Home
this wiki
Welcome to The VIDA List
VIDA: Women in Literary Arts started The WILLA List to note great books by women that Publishers Weekly missed in their all-men top ten "Best Books of 2009" (they included just 29 women authors on their extended list of 100!). The wiki format allows anyone to create or edit an entry, so we can all work together to chronicle our favorite books by women in 2009. Please add your favorites in alphabetical order in the correct category, but please be sure the book was first published in 2009. Open edit means that sometimes there will be unverified entries, or additions to the page that aren't in the spirit of the wiki. We'll clean them up at our earliest convenience. The list will close at the end of November. If you'd like to republish the list, please be sure to link this wiki, thank you!
For those interested, VIDA is a burgeoning literary organization. Please visit our website at http://vidaweb.org
Here's how you can list a book:
- Choose a great 2009 book by a woman author.
- Verify that the book you want to list was first published in 2009, NOT the paperback (unless the book was originally published in paperback in 2009, of course). You can easily find publication dates on web sites like Amazon or Powell's Books or in the book itself.
- Once you know the book was originally published in 2009 click the edit button below
- Find the genre of your title
- Find the alphabetical place for your author
- The easiest way to add an entry? Copy an existing entry. Copy all of it (from the * to the very end), paste it into your correct alphabetical slot, and replace the details (author's name, link to a Web page if one is available--we recommend the author's web site or a Google Books listing--and lastly, the title of the book).
- Click "Save Page" (at bottom of page)
- You will be asked to type in a word for verification. Do that (it'll be at the top of the page), then click "Save Page" again. Voila!
- Feel free to double-list a cross-genre work!
Great Books By Women In 2009
FICTION
- Megan Abbott Bury Me Deep
- Marguerite Abouet Aya: The Secrets Come Out (Graphic Novel)
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Thing Around Your Neck
- Chloe Aridjis Book of Clouds
- Margaret Atwood The Year of the Flood
- Hyatt Bass The Embers
- Margo Berdeshevsky Beautiful Soon Enough
- A.S. Byatt The Children's Book
- Amina Cain I Go To Some Hollow
- Chelsea Cain Evil At Heart
- Bonnie Jo Campbell American Salvage
- Mary Caponegro All Fall Down
- Eleanor Catton The Rehearsal
- Emily Chenoweth Hello Goodbye
- Farai Chideya Kiss the Sky
- Marilyn Chin Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen
- Inger Christensen Azorno
- Jennine Capó Crucet How to Leave Hialeah
- Randy Sue Coburn A Better View of Paradise
- Lydia Davis The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
- Stacey D'Erasmo The Sky Below
- Rachel DeWoskin Repeat After Me
- Z Egloff Verge
- Elissa Elliot Eve: A Novel of the First Woman
- Louise Erdrich The Red Convertible
- Janet Evanovich Finger Lickin' Fifteen
- Gillian Flynn Dark Places
- Ru Freeman A Disobedient Girl
- Diana Gabaldon An Echo in the Bone
- Amanda C. Gable The Confederate General Rides North
- Mary Gaitskill Don't Cry
- Mavis Gallant The Cost of Living: Early and Uncollected Stories
- Meg Gardiner The Memory Collector
- Kate George Moonlighting in Vermont
- Amelia Gray AM/PM
- Lauren Groff Delicate Edible Birds: And Other Stories
- Tina May Hall All the Day's Sad Stories
- Jane Hamilton Laura Rider's Masterpiece
- Masha Hamilton 31 Hours
