The American essay has long been shaped by the voices of women—sharp, lyrical, subversive, intimate. These writers didn’t just contribute to the form; they redefined it. Whether dissecting race, gender, memory, or place, each one left an indelible mark on literature—and on the American psyche.
Here are 10 of the most powerful essays by women writers from the United States, each one worth reading, rereading, and carrying with you.
Joan Didion didn’t just write essays—she invented a mood. In The White Album, she captured the fragmentation and anxiety of late-1960s America with a voice that was cool, haunted, and hyper-aware.
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”
This opening line is one of the most quoted in American nonfiction. Didion’s fragmented structure mirrored the cultural breakdown she was documenting. She was among the first to blend memoir with cultural commentary in a way that felt both personal and reportorial.
A poet, activist, and essayist, Audre Lorde was one of the fiercest intellects of the 20th century. This short, galvanizing essay—originally delivered as a speech—is a searing critique of white feminism and a call for real inclusivity.
“Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.”
Lorde challenged readers to reimagine feminism, power, and identity—and her ideas remain vital today.
Written with wit and fearless self-awareness, this essay from the Harlem Renaissance defies pity and embraces joy, individuality, and cultural pride.
“I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”
Hurston turns personal experience into cultural affirmation, refusing to be defined by the white gaze. Her language sparkles with strength and style.
One of America’s most influential intellectuals, Susan Sontag helped bring aesthetic theory into mainstream conversation. Her essay Notes on ‘Camp’ is at once playful and profound—a list-based analysis of a sensibility.
“The essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.”
Sontag’s approach—fragmented, ironic, deeply observant—paved the way for cultural criticism that is as much art as it is analysis.
Roxane Gay’s writing is fearless, funny, and brutally honest. In this titular essay from her bestselling collection, she explores the contradictions of feminism and the impossibility of perfection.
“I’d rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all.”
With cultural references, humor, and confessional tone, Gay modernized the essay for the social media era—without losing depth.
A master of the meditative essay, Annie Dillard transforms the ordinary into the transcendent. In Living Like Weasels, she reflects on instinct, survival, and meaning—all through an encounter with a wild animal.
“I would like to learn, or remember, how to live.”
Dillard’s work stands out for its precision, reverence for nature, and spiritual undercurrents. Her essays slow you down and demand attention.
Born Gloria Jean Watkins, bell hooks wrote with clarity and fire about race, gender, and class. In this essay, she explores her experience navigating college as a working-class Black woman—and what it meant to stay true to her roots.
“I came to theory because I was hurting.”
hooks fused the academic and the personal, helping generations of writers feel seen and heard in institutions that often excluded them.
This breakout essay put Leslie Jamison on the literary map. She explores how we express pain, how we witness it, and how we try—and fail—to care.
“Empathy isn’t just something that happens to us—it’s also a choice we make.”
Jamison weaves memoir, reporting, and philosophical inquiry with a lyrical edge. Her work is part of a new wave of essays that blend vulnerability with intellect.
Before she became a legendary screenwriter and director, Nora Ephron was a journalist with a razor-sharp wit. This essay—humorous, irreverent, and poignant—captures the awkwardness and anxiety of body image in American womanhood.
“If I had had them, I would have been a completely different person.”
With humor and sadness wrapped together, Ephron paved the way for personal essays that feel like confession and comedy at once.
The essay that sparked a thousand tweets—and arguably coined the term mansplaining—Solnit’s piece is both culturally explosive and intellectually precise.
“Credibility is a basic survival tool.”
Solnit’s calm, relentless logic made the essay go viral and sparked countless discussions. She showed that clarity, not rage, is often the sharpest weapon.
These women didn’t just write about America—they wrote within it, against it, and through it. Their essays are lessons in craft, resistance, beauty, and truth. They offer writers and readers alike a lineage of voices that refuse to be silenced.
At Westbrae Literary Group, we believe these essays—and the women who wrote them—belong at the heart of literary study, personal reflection, and public discourse.
Looking for more powerful essays?
Read our 10 Most Influential Famous Essays to Read and Learn From, and stay tuned for our next post: How Didion’s The White Album Changed Essay Writing.