Public domain image originally taken by George Charles Beresford.

When Open Culture recently published Jorge Luis Borges’ self-compiled list of 74 ‘great works of literature’, commissioned by Argentine publisher Hyspamerica, I, along with many others, saw one glaring issue in the otherwise fantastically diverse list: it included no works by female writers.

Whether intentional or not, the fact that women are excluded from Borges’ noteworthies (and in 1985, no less) means that a vast number of historically and culturally significant books and writings have been overlooked. While this ought not to discredit the works listed in any way, after witnessing the immense popularity of Borges’ list I certainly felt that for his selection to be relevant today it needed to be accompanied by a list of works which had been overlooked due to the gender of their respective authors.

I decided to put a suggestion to a group of international women writers, artists and curators, and we compiled our own list of 74 ‘great works of literature’ -- one just as varied, loose and substantial as that of Borges, but made up solely of writers identifying as women or non-gender-binary. Over two days we amassed many suggestions, which I’ve now curated to form the list below. It's not intended to invalidate the original, but rather to serve as an accompaniment to highlight and encourage a dialogue on gender imbalances in creative and intellectual realms, as well as to provide a balance by actively ‘equalising’ that of Jorge Luis Borges.

Agatha Christie - The Mousetrap Albertine Sarrazin - L'Astragale Alice Walker - The Color Purple Anaïs Nin - Little Birds Angela Carter - Nights at the Circus Angela Davis - Are Prisons Obselete? Anita Desai - Clear Light of Day Anne Carson - Autobiography of Red Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Sexton - Live or Die Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things Banana Yoshimoto - Kitchen bell hooks - Ain't I a Woman? Beryl Bainbridge - Master Georgie Beryl Markham - West with the Night Buchi Emecheta - The Joys of Motherhood Carson McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre Charlotte Roche - Feuchtgebiete Chris Kraus - I Love Dick Colette - Chéri Daphne du Maurier - Rebecca Doris Lessing - The Golden Notebook Edith Wharton - Age of Innocence Eileen Myles - Inferno Elfriede Jelinek - Women as Lovers Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights Flannery O'Connor - Complete Stories Françoise Sagan - Bonjour Tristesse George Eliot - Silas Marner Gertrude Stein - The Making of Americans Gwendolyn Brooks - To Disembark Hannah Arendt - The Human Condition Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird Hillary Mantel - Wolf Hall Iris Murdoch - The Sea, The Sea James Tiptree Jr. - Her Smoke Rose Up Forever Jean Rhys - Wide Sargasso Sea Jhumpa Lahiri - Interpreter of Maladies Joan Didion - Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joyce Carol Oats - A Bloodsmoore Romance Jung Chang - Wild Swans Kate Zambreno - Heroines Kathy Acker - Blood and Guts in High School Leonora Carrington - The Hearing Trumpet Leslie Feinberg - Stone Butch Blues Lorrie Moore - Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? Louise Erdrich - The Beet Queen Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale Marguerite Duras - Le ravissement de Lol V. Stein Mary Shelley - Frankenstein Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Women Maya Angelou - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Michelle Cliff - Abeng Miranda July - No One Belongs Here More Than You Monique Wittig - Les Guérillères Murasaki Shikibu - Genji Monogatari Muriel Spark - The Driver's Seat Octavia Butler - Kindred Rachel Carson - Silent Spring Roxane Gay - An Untamed State Sappho - Fragments Sara Stridsberg - Darling River Sei Shōnagon - The Pillow Book Simone Weil - Gravity and Grace Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar Theresa Hak Kyung Cha - Dictée Toni Morrison - Beloved Tove Jansson - Mumintroll series Tsitsi Dangarembga - Nervous Conditions Ursula K Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness Virginia Woolf - The Waves Willa Cather - The Song of the Lark Zadie Smith - On Beauty

Lulu Nunn is a London-based artist, writer, curator and editor of HOAX, an international journal publishing creative work incorporating text. You can follow her at @lulu_nunn and HOAX at @hoaxpublication.