- Samantha Harvey The Wilderness
- Joanna Howard On the Winding Stair
- Michelle Huneven Blame: A Novel
- Angela Jackson Where I Must Go
- Tania James Atlas of Unknowns
- Holly Goddard Jones Girl Trouble: Stories
- Toni Jordan Addition
- Stacy Juba Twenty-Five Years Ago Today
- Laura Kasischke In a Perfect World
- Barbara Kingsolver The Lacuna
- Cheryl Klein Lilac Mines
- Laila Lalami Secret Son
- Dylan Landis Normal People Don't Live Like This
- Kate Ledger Remedies
- Stacey Levine The Girl With Brown Fur: Tales and Stories
- Yiyun Li The Vagrants
- Laura Lippman Life Sentences
- Sophie Littlefield A Bad Day for Sorry
- Sheila Lowe Dead Write
- Lisa Lutz Revenge of the Spellmans
- Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall
- Juliet Marillier Heart's Blood
- Joyce Maynard Labor Day
- Jill McCorkle Going Away Shoes
- KG MacGregor Worth Every Step
- Maile Meloy Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It
- Anne Michaels The Winter Vault
- Marie Mutsuki Mockett Picking Bones from Ash
- Lorrie Moore A Gate at the Stairs
- Alice Munro Too Much Happiness: Stories
- Antonya Nelson Nothing Right
- Bich Minh Nguyen Short Girls
- Audrey Niffenegger Her Fearful Symmetry
- Achy Obejas Ruins
- Sara Paretsky Hardball
- Ann Parker Leaden Skies
- Gaile Parkin Baking Cakes In Kigali
- Victoria Patterson Drift
- Samantha Peale The American Painter Emma Dial
- Lydia Peelle Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing: Stories
- Ludmilla Petrushevskaya There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby
- Jayne Anne Phillips Lark and Termite
- Naomi Pringle Ginga' Root Tea
- Sarah Rosenthal Manhatten
- Joanna Ruocco The Mothering Coven
- Lisa See Shanghai Girls
- Nicole Seitz A Hundred Years of Happiness
- Heather Sharfeddin Windless Summer
- Laurie Sheck A Monster's Notes
- Emily St. John Mandel Last Night in Montreal
- Kathryn Stockett The Help
- Jean Thompson Do Not Deny Me
- Laura van den Berg What The World Will Look Like When All The Water Leaves Us
- Kate Walbert A Short History of Women: A Novel
- Jeannette Walls Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel
- Sarah Waters The Little Stranger
- Jennifer Weiner Best Friends Forever
- Tracy Winn Mrs. Somebody Somebody
POETRY
- Carrie Olivia Adams Intervening Absence
- Kim Addonizio Lucifer at the Starlite
- Deborah Ager Midnight Voices
- Rae Armantrout Versed
- Anny Ballardini Ghost Dance in 33 Movements''
- Samiya Bashir Gospel
- Tara Betts Arc & Hue
- Jessica Bozek The Bodyfeel Lexicon
- Ana Bozicevic Stars of the Night Commute
- Antoinette Brim Psalm of the Sunflower
- Brigitte Byrd Song of a Living Room
- Teresa Cader History of Hurricanes
- Gabrielle Calvocoressi Apocalyptic Swing
- Kara Candito Taste of Cherry
- Ching-In Chen The Heart's Traffic
- Andrea Cohen Long Division
- Norma Cole Where Shadows Will
- Gillian Conoley The Plot Genie
- Claire Crowther The Clockwork Gift
- DeLana Dameron How God Ends Us
- Rita Dove Sonata Mulattica
- Kate Durbin The Ravenous Audience
- Robin Ekiss The Mansion of Happiness
- Carrie Etter The Tethers
- Erica Fabri Dialect of a Skirt
- Ruth Forman Prayers Like Shoes
- Sarah Gambito Delivered
- Amy Gerstler Dearest Creature
- Kate Greenstreet The Last 4 Things
- Marilyn Hacker Names
- Leslie Harrison Displacement
- Selima Hill Fruitcake
- Brenda Hillman Practical Water
- Janet Holmes The ms of m y kin
- Julie Kane Jazz Funeral
- Bhanu Kapil Humanimal
- Jesse Lee Kercheval Cinema Muto
- Myung Mi Kim Penury
- Amy King Slaves to Do These Things
- Ish Klein Union!
