10 Best Debut Female Authors of 2021

Every year, the literary community is honored to welcome new female voices who elevate the community to a new level. This year, as always, saw a host of female authors who shook the world with their powerful, lyrical, enchanting writing. Here’s a list of 10 best debut female authors of 2021.

Virginia Feito

Feito writes with ‘Mrs March’ what Vogue calls a ‘New York City comedy of manners’, establishing herself as a writer worth her salt. When her husband crafts a novel featuring a whore supposedly based on his wife, Mrs March’s life and marriage come undone.

Rachel Yoder

With her extremely innovative and gasp-inducing novel ‘Nightbitch’, Yoder examines motherhood. But she doesn’t do this with the excessive sweetness typical to such novels, she gives it a beastly and almost magical realist touch.

Emily Austin

The title of Austin’s book is a punch in the gut, much like the story itself – ‘Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead’. A fearless person and artiste, her book follows an atheist lesbian who starts working as a church receptionist.

Willa Richards

Willa Richards has become a part of the wonderful-writers-community with her debut, ‘The Comfort of Monsters’. In the book, she places at the centre a woman who confronts the disappearance of a sister. With a great plot and even greater characterization, this author is one to watch out for.

Zakiya Delila Harris

Blending race and gender with office politics in a sharp, pointy mystery novel, Harris earns her place as one of the best debutants of the year in ‘The Other Black Girl’. Our protagonist, a young Black girl in an entirely white office, becomes happy at the entry of another black woman, but all is not as it seems.

Melody Razak

Melody captures the Indian historical voice in her debut called Moth. At the centre of the story is a Delhiite Brahmin family living in the aftermath of the Partition. Capturing the macro and the micro view by weaving the larger political picture with the intimate story of a single family, Razak steals the show. And so, she announces her arrival into the world literature scene with the poignant yet subtle fanfare of a masterpiece.

Natasha Brown

In her book ‘Assembly’, Brown deals with the delicate issues of womanhood and Blackhood, as a young woman on the cusp of success, re-evaluates life. The book essentially deals with the young woman protagonist getting ready for dinner with her boyfriend’s family. However, the events that transpire make her stop and think. Race, class, gender, success, money and love are all scrutinized under her powerful and acute gaze, and a succinct portrait of that is what the reader’s see.

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Johnson explores the heart and soul of a tumultuous Virginia in each short story of the collection ‘My Monticello’. From racism to single motherhood and from war to environmental degradation, this collection has it all. Plus, it’s told with sincerity and truth, and the vulnerability and bravery that comes along with it.

Monika Radojevic

Radojevic’s poetry collection ‘Teeth in the Back of my Neck’ is being touted as one of the best debuts of the year, and for good reason. In her poetry, she gives voice to several topics ranging from modern diaspora , identity and finding oneself. She’s definitely someone to watch out for, in the world literature scene.

Anna Bailey

Anna Bailey debuted in 2021 with her book ‘Tall Bones’, simultaneously a mystery and a coming of age novel. In the book, facades of a small town come unraveled as the best friend of our 17 year old protagonist disappears. Not only does Bailey write with tenderness and sensitivity but also with passion and love. Plus, it’s all so visible in her book.

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