A leading feminist writer, a nuclear freeze activist and the head of the National Conference of Black Lawyers are among the 41 women from the U.S. and five foreign countries who have been named fellows for 1985-86 at the Mary Ingrahan Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College.

Tillie Olsen, the author of "Tell Me A Riddle," will be working on a book of essays tentatively called "Harvesting". Olsen was a member of the first group of women to spend a year at the Institute in 1960.

Pam Solo, co-founder of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign and former campaign manager for Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (D. Colorado), will conduct an analysis of the nuclear freeze campaign and its historical role in shaping policy and public support for new definitions of national security.

Margaret A. Burnham, director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers and a former Justice of the Boston Municipal Court of the Trial Court of Massachusetts, plan to study selected issues bearing on the legal treatment of minority women.

Thinking

The group also includes a film-maker, two poets, a physicist, and two anthropologists. The fellows receive stipends from Harvard and other institutions toward study and living expenses during the year they spent at the Institute.