Notable Writers
This list is comprised of some of the most recognizable names from the literary world. Included are novelists, poets, playwrights and essayists. However, those who are primarily considered to be philosophers or academic writers can be found on the lists of thinkers.
| Name | Lifespan | Other Names | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prosper Mérimée | 1803-1870 |  | |
| Prudens van Duyse | 1804-1859 | (Prudentius, Joannes, Maria) | |
| Quintilian | 35-100 | (Marcus) | |
| Rabindranath Tagore | 1861-1941 | | |
| Rachel Billington | 1942- | | |
| Rafael Sabatini | 1875-1950 | | |
| Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 1945-1982 | | |
| Rainer Maria Rilke | 1875-1926 | (René, Karl, Wilhelm, Johann, Josef) | |
| Ralph Ellison | 1913-1994 | (Waldo) | |
| Ralph Waldo Emerson | 1803-1882 | | |
| Ranko Marinković | 1913-2001 | | |
| Ray Bradbury | 1920-2012 | | |
| Raymond Benson | 1955- | | |
| Raymond Carver | 1938-1988 | (Clevie) | |
| Raymond Chandler | 1888-1959 | | |
| Raymond van de Klundert "Kluun" | 1964- | | |
| Rebecca Roanhorse | 1971- | | |
| Reginald Hill | 1936-2012 | (Charles) | |
| Remco Campert | 1929-2022 | | |
| Renate Dorrestein | 1954-2018 | | |
| Renate Rubinstein | 1929-1990 | (Tamar, Ida) | |
| René Goscinny | 1926-1977 | | |
| Reşat Nuri Güntekin | 1889-1956 | | |
| Reyer Anslo | 1622-1669 | | |
| Rhijnvis Feith | 1753-1824 | | |
| Richard Adams | 1920-2016 | | |
| Richard Bach | 1936- | | |
| Richard Ford | 1944- | | |
| Richard Hooker | 1924-1997 | (Hiester) | |
| Richard Bruce Nugent | 1906-1987 | | |
| Richard Powers | 1957- | | |
| Richard Russo | 1949- | | |
| Richard Scarry | 1919-1994 | | |
| Richard Wagamese | 1955-2017 | | |
| Richard Wilbur | 1921-2017 | (Purdy) | |
| Richard Wright | 1908-1960 | (Nathaniel) | |
| Rick Riordan | 1964- | (Richard) | |
| Ring Lardner | 1885-1933 | (Ringgold, Wilmer) | |
| Roald Dahl | 1916-1990 | | |
| Robert Browning | 1812-1889 | | |
| Robert Burns | 1759-1796 | (Rabbie) | |
| Robert Frost | 1874-1963 | | |
| Robert Hayden | 1913-1980 | (Asa, Bundy) | |
| Robert A. Heinlein | 1907-1988 | (Anson) | |
| Robert Jordan | 1948-2007 | (James, Oliver) | |
| Robert Ludlum | 1927-2001 | | |
| Robert Munsch | 1945- | (Norman) | |
| Robert Musil | 1880-1942 | | |
| Robert M. Pirsig | 1928-2017 | (Maynard) | |
| Robert Louis Stevenson | 1850-1894 | | |
| R. L. Stine | 1943- | (Robert, Lawrence) | |
| Robert James Waller | 1939-2017 | | |
| Robert Walser | 1878-1956 | | |
| Robert Penn Warren | 1905-1989 | | |
| Robertson Davies | 1913-1995 | | |
| Roddy Doyle | 1958- | | |
| R. D. Wingfield | 1928-2007 | (Rodney, David) | |
| Roger Martin du Gard | 1881-1958 | | |
| Rohinton Mistry | 1952- | | |
| Romain Gary | 1914-1980 | (Roman) | |
| Romain Rolland | 1866-1944 | | |
| Romesh Gunesekera | 1954- | | |
| Ronald Giphart | 1965- | | |
| Rosamunde Pilcher | 1924-2019 | | |
| Rose Tremain | 1943- | (Rosemary, Jane) | |
| Rosina Lippi | 1956- | | |
| Rubén Darío | 1867-1916 | (Félix) | |
| Rudolph Fisher | 1897-1934 | (John, Chauncey) | |
| Rudyard Kipling | 1865-1936 | | |
