(compiled with the help of Ian Sales www.iansales.com and others)
This is an amended version of the flier I rushed out at Eastercon this year. The idea was to counter one of the arguments about Women SF writers: that there aren’t many of them out there.
The parameters I took were broad, work which might be considered borderline SF is included, but those who’s work as I’m aware of it is purely Fantasy (eg JK Rowling) have been omitted. Obviously there will be errors and blindspots, but hopefully this is a starting point, a few ideas for discussion, some reading suggestions, or just a reminder. In producing this list I have been prompted to go back and re-read several books I’d ‘forgotten’. Many on the list are just names to me, long out of print or newcomers alike. But that, to me, is the point.
Gill Alderman
Nina Allen
Patricia Anthony
Eleanor Arnason
Catherine Asaro
Margaret Atwood
Kage Baker
Elizabeth Bear
Lauren Beukes
Jay D Blakeney
Leigh Brackett
Marion Zimmer Bradley
MM Buckner
Lois McMaster Bujold
Emma Bull
Katherine Burdekin
Octavia Butler
Laura Bynum
Pat Cadigan
Angela Carter
Suzy McKee Charnas
CJ Cherryh
StormConstantine
Sara Creasy
Julie E Czernada
AM Dellamonica
Emily Devenport
Esme Dodderidge
Candas Jane Dorsey
L Timmel Duchamp
Suzette Haden Elgin
Margaret Elphinstone
Carol Emshwiller
MJ Engh
Kelley Eskridge
Bernadine Evaristo
Zoe Fairbairns
Jaine Fenn
Sheila Finch
Karen Joy Fowler
CS Friedman
Mary Gentle
Carolyn Ives Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Lisa Goldstein
Kathleen Ann Goonan
Phyllis Gotlieb
Nicola Griffith
Andrea Hairston
Sarah Hall
Cicely Hamilton
Elizabeth Hand
Amanda Hemingway
Zenna Henderson
Cecelia Holland
Nalo Hopkinson
Tonya Huff
Shelley Jackson
PD James
NK Jemisin
Jane Jensen
Liz Jensen
Kij Johnson
Gwyneth Jones
Marjorie Bradley Kellogg
Leigh Kennedy
Kay Kenyon
Katharine Kerr
Rosemary Kirstein
Nancy Kress
Tanith Lee
Ursula K Le Guin
Rhoda Lerman
Doris Lessing
SN Lewitt
Megan Lindholm
Karin Lowachee
RA MacAvoy
Anne McCaffrey
Maureen F McHugh
Vonda N McIntyre
Katherine MacLean
Louise Marley
Susan R Matthews
Julian May
Ardath Mayhar
RM Meluch
LydiaMillett
Misha
Naomi Mitchison
Judith Moffett
Elizabeth Moon
CL Moore
Lyda Morehouse
Chris Moriarty
Janet E Morris
Bharati Mukherjee
Pat Murphy
Linda Nagata
Audrey Niffenegger
Andre Norton
Claudia O’Keefe
Nnedi Okorafor
Rebecca Ore
Jane Palmer
Severna Park
Jennifer Pelland
Marge Piercy
Marianne de Pierres
Rachel Pollack
Marta Randall
Kit Reed
Justina Robson
Michaela Roessner
Mary Rosenblum
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Joanna Russ
Mary Doria Russell
Pamela Sargent
Josephine Saxton
Jody Scott
Melissa Scott
Ekaterina Sedia
Mary Shelley
Nisi Shawl
Susan Shwartz
Alison Sinclair
Johanna Sinisalo
Vandana Singh
Sydney J van Scyoc
Joan Slonczewski
Tricia Sullivan
Steph Swainston
Rachel Swirsky
Sheri S Tepper
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
Sue Thomas
James Tiptree Jr
Karen Traviss
Lisa Tuttle
SL Viehl
Joan D Vinge
Élisabeth Vonarburg
Jo Walton
Kaaron Warren
Jane Webb
Kate Wilhelm
Liz Williams
Lynda Williams
Connie Willis
Janette Winterson
N Lee Wood
Virginia Woolf
MK Wren
Helen Wright
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Ann Tonsor Zeddies
Sarah Zettel
Great list! Thank you.
Sonya Dorman.
And would you count Jessica Amanda Salmondson or Louise Cooper??
Ze: yes to Dorman and Salmondson. My perception of Cooper is of her writing Fantasy but I’m willing to be enlightened.
One thing that seems to have happened historically is that much women’s SF is recategorised as Fantasy or more recently as YA, with the aim of belittling their work. My point has been to say, no, these women do write SF. I like a lot of fantasy so its not a negative to say someone wrote fantasy.