- Noelle Kocot Sunny Wednesday
- Jennifer Kronovet Awayward
- Rachel Levitsky Neighbor
- Rachel Loden Dick of the Dead
- Dana Teen Lomax Disclosure
- Barbara Maloutas The Whole Marie
- Sabrina Orah Mark Tsim Tsum
- Jen McCreary :ab ovo:
- Karyna McGlynn I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl
- Rachel McKibbens Pink Elephant
- Nicole Mauro The Contortions
- Helena Mesa Horse Dance Underwater
- Heather McHugh Upgraded to Serious
- Chelsey Minnis Poemland
- Mel Nichols Catalytic Exteriorization Phenomenon
- Hoa Nguyen Hecate Lochia
- Debra Nystrom Bad River Road
- Lisa Olstein Lost Alphabet
- January O'Neill Underlife
- Alicia Ostriker The Book of Seventy
- Carol Peters Sixty Some
- C.E. Perry Night Work
- Kiki Petrosino Fort Red Border
- Katha Pollitt The Mind-Body Problem
- Marie Ponsot Easy
- Diana Pooley Like This
- Sally Read Broken Sleep
- Lisa Robertson Lisa Robertson's Magenta Soul Whip
- Sophie Robinson a
- Kim Rosenfield re: evolution
- Sarah Rosenthal Manhatten
- Lee Ann Roripaugh On the Cusp of a Dangerous Year
- Lisa Samuels Tomorrowland
- Sarah Sarai The Future is Happy
- Jennifer Scappettone From Dame Quickly
- Laurie Sheck A Monster's Notes
- Sandra Simonds Warsaw Bikini
- Carmen Gimenez Smith Odalisque in Pieces
- Pamela Sneed KONG
- Alison Stine Ohio Violence
- Terese Svoboda Weapons Grade
- Stacy Szymaszek Hyperglossia
- Michelle Taransky Barn Burned, Then
- Eleanor Ross Taylor Captive Voices
- Jean Valentine Lucy
- Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon Open Interval
- Catherine Wagner My New Job
- Anne Waldman Manatee/Humanity
- Liz Waldner Trust
- Susan Wheeler Assorted Poems
- Dara Wier Selected Poems
- Allison Benis White Self-Portrait with Crayon
- Crystal Williams Troubled Tongues
- Rebecca Wolff The King
- Rachel Zucker Museum of Accidents
NONFICTION
- Julie Abraham Metropolitan Lovers: The Homosexuality of Cities
- Diana Athill Somewhere Towards the End
- Nancy Balbirer Take Your Shirt Off And Cry: A Memoir of Near-Fame Experiences
- Carlene Bauer Not That Kind of Girl
- Helen Benedict The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq
- Eula Biss Notes From No Man's Land
- Rebecca Brown American Romances: Essays
- Lily Burana I Love a Man in Uniform
- Gabrielle Burton Searching for Tamsen Donner
- Ashley Butler Dear Sound of Footstep
- Gwen Cooper Homer's Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale
- Mary Cappello Called Back: My Reply to Cancer, My Return to Life
- Staceyann Chin The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir
- Jennifer Culkin A Final Arc of Sky: A Memoir of Critical Care
- Jenny Diski The Sixties
- Hope Edelman The Possibility of Everything
- Lise Eliot Pink Brain, Blue Brain
- Barbara Ehrenreich Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
- Terry Galloway Mean Little deaf Queer
- Michelle Goldberg The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World
- Temple Grandin Animals Make Us Human
- Debra Gwartney Live Through This
- Duchess Harris Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton
- Lyanda Lynn Haupt Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness
- Monica Holloway Cowboy and Wills
- Jane Jeong Trenka Fugitive Visions: An Adoptee's Return to Korea
- Diana Joseph I'm Sorry You Feel That Way: The Astonishing but True Story of a Daughter, Sister, Slut, Wife, Mother and Friend to Man and Dog
- Mary Karr Lit
- Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor Traveling with Pomegranates
