#womeninsf

[la_marquise]

Last Friday, I had a mild hissy fit on twitter. I'd seen one too many tweets about Exciting! New! Books! by! Men!. I'd read one too many reviews in which a male writer was praised for something that a woman had done in an earlier, ignored book, or that a woman writer had been upbraided for. I'd seen one too many reports about girl cooties.
I started a hash tag -- women in sf -- and asked for names and recommendations. I hoped for some responses from friends or friends of friends. What I got... It ran all weekend and involved people from all over. It was fabulous. I've archived the tweets on Storify: you can find them here: http://storify.com/KariSperring/women-in-sf

And here, kindly compiled by the fabulous gillpolack are the

AJ Fitzwater
Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree
Aliette de Bodard
Alison Littlewood
Aliya Whiteley
Amal El-Mohtar
Andre Norton
Andrea Hairston
Angela Carter
Anne Bishop
Anne Gay
Anne McCaffrey
Brenda Cooper
C.J. Cherryh
C.L.Moore
C.L. Rossman
C.S. Friedman
Caitlín R. Kiernan
Carol Berg
Carol Emshwiller
Carolyn Ives Gilman
Carrie Vaughn
Catharine Asaro
Catherine Jinks
Catherine Lundoff
Catherynne Valente
Cathrine Lundoff
CE Murphy
Ceila Friedman
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Cherith Baldry
Claire Corbett
Claire Light
Connie Willis
CS Friedman
Dawn Cook/Kim Harrison
Dawn Lloyd
Deborah J Ross
Deirdre Murphy
Diana Wynne Jones
Donna McMahon
Doris Lessing
Dru Pagliasotti
Eileen Gunn
Ekaterina Sedia
Eleanor Arnason
Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Moon
Elizabeth Vonarburg
Emma Bull
Erika Tracy
Frewin Jones
Gail Carriger
Gill Alderman
Gwyneth Jones (Ann Halam)
Helen Oyeyemi
Hiromi Goto
Holly Black
Ilona Andrews
J Damask
Jaine Fenn
Jan Mark
Jane Donawerth
Jane Loudon Webb
Jane Rogers
Jayge Carr
Jaymee Goh
Jennifer Fallon
Jennifer Marie Brissett
Jennifer Matarese
Jennifer Pelland
Jessica E. Keiser
Jo Clayton
Jo Walton
Joan D. Vinge
Joan Slonczewski
Joanna Russ
Josephine Saxton
Judith Merrill
Judith Tarr
Julian May
Julie Bertagna
Julie E. Czerneda
JulietEMcKenna
Justina Robson
Kaaron Warren
Kage Baker
Karen Joy Fowler
Karen Miller
Karen Traviss
Kari Sperring
Karin Low
Kassandra Kelly
Kate Elliott (Alis Rasmussen)
Kate Forsyth
Kate Wilhelm
Katharine E Kimbriel
Katharine Kerr
Kathleen Ann Goonan
Kathryn Eliska Kimbriel
Kay Kenyon
Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Eskridge
Kelly Jennings
Kierstyn Jones
Kij Johnson
Kim Harrison
Kim Lakin Smith
Kim Westwood
Kit Reed
K.J. Bishop
L. Timmel Duchamp
L.A. Banks
Larissa Lai
Laura J. Mixon
Lauren Beukes
Laurie J Marks
Leigh Brackett
Leigh Kennedy
Libba Bray
Linda Nagata
Lisa Yaszek
Lisanne Norman
Liz Williams
Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois Gresh
Louise Lawrence
Louise Marley
Lucy Sussex
Lyda Morehouse
Madeleine L'Engle
Malorie Blackman