| Rumer Godden | 1907-1998 | (Margaret) | |
| Rupert Brooke | 1887-1915 | (Chawner) | |
| Rupert Holmes | 1947- | (David) | |
| Rupert Hughes | 1872-1956 | | |
| Rupert Sheldrake | 1942- | (Alfred) | |
| Rupert Thomson | 1955- | | |
| Russell Banks | 1940-2023 | | |
| Rutger Bregman | 1988- | (Christiaan) | |
| Ruth Chatterton | 1892-1961 | | |
| Ruth Prawer Jhabvala | 1927-2013 | | |
| Ruth Rendell | 1930-2015 | (Barbara) | |
| Ryūnosuke Akutagawa | 1892-1927 | | |
| Saadi Shirazi | 1210-c. 1291 | | |
| Sabahattin Ali | 1907-1948 | | |
| Marquis de Sade | 1740-1814 | (Donatien, Alphonse, François) | |
| Şadi Üçüncü | 1948-2004 | | |
| Saint-John Perse | 1887-1975 | | |
| Sait Faik Abasıyanık | 1906-1954 | | |
| Saken Seifullin | 1894-1939 | | |
| Şakir Bilgin | 1951- | | |
| Salman Rushdie | 1947- | | |
| Salvatore Quasimodo | 1901-1968 | | |
| Sam Shepard | 1943-2017 | (Samuel) | |
| Samuel Beckett | 1906-1989 | | |
| Samuel Taylor Coleridge | 1772-1834 | | |
| Samuel Johnson | 1709-1784 | | |
| Samuel Pepys | 1633-1703 | | |
| Sándor Márai | 1900-1989 | | |
| Sappho | c. 620-570 BC | | |
| Sara Douglass | 1957-2011 | | |
| Sara Paretsky | 1947- | | |
| Sara Teasdale | 1884-1933 | (Sarah, Trevor) | |
| Sarah Hall | 1974- | | |
| Sarah Waters | 1966- | | |
| Sarojini Naidu | 1879-1949 | | |
| Saul Bellow | 1915-2005 | | |
| Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac | 1619-1655 | | |
| Seamus Deane | 1940-2021 | | |
| Seamus Heaney | 1939-2013 | | |
| Seán Ó Faoláin | 1900-1991 | (John, Francis, Proinsias) | |
| Sebastian Barry | 1955- | | |
| Sebastian Faulks | 1953- | | |
| Sei Shōnagon | c. 966-c. 1017 | | |
| Selma Lagerlöf | 1858-1940 | | |
| Selwyn Jepson | 1899-1989 | | |
| Seneca the Elder | 54 BC-39 | (Lucius) | |
| Sergei Yesenin | 1895-1925 | | |
| Sergiusz Piasecki | 1901-1964 | | |
| Sextus Propertius | c. 50-c. 15 BC | | |
| Shams Tabrizi | 1185-1248 | | |
| Sherman Alexie | 1966- | (Joseph) | |
| Sherrilyn Kenyon | 1965- | | |
| Sherwood Anderson | 1876-1941 | (Berton) | |
| Shirley Hazzard | 1931-2016 | | |
| Shirley Jackson | 1916-1965 | | |
| Shmuel Yosef Agnon | 1888-1970 | | |
| Sholem Aleichem | 1859-1916 | | |
| Shota Rustaveli | c. 1160-c. 1220 | | |
| Sidney Sheldon | 1917-2007 | | |
| Siegfried Lenz | 1926-2014 | | |
| Sigrid Undset | 1882-1949 | | |
| Simon Armitage | 1963- | | |
| Simon Carmiggelt | 1913-1987 | | |
| Simon Vestdijk | 1898-1971 | | |
| Simone de Beauvoir | 1908-1986 | | |
| Simonides of Ceos | c. 556-468 BC | | |
| Sinclair Lewis | 1885-1951 | (Harry) | |
| Slavenka Drakulić | 1949- | | |
| Slobodan Novak | 1924-2016 | (Ante) | |
| Slobodan Šnajder | 1948- | | |
| Snorri Sturluson | 1179-1241 | | |
| Soman Chainani | 1979- | | |
| Sonia Sanchez | 1934- | (Wilsonia, Benita) | |
| Sophie Kinsella | 1969- | (Madeleine) | |
| Sophocles | c. 497-c. 406 BC | | |
| Spalding Gray | 1941-2004 | (Rockwell) | |
| Stan Lee | 1922-2018 | (Stanley, Martin) | |
| Stanisław Lem | 1921-2006 | | |
| Stanisław Wyspiański | 1869-1907 | (Mateusz, Ignacy) | |
| Stanley Middleton | 1919-2009 | | |
| Statius | c. 45-c. 96 | (Publius) | |