Louise Lawrence
Jane Fletcher
Fleur Beale
Kate Elliott
Jean Ure
Doris Egan
AC Crispin
Caroline Forbes
Katherine Forrest
Monica Hughes
Diana Wynne Jones
Madeleine L’Engle
Margaret Mahy
Patricia McKillip
Willow Davis Roberts
Leigh Richards
and Tonya Huff should be Tanya Huff
A few additions:
Dorothy Allison
Kim Antieau
Constance Ash
Hilari Bell
Gun Brooke
Jo Clayton
Brande Clough
Mirian Allen DeFord
Colleen Cooper DeMaio
Phyllis Eisenstein
Ru Emerson
Melanie Fletcher
Susan Fry
Jewelle Gomez
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Monica Hughes
Janis Ian
Anna Kavan
Lee Killough
Ellen Klages
Sue Lange
Mary Soon Lee
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Jane Lindskold
Kelly Link
Holly Lisle
Rosaleen Love
Lois Lowry
Elizabeth A Lynn
Lisa Mason
Katherine MacLean was really Katharine MacLean
Judith Merril (you shouldn’t have missed that name!)
Sophia MacDougall
Donna McMahon
Laura Mixon
Ruth Nestvold
Ruth L Ozeki
Ayn Rand
Selina Rosen
Margaret St. Clair
Melinda M Snodgrass
Cecilia Tan
Mary A Turzillo
Leslie What
Monique Wittig
Patricia Wrightson
Pamela Zoline
A good initiative. Keep it up. It’ll be really interesting to see how many names the gets to be… but obviously it’s difficult to draw lines. I’ve tried to stick to authors who’ve written at least some works that are uneqivocally sf.
Best,
John-Henri
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I’d like to add BSFA award winner Aliette de Bodard, and Una McCormack who has published numerous short stories in both SF & F as well as tie-in novels for Deep Space Nine and Doctor Who. You might also want to consider Jo Anderton, whose debut Debris is described as Science Fantasy.
Wot, no Anna Kavan? No Kelly Link? (at least one SF story in Pretty Monsters).
(Also: Jeanette Winterson).
Then again, I could take your 150+ women and play you 2900 men (mostly) in the Encyclopedia of SF, most of whom don’t rise above the routine. So the question is, how good does a writer have to be to make your cut? Worth reading anything they wrote, or what?
She did wave – Kim Lakin Smith!
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A few you may have missed:
Dorothy Allison
Kim Antieau
Catherine Asaro
Constance Ash
Kage Baker
Hillari Bell
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Gun Brooke
Octavia Butler
Pat Cadigan
Suzy McKee Charnas
Brenda Clough
Jo Clayton
Colleen Cooper DeMaio
Phyllis Eisenstein
Melanie Fletcher
Susan Fry
Jewelle Gomez
Elizabeth Hand
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Monica Hughes
Janis Ian
Anna Kavan
Katherine Kerr
Lee Killough
Ellen Klages
Sue Lange
Mary Soon Lee
Tanith Lee
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Janet Lindskold
Kelly Link
Holly Lisle
Rosaleen Love
Lois Lowry
Elizabeth A Lynn
Sophia MacDougall
Lisa Mason
Vonda N McIntyre
Donna McMahon
Judith Merril
Laura Mixon
Pat Murphy
Ruth Nestvold
Ruth L Ozeki
Aun Rand
Justina Robson
Selina Rosen
Melinda M Snodgrass
Margaret St Clair
Tricia Sullivan
Cecilia Taon
Mary A Turzillo
Leslie What
Kate Wilhelm
Liz Williams
Connie Willis
Monique Wittig
Patricia Wrightson
Sarah Zettel
Pamela Zoline
Regards,
John-Henri
Thanks John-Henri, some names new to me there, though a large proportion of them are already on the list, I think you’ll find.
Off the top of my head, from the 80s:
Caroline Forbes
Anna Wilson
Sandi Hall
Anna Livia
I wonder where they are now…
Do you want to limit this to English-language authors, or should other languages be included as well? There is a fair number of women sf authors in German, Spanish, Finnish (you did have Johanna Sinisalo, didn’t you; there are others) and French, though in all honesty very few in some European languages, including Swedish.
PS, Yes, I saw there a duplications, sorry about that. I initially didn’t include them when typing the names into the comments space here, but that entire list disappeared without a trace when I tried posting it, and so I just put up a copy of the entire list I worked from, which included both the names missing from yours and a number of authors compiled for another list. Even so, I do believe I added a fair number.
You may be interested in the reading list of online editions of Pre-1923 Utopias and Science Fiction by Women which I’ve just put up at http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/_collections/utopias/utopias.html. — Mary Mark Ockerbloom, A Celebration of Women Writers
Great list Mary, thanks. One author on there that I already had is Jane Webb, author of The Mummy! Curious that she is listed on that list as Mrs Jane Loudon and occasionally elsewhere as Jane Loudon Webb as The Mummy! was published before she met John Claudius Loudon. It was innovations in her novel that led Loudon to seek an introduction.
Great list! Here are a couple more:
Lucy A. Snyder
Cat Rambo