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Cavendish
Margaret Weis
Marge Piercy
Margo Lanagan
Marianne de Pierres
Marie Jakober
Marion Arnott
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marta Randall
Martha Wells
Mary Doria Russell
Mary Gentle
Mary Rosenblum
Mary Shelley.
Maureen McHugh
Maxine McArthur
Maya Bohnhoff
Meg Mundell
Meg Rosoff
Melanie Rees
Melissa Mead
Melissa Scott
Mercedes Lackey
Michelle Marquadt
Michelle Sagara West
Misha
M.M. Buckner
Molly Gloss
N. K. Jemisin
Nalo Hopkinson
Nancy Farmer
Nancy Fulda
Nancy Jane Moore
Nancy Kress
Naomi Mitchison
Nicola Griffith
Nina Allen
Nisi Shawl
Nnedi Okorafor
Octavia Butler.
Pamela Sargent
Pat Cadigan
Pat Murphy
Patricia Anthony
Patricia Bowne
Pauline Gedge
Phyllis Gotlieb
Phyllis Irene Radford
R A McAvoy
Rachel Caine
Rachel Pollack
Rachel Swirsky
Regina de Búrca
Richelle Mead
R.J. Astruc
Robin Hobb (Megan Lindholm)
Robin McKinley
Rose Lemberg
Ruth Nestvold
S. L. Viehl
Samantha Sotto
Sandra Odell
Sara Creasy
Sara Hosey
Sarah Ann Watts
Sarah Hall
Sarah Zettel
Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant
Sharon Fisher
Sharon Shinn
Sheri S. Tepper
Shweta Narayan
Sisters of Battle. warhammer40k.wikia.com/wik...
Sophia McDougall
Sue Thomas
Sue Lange
Sunny Moraine
Susan Palwick
Suzanne Clarke
Suzanne Collins
Suzette Haden Elgin
Suzy McKee Charnas
Sylvia Engdahl
Tamora Pierce
Tanith Lee
Tanya Huff
Therese Arkenberg
Trish Sullivan
Trudi Canavan
Ursula K. LeGuin
Vandana Singh
Vonda N McIntyre
Wendy Palmer
Wilhelmina Baird
Yoon Ha Lee
Yvonne Rousseau
Zenna Henderson
<b>Additional Names</b>
Alison Sinclair (thanks to <lj user=">)
Janet Kagan
Ann Crispin (both via jimhines)
Laura Anne Gilman (via dancinghorse)
Diane Duane
Barbara Hambly (these 2 via marina_bonomi)
M. J Engh
Amy Thomson
Rosemary Kirstein (these 3 via rysmiel)
Monica Hughes (via blufire)
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Sharon Lee (both via suricattus)
Shannon Page
Kristine Smith
R M Meluch (these 2 from puddleshark)
Marjorie Liu (from sillylillybird)
Alison Goodman
Barbara Clegg
Cecilia Dart-Thornton
Cherie Priest
Chris Moriarty
Elizabeth Anne Scarborough
Jacqueline Rayner
Kate Orman
Katherine MacLean
Lloyd Rose
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Rebecca Levene
Rona Munro
Steph Swainston
Una McCormack
Wilmar Shiras (these 16 from nwhyte)
Alex Bell (added by me)
Elizabeth Hand (via bugshaw)
Ann Maxwell (from anna_wing and zaan)
Doris Piserchia (from vaughan_stanger)
Marjorie Bradley Kellogg (via zaan).
Rob Thurman
Patricia McKillip
Catherine Webb
Adrienne Martine-Barnes (these four from anna_wing)
Greer Gilman
Naomi Novik (these 2 via bohemiancoast)
Kathryn Burdekin (from dorispossum)
Alma Alexander
Sandra McDonald (from anef)
Karin Lowachee
Sarah Hoyt
Michaela Roessner
Rosemary Edgehill (Eluki Bes Shahar) (these 4 via mectech)
Heather Gladney (from joecrow)
Gaelyn Gordon (from selidor)