- Hermione Lee Biography: A Very Short Introduction
- Brenda Miller Blessing of the Animals
- Eileen Myles The Importance of Being Iceland
- Maggie Nelson Bluets
- Rebecca K. O'Connor Lift
- Lilian Pizzichini The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys
- Ruth Reichl Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way
- Harriet Reisen Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
- Robin Romm The Mercy Papers
- Laurie Sandell The Impostor's Daughter(Graphic Memoir)
- Laurel Saville Postmortem
- Lynne Sharon Schwartz Not Now Voyager
- Rebecca Solnit A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster
- Sharon Rose Sugar The Silent Crisis Destroying America's Brightest Minds
- Spring Ulmer The Age of Virtual Reproduction
- Lauren Weber In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue
CHILDREN'S & YOUNG ADULT
- Katie Alender Bad Girls Don't Die
- R.J. Anderson Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter
- Pam Bachorz Candor
- Cyn Balog Fairy Tale
- Eileen Beha Tango: The Tale of an Island Dog
- Lauren Bjorkman My Invented Life
- M.E. Breen Darkwood
- Sarah Rees Brennan The Demon's Lexicon
- Leigh Brescia One Wish
- Jennifer Brown Hate List
- Ann E. Burg All the Broken Pieces
- Kristin Cashore Fire (Graceling)
- Suzanne Collins Catching Fire
- Megan Crewe Give Up the Ghost
- Kirstin Cronn-Mills The Sky Always Hears Me (And the Hills Don't Mind)
- Sarah Cross Dull Boy
- Kate DiCamillo The Magician's Elephant
- Erin Dionne Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies
- Deva Fagan Fortune's Folly
- Megan Frazer Secrets of Truth & Beauty
- Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl Beautiful Creatures
- Matthea Harvey The Little General and the Giant Snowflake
- Cheryl Renee Herbsman Breathing
- Kerry Cohen Hoffman It's Not You, It's Me
- Deborah Hopkinson Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-Discoverer of the North Pole
- Mandy Hubbard Prada & Prejudice
- Jennifer Jabaley Lipstick Apology
- Stacey Jay You Are So Undead to Me
- Jen Cullerton Johnson Seeds of Change: The Wangari Maathai Story
- Danielle Joseph Shrinking Violet
- Suzanne LaFleur Love, Aubrey
- Sharon Esther Lampert In America, Even a Cat Can Have a Dream: Schmaltzy: The Piano Virtuoso
- Cynthea Liu Paris Pan Takes the Dare
- Malinda Lo Ash
- Sarah MacLean The Season
- J.E. MacLeod Waiting to Score
- L.K. Madigan Flash Burnout
- Lisa Mantchev Eyes Like Stars
- Nan Marino Neil Armstrong is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me
- C. Lee McKenzie Sliding on the Edge
- Neesha Meminger Shine, Coconut Moon
- Kate Messner The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z
- Saundra Mitchell Shadowed Summer
- Jenny Moss Winnie's War
- Sarah Ockler Twenty Boy Summer
- Rosanne Parry Heart of a Shepherd
- Jackson Pearce As You Wish
- Diana Peterfreund Rampant
- Shani Petroff Daddy's Little Angel (Bedeviled)
- Aprilynne Pike Wings
- Cindy Pon Silver Phoenix
- Sarah Quigley TMI
- Amy Reed Beautiful
- Carrie Ryan The Forest of Hands and Teeth
- Sydney Salter My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters
- Fran Slayton When the Whistle Blows
- Kristina Springer The Espressologist
- Rhonda Stapleton Stupid Cupid
- Heather Duffy Stone This Is What I Want to Tell You
- Charity Tahmaseb & Darcy Vance The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading
- Hayden Thorne Masks: Ordinary Champions
- Jessica Verday The Hollow
- Lara Zielin Donut Days
- Michelle Zink Prophecy of the Sisters