Award-Winning Women Authors from the Pacific Northwest

As the leaves fall and the temperature drops, it’s the perfect season to relax with a cup of something warm and get lost in a good story. Revisit a favorite or discover a new book by one of these notable women authors who grew up or currently live in the Pacific Northwest.

Marilynn Robinson grew up in Coeur d’Alene and earned her PhD from the University of Washington. She has won a Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Library of Congress Award for Fiction for her novel “Gilead,” a fictional memoir of a minister in a small Midwest town. The book is the first in a highly acclaimed series following the family members of the main character. While raised Presbyterian, she later became a Congregationalist, and her theological beliefs are woven throughout her books.(1) Her most famous work, “Housekeeping,” is the story of orphaned sisters who are raised by various female family members in the fictional town of Fingerbone, modeled after her childhood town of Sandpoint, Idaho.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was born in Sugar City, Idaho. “The Midwife’s Tale,” her nonfiction history of midwife Martha Ballard, won a Pulitzer Prize and was later made into a documentary film for the PBS series “American Experience.” Her work exploring early American history especially through the experiences of women, as in “A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870,” about women in polygamist marriages in Utah. Her research for the book was drawn from diaries, letters, photo albums and even quilts. While you may not have read her prize-winning work, you will recognize her line, “Well-behaved women seldom make history,” which came from a 1976 article she wrote about Puritan funeral services. In 2008, she published a book by the same name exploring women who challenged conventional history. She is a past president of both the American Historical Association and Mormon History Association.(2)

Born in McMinnville and raised in Portland, Beverly Cleary earned bachelor’s degrees from both the University of California Berkeley and the University of Washington. While working as a librarian, she struggled to find books that would appeal to her young students and decided to start writing herself. She once said, “I believe in that ‘missionary spirit’ among children’s librarians. Kids deserve books of literary quality, and librarians are so important in encouraging them to read and selecting books that are appropriate.”(3) Over a writing career that spanned half a century, she brought us beloved characters such as Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins and Ralph S. Mouse. She has received dozens of awards, including Library of Congress’ “Living Legend” in 2000, and buildings and libraries across the country bear her name in honor of her lasting contribution to children’s literature. Cleary lived to be 104 years old.

Poet and author Renee Watson is best known for her New York Times best-seller “Piecing Me Together,” which is also a Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor winner. Inspired at a young age by the work of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes, her books explore themes of belonging, identity, body image and race, inspired by her experiences growing up as a Black girl in Portland. In addition to writing and working as a teaching artist and artist in residence around the country, Watson founded the “I, too” arts collective, “nurturing voices from underrepresented communities in the creative arts”(4) from 2016-2019. In 2023, the Highlights Foundation (yes, as in Highlights, the children’s magazine) established a cottage on their campus in her honor as an artist’s retreat for Black women writers.(5) Her other books include “Skin & Bones” (2024) and “1619 Project: Born on the Water,” a children’s picture book.

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) was also a resident of Portland. The second book of her “Earthsea” fantasy series, “The Left Hand of Darkness,” won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best science fiction novel, becoming the first woman to do so.(6) Her work has been classified as speculative fiction, a genre that encompasses science fiction but also fantasy, horror, cyberpunk and magical realism. Her writing, often set in post-apocalyptic or alien worlds, is an exploration of psychology, society, culture and feminist issues. Over her career, she amassed five more Nebula Awards, six more Hugo awards, a Pulitzer Prize nomination, was pictured on a stamp in the U.S. Postal Service’s 2021 Literary Arts series and was named a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress.(7)

Kristin Hannah graduated law school from the University of Puget Sound and practiced law in Seattle before becoming a full-time author. She is the award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels, most featuring strong heroines and illustrating love, loss, friendship, selflessness and overcoming extreme adversity. “The Nightingale,” set in France during WWII and told from the perspective of two sisters, was named Goodreads Best Historical Fiction novel and the People’s Choice award for best fiction in 2015. It was named Best Book of the year by Amazon, iTunes, Buzzfeed and the Wall Street Journal. Hannah also penned the award-winning “Firefly Lane,” which was adapted into a Netflix series that debuted at number one around the world.(8) Several of her novels are set in the Pacific Northwest, including “Summer Island,” set in the San Juan Islands, and “Magic Hour,” which takes place in the Olympic National Forest. Hannah lives with her family on Bainbridge Island.

Julia Quinn is a #1 New York Times bestselling author best known the historical fictional romance novels behind the record-breaking Netflix series “Bridgerton.” What you probably didn’t know is the first book in the series was published twenty years before the first episode aired. Her books have won multiple RITA awards (the highest nod for English-language romance fiction) from the Romance Writers of America. Julia was featured in Time magazine’s “50 Best Romance Books to Read Right Now” list in 2003, was inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame in 2010 and taught the inaugural romance writing course at the Yale Summer Writers Conference in 2016. The Harvard and Radcliffe College graduate, with almost 40 books credited to her, lives in Seattle with her family.(9) She also serves as an Ambassador for EveryLibrary, a Political Action Committee building voter support and sustainable funding for libraries, ensuring access for future generations.

Christine Day is an award-winning author of children’s and young adult fiction novels. She is a member of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe and lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Washington, where she studied Coast Salish weaving traditions for her thesis. Her debut novel, “I Can Make This Promise,” was a best book of the year from Kirkus, School Library Journal, NPR and the Chicago Public Library, as well as a Charlotte Huck Award Honor Book and an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book. As a child, she attended a program with Pacific Northwest Ballet School, where she learned about Maria Tallchief.(10) She wrote “She Persisted: Maria Tallchief,” a biography for children inspired by the bestselling picture book, “She Persisted” by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger.

Other famous women authors from the PNW:

• Debbie Macomber, romance "Cedar Cove" series and "Blossom Street" series

• EJ Koh, poetry, fiction and nonfiction "The Magical Language of Others: A Memoir", "The Liberators"

• Jean Auel, fiction "Clan of the Cave Bear"

• Katharine Dunn, fiction "Geek Love", "Toad", "Attic"

• Ellie Alexander, fiction "Bakeshop Mystery" series

• Tara Westover, nonfiction and essays "Educated"

(1) www.arts.gov/initiatives/nea-big-read/gilead

(2) scholar.harvard.edu/laurelulrich/home

(3) ischool.uw.edu/faculty-affairs/beverly-cleary-professorship

(4) www.reneewatson.net/about

(5) www.highlightsfoundation.org/2023/04/27/highlights-foundation-names-cottage-inhonor-of-new-york-times-bestselling-author-renee-watson/

(6) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin

(7) www.ursulakleguin.com/biography

(8) kristinhannah.com/about-kristin-bio/

(9) juliaquinn.com/about/

(10) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Day_(author)