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Let me say in advance that I do not judge a quality of a writer by their politics, and that many of my favourite writers have political views quite different than mine.That said, I am on the left-of-centre politically, and this is important to me enough to want at least some of the authors I read to reflect my values.

I seems to me that many writers are on the Right, either consciously, or because they affect to be `apolitical` and hence validate the status-quo.Those that have leftish views in their youth often throw in the towel as they get older- as seems to have happened to both Kingsley and Martin Amis alike!

Nevertheless I can offer a list of some writers who uphold liberal/democratic socialist convictions, namely: George Orwell, John Steinbeck, Ivan Turgenev, Thomas Mann (a rare case of a man who was conservative in his youth and turned progressive in his later years),Alan Sillitoe, Norman Mailer and, more lately, Stephen King and Iain Banks.

What strikes me though, is that most of those names seem to belong to a previous age. ARE there any good left leaning novelists left, or is the whole concept of politically committed writing out of date?

Speaking from an Australian point-of-view, apart from the late author Frank Hardy who wrote novels like Power Without Glory, and currently Thomas Keneally (who laments the lack of interest in the Republic debate here) I think writing about politics may have become unfashionable. Literature seems to have turned more emotional, more psychological, and of late, more backward looking, e.g. second world war, reworking history, not to mention a plethora of cold case forensics.

There was Kurt Vonnegut of course.

I'm not sure if anyone has suggested him yet but Chuck Palahniuk leans pretty far to the left. Check him out.

Skyler

You could look into folks who write eco-fiction.

Ex UK Storyboy wrote:
What strikes me though, is that most of those names seem to belong to a previous age. ARE there any good left leaning novelists left, or is the whole concept of politically committed writing out of date?

I have very similar tastes in literature.
I loved Ivan Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" and have re-read it a kajillion times.

Its a really great question you posted here, and its got me thinking!
Surely there must be! I'm not the best person to ask because I've had my head stuck in nonfiction for too many years... but now I'm gonna make moves to find out because the question intrigues me as much as it does. Its interesting to me from a variety of perspectives.

Stay tuned. And so will I.

Edward Abbey, Graham Greene, Jack London. The only current one I can think of is maybe David Brin.