Are these the most influential novelists of 2026?
Since its founding in 1923, Time magazine has been crowning the world’s pioneers and power brokers. The pub’s annual list of most influential people is more than 30 years old. And today, we get the 2026 edition.
Though “influential,” is a deliberately slippery metric, the TIME100 list aims to recognize needle-movers. Editors debate entries all year long, using only cultural sway as rubric. As a result, there are actors, doctors, CEOs, chefs, entrepreneurs, activists, athletes, and war criminals represented on the list. There are also three novelists, because literary culture isn’t dead. Here’s who made the cut:
Tayari Jones
Jones was cited by the author and academic Imani Perry for her “sensitive coming-of-age stories [that] bloom into rich landscapes of Black women’s interior lives.” A bard of Atlanta working within multiple storytelling traditions, Jones also got flowers for nurturing peers in the profession.
Her latest novel, Kin, is out now.
Frieda McFadden
The mysterious Frieda McFadden is the mind behind several recent and “terrifying” psychological page turners. E.L. James praised the bestselling author—who moonlights as a physician and writes under a nom de plume—for bringing horror back into the house.
Yiyun Li
The author of Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life and other titles is known for her deep, poetic engagement with grief. Salman Rushdie praised Li’s unparalleled pen, and her “radical acceptance” of profound personal tragedy.
Brittany Allen
Brittany K. Allen is a writer and actor living in Brooklyn.
