Which living authors do you think will still be remembered/read 100 years from now?

[FajitaQueen]

Hi all.
Inspired by the recent discussion of Top Ten favourite books, I wondered which modern living authors do you think would still be widely read 100 years from now.
I’m not necessarily thinking about “classics” (although that might be part of the reason for long-term popularity.)
My initial contenders are Kazuo Ishiguro, Sarah Walters, Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker and Alan Garner (I looked him up and he is still with us at 91 years old!) They’ve all written books that have original voices and could, in my opinion, stand the test of time.
I’m conscious that authors fall in and out of fashion so making such a prediction is tricky. But that’s part of the fun!

Oh God, I hope so. I taught History for 30 odd years and remember kids asking (when we were studying The Holocaust as a topic) 'Can we watch The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas'.

No. Absolutely not. It's utter shite and quite offensive to me as a Historian when there are millions of accurate stories to tell of people's experiences. If you are going to write historical fiction then at least get the historical facts right.

Thinking about books being 'dated', I'm currently listening yet again to the Ian Carmichael audiobook of Murder Must Advertise, which was written in 1933 by Dorothy L Sayers. The book is, more than anything else, about the advertising industry at that time, as she worked as an advertising copywriter during the 1920s. It's incredibly detailed and absolutely dated to a time and place, and yet the humour around the office politics and the philosophical reflections on marketing trying to generate demand for products land just as accurately in the 21st century. I doubt at the time she'd have thought people would still have been enjoying it almost 100 years later!

This just goes to show @LilyCanna that wit and talent shine through!
I haven’t read the book (and am now interested) but perhaps the office politics and points about consumerism have a certain timeless appeal.

A lot of the 'classic' literature that's still being read is actually what would have been popular culture, rather than anything particularly highbrow -

A writer who was enormously prolific and popular 200 years ago but is now pretty much forgotten is Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Heart of Midlothian was on our O or A Level syllabus (forget which) c.1970; I didn't much like it. Published almost the same time as Persuasion, which we also had at school and which I love.

They haven't made a version of Ivanhoe for a while, true, but I'm sure, like buses, there will be another along in a Netflix minute.

Alan Hollinghurst. Zadie Smith (for On Beauty).

Yes I agree.

Brian Bilston, the poet - I don't think his humour will ever be outdated. (Also Stephen King, JKR, and Phillip Pullman, as mentioned by PPs.)

Kristen Hannah, I haven’t read many of her books but I think they will stand the test of time

Agree

Stephen King

Jo Rowling
Robert Galbraith(!)
David Mitchell
Kate Atkinson
Donna Tartt
Sebastian Faulks

Great question!

Kazu Ishiguro
Ian Mcewan
Atwood
Carol Churchill (Top Girls etc playwright)
Ciaran Carson (poetry)
Donna Tart
Roddy Doyle

Have you read Engleby or Human Traces? (S Faulks).

Engleby is definitely worth a read......

I think books classed as contemporary will be lost to history as the age too quickly.

E.g I used to love Ian Rankin books but can't read them now as technology has moved on such a long way. I just end up thinking 'fgs use your mobile' or 'dna test would answer that' etc.

Whereas historical fiction writers such as Philippa Gregory will stand the test of time as they capture a moment in time and that time will never change.

Sadly JK Rowling.
Hopefully Jacqueline Wilson!
Definitely Stephen King.

Just as many of us continue to enjoy writers like Sayers from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, I think that writers of mystery/detective fiction whose works have often transcended the genre will be read by people 100 years from now, and I count Ian Rankin as one of those, along with Kate Atkinson, and the recently deceased PD James and Ruth Rendell.

Perhaps with Rankin, there will even be a notion of a Golden Age of Tartan Noir.

Julia Donaldson for sure

I’m enjoying the suggestions, some I agree with, some I think aren’t great so I doubt it and others I’m looking up, so many I’ve never heard of. I think a lot will depend on books still being popular, it’s hard to know how things will go

JK Rowling

Some great authors here. Rohinton Mistry I would add. Donna tartt, Sue Monk Kidd and I haven’t read her but have heard people rave about her hilary
mantel, contemporary however of course she recently died, sadly.

J K Rowling
Hilary Mantel
Philip Pullman
Julia Donaldson
Margaret Atwood
Kazuo Ishiguro
Elena Ferrante
Chimamanda Adichie
Haruku murakami

Le Carre - yes I hope so.
Len Deighton - probably not.
Off the strict topic but thinking on from Dorothy L Sayers upthread. Will Aldous Huxley and Kenneth Grahame still be read.

Stephen king