Presented below, and organized by alphabetical order, are forty-five women writers who had no children.
ACKERMANN, Louise-Victorine

Louise-Victorine Ackermann (1813-1890) was a French writer known for her somber and philosophical poems, as well as her autobiographical work Thoughts of a Lonely Woman (1883)
ADAMS, Hannah

Hannah Adams (1755-1831) was an American author who wrote about comparative religion and early United States history.
AJAMI, Marie

Marie Ajami (1888-1965) was a Syrian writer and feminist who launched the first women’s periodical in the Middle East called al-Arous (The Bride) in 1910.
ALCOTT, Louisa May

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American writer best known for Little Women (1868), a semi-autobiographical novel that follows the lives of four sisters as they grow from children to women.
ASTELL, Mary

Mary Astell (1666-1731) was an English protofeminist writer and philosopher who advocated for the education of women.
AUSTEN, Jane

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English novelist and the author of the literature classic Pride and Prejudice (1813).
AYIM, May

May Ayim (1960-1996) was an Afro-German poet, educator, and activist.
BIJNS, Anna

Anna Bijns (1493-1575) was a Flemish teacher and poet who wrote in Dutch.
BLIXEN, Karen

Baroness Karen Blixen (1885-1962) was a Danish author best known for her memoir Out of Africa (1937), an account of the seventeen years she spent in Kenya, which was published under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen.
BLY, Nellie

Nellie Bly (1864-1922) was an American investigative journalist known for going undercover in a mental institution to expose the brutality and neglect suffered by female patients.
BOWEN, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) was an Irish-British writer known for her novels, such as The Death of the Heart (1938) set in the interwar period in London.
CATHER, Willa

Willa Cather (1873-1947) was an American writer and Pulitzer Prize winner known for her novels about life on the Great Plains.
CUNARD, Nancy

Nancy Cunard (1896-1965) was a white British writer, heiress, and political activist whose literary legacy includes poems and the Negro (1934) anthology of African literature and art, which she edited.
DE ACOSTA, Mercedes

Mercedes de Acosta (1892-1968) was an American poet, playwright, and novelist known for her lesbian love affairs with Hollywood icons, such as Greta Garbo, and stage actresses, such as Eva Le Gallienne.
DE GOURNAY, Marie

Marie de Gournay (1565-1645) was a French writer whose work includes The Equality of Men and Women (1622) and The Ladies’ Grievance (1626).
DE LA PARRA, Teresa

Teresa de la Parra (1889-1936) was a Venezuelan writer whose novel Iphigenia: Diary of a young lady who wrote because she was bored (1924) was a reflection on the respectability and values of Venezuelan society.
DE LANNOY, Juliana

Juliana de Lannoy (1738-1782) was a playwright and poet from the Netherlands whose work often featured strong women, such as the folk heroine Kenau in her play about the siege of Haarlem.
DICKINSON, Emily

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American poet. Reclusive and relatively unpublished during her lifetime, she is now considered one of the most important figures in American poetry.
EATON, Edith Maude

Edith Maude Eaton (1865-1914), also known as Sui Sin Far, was a British Chinese writer whose family emigrated to North America during her childhood. Her work, such as her collection of short stories Mrs. Spring Fragrance (1912), centered on the Chinese American experience.
FERGUSSON, Elizabeth Graeme

Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson (1737-1801) was an American poet and writer.
GOTTSCHED, Luise

Luise Gottsched (1713-1762) was a German playwright who is considered the mother of modern German comedy.
GRIMKÉ, Angelina Weld

Angelina Weld Grimké (1880-1958) was an American journalist, teacher, and writer. Of mixed race ancestry, her work focused on racial issues, especially violence against people of color, such as in her play Rachel (1916).
HATUN, Mihri

Mihri Hatun (c. 1460-1506) was an Ottoman author of love poetry.
HILST, Hilda

Hilda Hilst (1930-2004) was a Brazilian poet, novelist, and playwright who is considered to be one of the most important Portuguese-language authors of the 20th century.
HURSTON, Zora Neale

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was an African American author and anthropologist whose work focused on the racial struggles of the early 20th century in the American South. A prolific writer, her most popular novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published in 1937.
JEWSBURY, Geraldine

Geraldine Jewsbury (1812-1880) was an English writer known for popular novels such as Zoe: the History of Two Lives (1845) in which a young married woman and a Catholic priest fall in love.
LAGERLÖF, Selma

Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was a Swedish writer and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909. She is best known for her novel Gösta Berling’s Saga (1891).
LAMB, Anne Richelieu

Anne Richelieu Lamb (1807-1878) was a Scottish writer who anonymously published her feminist work Can Women Regenerate Society? (1844).
LARSEN, Nella

Nella Larsen (1891-1964) was an African American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, whose novel Passing (1929) explores the questions of race, gender, and sexuality.
LEE, Harper

Harper Lee (1926-2016) was an American writer best known for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), a social commentary on race and prejudice which won the Pulitzer Prize.
MANDELSTAM, Nadezhda

Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899-1980) was a Russian Jewish writer and educator who wrote two memoirs about life under the repressive Stalinist regime: Hope Against Hope (1970) and Hope Abandoned (1974).
MARTINEAU, Harriet

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) was an English translator and social theorist considered to be the first female sociologist.
MISTRAL, Gabriela

Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945.
NOGAROLA, Isotta

Isotta Nogarola (1418-1466) was an Italian writer and one of the most important humanists of the Italian Renaissance.
ORZESZKOWA, Eliza

Eliza Orzeszkowa (1841-1910) was a Polish novelist who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905. Her novel Nad Niemnem (1888) is a love story set in the Polish community near the Neman river (which lies between modern-day Belarus and Lithuania).
PYM, Barbara

Barbara Pym (1913-1980) was an English novelist who published a series of social comedies, including Excellent Women (1952) and A Glass of Blessings (1958).
REY, Margret

Margret Rey (1906-1996) was a German-born American writer and illustrator known for the Curious George series of children’s books that she created with her husband.
SACHS, Nelly

Nelly Sachs (1891-1970) was a German-born Jewish writer whose poetry reflects the plight of Jewish people under the tyranny of the Nazis during World War II. She was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966.
SEWELL, Anna

Anna Sewell (1820-1878) was an English novelist known for her best-selling children’s novel Black Beauty (1877), her only published work.
SITWELL, Edith

Edith Sitwell (1887-1964) was a British poet and one of the most important voices of 20th-century English poetry. Her best-known poem “Still Falls the Rain” was written during the London Blitz of World War II.
SUCHON, Gabrielle

Gabrielle Suchon (1632-1703) was a French philosopher and writer who argued in defense of single life.
VAN SCHURMAN, Anna Maria

Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) was a Dutch scholar who defended women’s right to education.
VON DROSTE-HÜLSHOFF, Annette

Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797-1848) was a German poet and novelist, author of Die Judenbuche (1842), a murder mystery and moral study inspired by a true story. It centers around the murder of a Jewish man near a beech tree.
WATKINS, Maurine Dallas

Maurine Dallas Watkins (c.1896-1969) was an American journalist, playwright, and screenwriter best known for her stage play, Chicago (1926), which was adapted into a Broadway musical in the 1970s.
WHARTON, Edith

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American writer whose novels portrayed the upper-class society of the Gilded Age, such as in The Age of Innocence (1920) for which she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature in 1921.