There are so many great writers on this list, and from many different places -- not just the UK and the USA, but Singapore and India and Japan and New Zealand and South Africa and Australia. More names are welcome. These women are writing our futures. They deserve respect. They deserve space, in reviews and blogs, on shelves and award lists. There are more women out there, writing fine sf, in many languages. Let me know who's missing, who you love, who you want to read, who you feel deserves wider recognition.
And, to all you women writers of sf: keep writing!

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Wow! What an awesome list!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Isn't it? I am looking forward to reading some of the women who are new to me.

[timscience.livejournal.com]

Alison Sinclair.
(I really liked "Cavalcade" and "Blueheart" although those are fairly old now).
Don't have a twitter so you'll have to tweet it for me.....

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Thank you. She should definitely be there.

[daedalus-x.livejournal.com]

Fantasy Cafe is having a "Women in SF/F Month" and today's interview was of the person running SF MistressWorks, dedicated to reviews of pre-21st century science fiction and fantasy by women writers.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Thank you!

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Janet Kagan. Ann Crispin.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Excellent writers both: thank you, Jim.

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Great list, thank you for posting it.
May I also suggest Barbara Hambly (she writes and has written in a lot of genres: historical, fantasy, horror,SF), Diane Duane,and Diana Paxsons?

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Oops, sorry: Diana Paxons writes fantasy, not SF

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

A wonderful, though inevitably incomplete, list.

Ann Halam is another.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Yes, but she is a pseudonym of Gwyneth Jones. Similarly, Megan Lindholm should be attached to Robin Hobb or vice versa.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I would suggest M.J. Engh, Amy Thomson and Rosemary Kirstein.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Thank you!

[blufive.livejournal.com]

Monica Hughes.
I read her stuff a long, long, time ago, (when I was about 10-12ish?) but I must have liked it, because hers is one of very few writers' names I can still remember from back then...

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

Her and H M (helen mary) Hoover were touchstones of my childrens library reading.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Laura Anne Gilman. Has written sf shorts.

I love the names that are there and that are being added. Some are longtime favorites.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

She has! I should have remembered that.

[lagilman]

also: Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Sharon Lee

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

D'oh. Of course: I've added them.

[aberwyn.livejournal.com]

Kate Elliott and I have both written SF though we're better known for Fantasy.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

You're both there already, Kit!

[calendula-witch.livejournal.com]

I've got some SF out there (though, true, mostly fantasy).

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

In you go!

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Would be interesting to poll those better known for fantasy and find out how many were steered away from sf. Or never even tried because "sf doesn't sell."

Except when it does.

[aberwyn.livejournal.com]

I was steered away because "SF by women doesn't sell, so we won't publish it". HarperCollinsUK told me that was the reason they kept billing SNARE as fantasy, when it's nothing of the sort.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Yet in almost every discusion of sf and writers thereof, either women aren't included at all, or else one or two, always the same two, and they're both dead.

Love, c.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Ursula's still very much alive. She's a frequent "We included a woman! Look!" token.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Also Kristine Smith & R M Meluch.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Added.

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

I love that your name is on the list :-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I as charmed by that, as I have written maybe two sf shorts ('Strong Brown God' in Glorifying Terrorism, ed. Farah Mendlesohn, and 'Coldrush', in The Bitten Word, ed. Ian Whates). I don't know who suggested me.

[sillylilly-bird.livejournal.com]

Marjorie Liu

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Added.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Wow! Look at us!!!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Isn't it wonderful? There are so many fine writers there.

[nwhyte]

Ten months ago I did an audit of the sff books by women which I have read since I started bookblogging. Not all of those are sf rather than fantasy, and you have most of the names that are. I would add, however:

Alison Goodman
Barbara Clegg (Doctor Who)
Cecilia Dart-Thornton
Cherie Priest
Chris Moriarty
Elizabeth Anne Scarborough
Jacqueline Rayner (Doctor Who)
Kate Orman (Doctor Who)
Katherine MacLean
Lloyd Rose (Doctor Who)
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Rebecca Levene
Rona Munro (Doctor Who)
Steph Swainston
Una McCormack (Doctor Who)
Wilmar Shiras

(Where I put "Doctor Who" I just mean that I have only read Doctor Who novels by them; they will almost certainly have written other sf that I haven't read.)

And just considering Who in all its guises, there is a long list, though perhaps not long enough.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Added: thank you.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Great list - plus Elizabeth Hand?

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Oh, of course. Her books are marvellous.

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Patricia McKillip, P C Hodgell, Adrienne Martine-Barnes, Rob Thurman, Diana Wynne Jones, Ann Maxwell, Kate Griffin.

Some of these are fantasy only,so far, so you might not wish to include them.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Technically this is sf: I know Diana wrote at least 2 sf novels, and Ann Maxwell has written several, but I'm less sure about the rest.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Several that other people have mentioned in comments (especially Rosemary Kirstein), plus Naomi Novik, Greer Gilman (nineweaving, and adding Megan Lindholm to Robin Hobb.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Certainly.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Our very own Farah Mendelssohn?

And pretty please to stick the list behind ye cut? It takes up an awful lot of page space

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Farah is on the critic's list. And yes, I'll cut -- I posted in a hurry yesterday.

[vaughan-stanger.livejournal.com]

Doris Piserchia for Mister Justice and Star Riders (at least). Very strange SF, but in a good way.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Oh, how did she not get included? She was one of the first women sf writers I read.

[zaan.livejournal.com]

Ann Maxwell - Fire Dancer series. Only 2-3 books sadly but excellent
Marjorie Bradley Kellogg - Lear's Daughters series - Wave and Flame and Reign of Fire. (didn't like her other stuff but these 2 are excellent!)

Just to name 2!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Goodness, yes.