20th-century American women writers

Emma Lou Thornbrough (January 24, 1913 – December 19, 1994) was a pioneer among professional historians in African-American history, a lifelong civil-rights activist in Indiana, a professor of history at Butler University from 1946 until her retirement in 1983, and an Indiana historian and author. She was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. Thornbrough's major scholarly contributions include several publications devoted to black history, such as The Negro in Indiana before 1900; Booker T. Washington; T. Thomas Fortune, Militant Journalist; Since Emancipation: A Short History of Indiana Negroes, 1863–1963; and Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century (published posthumously in 2000). She also wrote Indiana in the Civil War Era, 1850–1880, among other scholarly publications. In addition to her writing and research, Thornbrough was well known as a social activist and was especially active in Indianapolis civil rights groups, including the Indianapolis Human Relations Council, which she helped organize; the Indiana Civil Liberties Union; and the Indianapolis National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Gina Cerminara (April 11, 1914 – April 1984) was an American author in the fields of parapsychology, spirituality and reincarnation. She was born in Milwaukee and received BA, MA, and Ph.D. degrees in psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her years of research regarding Edgar Cayce led her to publish a book about reincarnation in 1950 titled Many Mansions. Her other books on reincarnation include The World Within, Many Lives, Many Loves and Insights for the Age of Aquarius.

Alexandra Louise Kuczynski (born December 6, 1970) is a Peruvian reporter, who has written for the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, and is the author of the award-winning 2006 book Beauty Junkies about the cosmetic surgery industry. The book was translated into ten languages.

Ramona Lofton (born August 4, 1950), better known by her pen name Sapphire, is an American author and performance poet.

Sue Alexander (August 20, 1933 – July 3, 2008) was an American writer of children's literature. She authored 26 books for children as well as "scores of stories" for newspapers and magazines. She was also a children's book reviewer for the Los Angeles Times. She was a charter member and advisory board member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, which established two awards in her name in recognition of her efforts to educate and mentor aspiring writers.

Helen Foster Snow (September 21, 1907 – January 11, 1997) was an American journalist who reported from China in the 1930s under the name Nym Wales on the developing Chinese Civil War, the Korean independence movement and the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Snow's family moved often throughout her youth and she ended up living in Salt Lake City with her grandmother in her teenage years, until she decided to move to China in 1931. There, she married American journalist Edgar Snow and became a correspondent for several publications. While she and her husband were sympathetic to the revolutionaries in China, whom she compared favorably to the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek, she was never a card-carrying Communist.
While living in Beijing, the Snows befriended leftist leaders of the 1935 December 9th Movement, who arranged for first Edgar, then Helen to visit the communist wartime capital, Yan'an, in 1937, where she interviewed Chinese Communist leaders, including Mao Zedong. The Snows also conceptualized the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, known as the Gung-Ho movement, which provided jobs and stability. In 1940, Snow returned to the United States, where she and Edgar divorced. She continued to support the Cooperatives and write books based on her experiences in China. In the late 1940s, critics grouped her with the China Hands as one of those responsible for the "loss of China" who went beyond sympathy to active support of Mao's revolution.

Elizabeth Fetzer Bates (March 30, 1909 – November 20, 1999) was an American Latter-day Saint musician, most noted for being the author of the children's songs "Book of Mormon Stories" and "Pioneer Children Sang As They Walked".

Mildred Vorpahl Baass (April 15, 1917 – November 4, 2012) was an American poet. She served as the Poet Laureate of Texas from 1993 to 1995.Baass was born in San Antonio, Texas, on April 15, 1917, to Alfred H. Vorpahl Sr. and Ida M. Keller Vorpahl. She was widowed during her first marriage when her husband, Lt. A. M. Hutchison Jr. of the United States Army Air Forces, was shot down and declared killed in action during World War II. She married her second husband, Judge Alfred C. Baass, on May 9, 1946. Baass had two daughters, Carol Sowa and Nancy Baass.A resident of Victoria, Texas, Mildred Vorpahl Baass died on November 4, 2012, at the age of 95.

Elizabeth "Betsy" Colquitt (1926 – 7 April 2009) was an American professor of English and a poet known for themes and poetic structures which reflect a modernist sensibility. She was born in Fort Worth, Texas, United States in 1926 and died on 7 April 2009.

Gilda Galán (January 16, 1917 – June 21, 2009) was a Puerto Rican actress, comedian, writer, composer, scriptwriter and poet. The veteran actress, whose career spanned decades, enjoyed one of the longest careers in the history of the Puerto Rican entertainment industry.