| Stefan Zweig | 1881-1942 | | |
| Stendhal | 1783-1842 | (Marie, Henri) | |
| Stéphane Mallarmé | 1842-1898 | | |
| Stephen Graham Jones | 1972- | | |
| Stephen King | 1947- | | |
| Stephenie Meyer | 1973- | | |
| Stieg Larsson | 1954-2004 | | |
| Sue Grafton | 1940-2017 | (Taylor) | |
| Sue Townsend | 1946-2014 | (Susan) | |
| Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani | 1658-1725 | | |
| Sully Prudhomme | 1839-1907 | | |
| Sunčana Škrinjarić | 1931-2004 | | |
| Susan Cooper | 1935- | | |
| Susan Glaspell | 1876-1948 | (Keating) | |
| Susan Hill | 1942- | | |
| S. E. Hinton | 1948- | (Susan, Eloise) | |
| Susan Sontag | 1933-2004 | | |
| Suzanne Collins | 1962- | | |
| Svetlana Alexievich | 1948- | | |
| Sybille Bedford | 1911-2006 | (Aleid, Elsa) | |
| Sylvia Plath | 1932-1963 | | |
| Taliesin | ?-c. 600 | | |
| Tami Hoag | 1959- | | |
| Taras Shevchenko | 1814-1861 | | |
| Tennessee Williams | 1911-1983 | (Thomas, Lanier) | |
| Terence | 195-159 BC | (Publius) | |
| Terry Pratchett | 1948-2015 | (Terence) | |
| Tess Gerritsen | 1953- | (Terry) | |
| Tessa de Loo | 1946- | (Johanna, Tineke, Martina) | |
| Tevfik Fikret | 1867-1915 | | |
| Thea Beckman | 1923-2004 | (Theodora) | |
| Theodor Geisel "Dr. Seuss" | 1904-1991 | | |
| Theodor Mommsen | 1817-1903 | | |
| Theodore Roethke | 1908-1963 | (Huebner) | |
| Théophile Gautier | 1811-1872 | | |
| Thomas Berger | 1924-2014 | (Louis) | |
| Thomas Bernhard | 1931-1989 | | |
| T. S. Eliot | 1888-1965 | (Thomas, Stearns) | |
| Thomas Hardy | 1840-1928 | | |
| Thomas Keneally | 1935- | | |
| Thomas Kinsella | 1928-2021 | | |
| Thomas Ligotti | 1953- | | |
| Thomas Mann | 1875-1955 | | |
| Thomas Pynchon | 1937- | (Ruggles) | |
| Thornton Wilder | 1897-1975 | (Niven) | |
| Tibor Fischer | 1959- | | |
| Tibullus | 55-19 BC | | |
| Tim Winton | 1960- | (Timothy, John) | |
| Timothy Mo | 1950- | | |
| Titsian Tabidze | 1895-1937 | | |
| Tom Clancy | 1947-2013 | (Thomas) | |
| Tomas Tranströmer | 1931-2015 | | |
| Tomislav Ladan | 1932-2008 | | |
| Tomson Highway | 1951- | | |
| Toni Morrison | 1931-2019 | (Chloe, Ardelia) | |
| Tonke Dragt | 1930-2024 | (Antonia, Johanna, Willemina) | |
| Tor Edvin Dahl | 1943- | | |
| Torquato Tasso | 1544-1595 | | |
| Tove Jansson | 1914-2001 | (Marika) | |
| Trezza Azzopardi | 1961- | | |
| Tristan Tzara | 1896-1963 | | |
| Truman Capote | 1924-1984 | | |
| Tulsidas | 1511-1623 | | |
| Tyler Perry | 1969- | (Emmitt) | |
| Umberto Eco | 1932-2016 | | |
| Upton Sinclair | 1878-1968 | (Beall) | |
| Ursula K. Le Guin | 1929-2018 | | |
| Üzeyir Hacıbəyov | 1885-1948 | | |
| Vachel Lindsay | 1879-1931 | (Nicholas) | |
| Václav Havel | 1936-2011 | | |
| Vahagn Davtyan | 1922-1996 | | |
| Valmiki | ?-5xx BC | | |
| Velma Wallis | 1960- | | |
| Verner von Heidenstam | 1859-1940 | | |
| Veronica Roth | 1988- | | |
| Vesna Krmpotić | 1932-2018 | | |
| Vesna Parun | 1922-2010 | | |
| Vicente Aleixandre | 1898-1984 | | |
| Victor Hugo | 1802-1885 | | |
| V. S. Naipaul | 1932-2018 | (Vidiadhar, Surajprasad) | |
| Viktor Car Emin | 1870-1963 | | |
| Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius | 1882-1954 | | |
