writer of prose narratives
- poetessFemale verse writer
- playwrightAuthor of stage dramas
- essayistAuthor of short prose
- biographerOne who writes lives
memoirist · diarist · columnist · critic · journalist · correspondent · editor · anthologist
Literary family name
- BrontëLiterary sisters' surname
- ShelleyEnglish Romantic surname
- WoolfCanine surname variant
- Alcott19th-century American novelist
Eliot · Wharton · Colette · Sappho · salon · pseudonym · nom-de-plume · bluestocking
Faculty for forming ideas
- inspirationSource of creative impulse
- originalityNovel creative quality
- creativityCapacity for original thought
- inventivenessCapacity for original creation
artistry · expression · flair · talent · vision · innovation · uniqueness · craftsmanship
Spoken or written narrative
- folkloreInherited cultural narratives
- mythTraditional explanatory tale
- fableMoral tale with animals
- parableInstructive allegorical narrative
saga · chronicle · legend · allegory · epic · lore · yarn · anecdote
Account of events
- proseUnversified language
- fictionImagined narrative work
- nonfictionLiterature about real events
- manuscriptOriginal text before publication
characterization · dialogue · plot · theme · motif · symbolism · metaphor · imagery
novelist
Writer of prose narratives
- poetessFemale verse writer
- playwrightAuthor of stage dramas
- essayistAuthor of short prose
biographer · memoirist · diarist · columnist · critic · journalist · correspondent · editor · anthologist · ghostwriter
Austen
Literary family name
Eliot · Alcott · Wharton · Colette · Sappho · salon · pseudonym · nom-de-plume · bluestocking · patronage
imagination
Faculty for forming ideas
- inspirationSource of creative impulse
- originalityNovel creative quality
- creativityCapacity for original thought
inventiveness · artistry · expression · flair · talent · vision · innovation · uniqueness · craftsmanship · ingenuity
tale
Spoken or written narrative
parable · saga · chronicle · legend · allegory · epic · lore · yarn · anecdote · narrator
narrative
Account of events
- proseUnversified language
- fictionImagined narrative work
- nonfictionLiterature about real events
manuscript · characterization · dialogue · plot · theme · motif · symbolism · metaphor · imagery · genre
- women's fictionwomen's fiction, women writers, female novelists, chick lit, female voices