Great Canadian Women of Literary Fiction: The Lions

Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. It’s remarkable if you think about it. Three of the English world’s great singer-songwriters are Canadian. In much the same way—and covering roughly the same period of time—there are three writers, all women, who are as big in the literary world as Cohen, Mitchell and Young are in the annals of music history, and that’s worth celebrating, what with Canada having just accomplished her 144^th birthday and all.

Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, and Carol Shields. No need to beat around the bush. There aren’t any surprises here, except perhaps that Margaret Laurence should have made the list (The Stone Angel is often referred to as one of the great novels of Canadian literature). If this list seems obvious, here’s a question (or two): Have you read the notable works by all three great dames? Have you ever attempted one of Munro’s masterful short story collections?

For recommendations and the rest of this piece click Canadian Women of Literary Fiction.