Female Fantasy Authors, November 2012

Though she has only one fantasy to her name, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is so remarkable on its own that it would be impossible not to include Clarke in this list. Ten years in the making, Clarke's alternate 19th century tale of magic, madness, and Englishness is a jewel. When Neil Gaiman hails the book as "Unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years," you can take it to the bank. Though she is reportedly working on a sequel, she can take heart in knowing that this work of difficult birth landed her TIME Magazine's Best Novel of the Year (2004), as well as the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards for Best Novel (2005).