| Vincas Kudirka | 1858-1899 | | |
| Vine Deloria Jr. | 1933-2005 | (Victor) | |
| Vinette Ebrahim | 1957- | | |
| Virgil | 70-19 BC | (Publius) | |
| V. C. Andrews | 1923-1986 | (Cleo, Virginia) | |
| Virginia Woolf | 1882-1941 | | |
| Vítězslav Hálek | 1835-1874 | | |
| Vittoria Colonna | 1490-1547 | | |
| Vjekoslav Kaleb | 1905-1996 | | |
| Vjenceslav Novak | 1859-1905 | | |
| Vladimir Mayakovsky | 1893-1930 | | |
| Vladimir Nabokov | 1899-1977 | | |
| Vladimir Nazor | 1876-1949 | | |
| Waldo Frank | 1889-1967 | (David) | |
| Wallace Stegner | 1909-1993 | (Earle) | |
| Wallace Stevens | 1879-1955 | | |
| Wallace Thurman | 1902-1934 | (Henry) | |
| Walt Whitman | 1819-1892 | (Walter) | |
| Walter Scott | 1771-1832 | | |
| Washington Irving | 1783-1859 | | |
| Wang Wei | 699-759 | | |
| Wendy Rose | 1948- | (Bronwen, Chiron, Elizabeth) | |
| Wilbur Smith | 1933-2021 | | |
| Wilhelm Grimm | 1786-1859 | | |
| Willa Cather | 1873-1947 | | |
| Willem Elsschot | 1882-1960 | (Alfons) | |
| Willem Frederik Hermans | 1921-1995 | | |
| William Trevor | 1928-2016 | | |
| William Blake | 1757-1827 | | |
| William Peter Blatty | 1928-2017 | | |
| William Boyd | 1952- | | |
| William Stanley Braithwaite | 1878-1962 | (Beaumont) | |
| William S. Burroughs | 1914-1997 | (Seward) | |
| W. Bruce Cameron | 1960- | (William) | |
| William Faulkner | 1897-1962 | (Cuthbert) | |
| William Gibson | 1948- | | |
| William Golding | 1911-1993 | | |
| W. P. Kinsella | 1935-2016 | (William, Patrick) | |
| W. Somerset Maugham | 1874-1965 | (William) | |
| William Shakespeare | 1564-1616 | | |
| William Styron | 1925-2006 | (Clark) | |
| William Makepeace Thackeray | 1811-1863 | | |
| William Wharton | 1925-2008 | (Albert) | |
| William Carlos Williams | 1883-1963 | | |
| William Wordsworth | 1770-1850 | | |
| William Butler Yeats | 1865-1939 | | |
| Willy Vandersteen | 1913-1990 | (Willebrord, Jan, Frans, Maria) | |
| Winona LaDuke | 1959- | | |
| Winston Graham | 1908-2003 | (Mawdsley) | |
| Wisława Szymborska | 1923-2012 | | |
| Witi Ihimaera | 1944- | (Tame) | |
| Władysław Reymont | 1867-1925 | (Stanisław) | |
| Wole Soyinka | 1934- | (Akinwande, Oluwole) | |
| Wolfram von Eschenbach | c. 1170-c. 1220 | | |
| Gao Xingjian | 1940- | | |
| Cao Xueqin | 1710-1765 | | |
| Lu Xun | 1881-1936 | (Shuren) | |
| Mo Yan | 1955- | (Moye) | |
| Yanka Kupala | 1882-1942 | (Ivan) | |
| Yann Martel | 1963- | | |
| Yaşar Kemal | 1923-2015 | (Sadık) | |
| Kawabata Yasunari | 1899-1972 | | |
| Yehonatan Geffen | 1947-2023 | | |
| Jin Yong | 1924-2018 | (Louis, Leung-yung) | |
| Qu Yuan | c. 340-278 BC | | |
| Yukio Mishima | 1925-1970 | (Kimitake) | |
| Zadie Smith | 1975- | | |
| Zalman Shazar | 1889-1974 | (Shneur) | |
| Zane Grey | 1872-1939 | (Pearl) | |
| Zdena Tomin | 1941-2020 | | |
| Željko Ivanković | 1954- | | |
| Zitkála-Šá | 1876-1938 | (Gertrude) | |
| Zoe Akins | 1886-1958 | (Byrd) | |
| Zoë Heller | 1965- | (Kate, Hinde) | |
| Zora Neale Hurston | 1891-1960 | | |
| Zoran Ferić | 1961- | | |
| Zygmunt Krasiński | 1812-1859 | (Napoleon, Stanisław, Adam, Feliks) | |