The Nina Allen 101 Women to Read Meme

[james_davis_nicoll]

101 Female F&SF authors you could try:


The first 101 who came to my mind: generate your own lists!

Lynn Abbey
Eleanor Arnason
Kage Baker
Elizabeth Bear
Leigh Brackett
Lauren Beukes
Lois McMaster Bujold
Emma Bull
Octavia Butler
Pat Cadigan
Jacqueline Carey
Joy Chant
Suzy McKee Charnas
C. J. Cherryh
Jo Clayton
Brenda W. Clough
Julie Czerneda
Kara Dalkey
Pamela Dean
Candas Jane Dorsey
Amanda Downum
Debra Doyle
Diane Duane
Claudia J. Edwards
Doris Egan
Phyllis Eisenstein
Ru Emerson
C.S. Friedman
Sheila Finch
Kelley Eskridge
Mary Gentle
Lisa Goldstein
Kate Griffin
Nicola Griffith
Barbara Hambly
Dorothy Heydt (AKA Katherine Blake)
P.C. Hodgell
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Nalo Hopkinson
Tanya Huff
Monica Hughes
N.K. Jemisin
Kij Johnson
Diana Wynne Jones
Gwyneth Jones
Janet Kagan
Leigh Kennedy
Lee Killough
Rosemary Kirstein
Mary Robinette Kowal
Katherine Kurtz
Justine Larbalestier
Ursula K. LeGuin
Tanith Lee
Megan Lindholm
Karin Lowachee
Elizabeth A. Lynn
R.A. MacAvoy
Ardath Mayhar
Maureen McHugh
Vonda McIntyre
Patricia A. McKillip
Judith Merril
Miyuki Miyabe
Sarah Monette
Elizabeth Moon
CL Moore
Linda Nagata
Naomi Novik
Noriko Ogiwara
Nnedi Okorafor
Rebecca Ore
Pat Murphy
Susan Palwick
Tamora Pierce
Rachel Pollack
Marta Randall
Kit Reed
Michaela Roessner
Pamela Sargent
Melissa Scott
Eluki Bes Shahar (AKA Rosemary Edghill)
Nisi Shawl
Kristine Smith
Sherwood Smith
Melinda Snodgrass
Midori Snyder
Nancy Springer
Martha Soukup
Judith Tarr
Karen Traviss
Lisa Tuttle
Joan Vinge
Paula Volsky
Élisabeth Vonarburg
Jo Walton
Deborah Wheeler (Deborah J. Ross)
Liz Williams
Janny Wurts
Patricia Wrede
Sarah Zettel

Comments

[wild_irises]

Just because I expect you want this right, "Beukes."

I'm curious about who's missing: Marion Zimmer Bradley? Delia Sherman? Ellens Klages and Kushner? Terri Windling? Hiromi Goto?

I think it's a fine list; I'm just also curious ...

[wordweaverlynn]

Joanna Russ. James Tiptree, Jr. Andre Norton.

More recently: Cat Valente. Shelley Jackson. Kathleen Ann Goonan. Vylar Kaftan, Rachel Swirsky. Madeleine Robins. Mary Doria Russell. Kelly Link. Sarah Hall. Greer Gilman.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

61/101 here.

[dexitroboper (from livejournal.com)]

Does this assume everyone's read Andre Norton and Anne McCaffrey?

[heron61.livejournal.com]

That's an excellent point, I initially assumed it was a list of living or recent authors, but clearly not with Moore and Brackett on the list. I'm also surprised that Martha Wells isn't on the list and I just noticed the lack of Joanna Russ.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

I too noticed the lack of Russ, and would have added Zenna Henderson.

Mind you, there's plenty on that list that I *haven't* read yet.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's just the first 101 female sf writers who came to mind. Feel free to generate your own list.

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

Wot? No Cat Valente or Margo Lanagan? (Or Kate Forsythe or Juliet Marillier or Sarah Douglass or Trudi Canavan or... - but then I guess I'm being parochial)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

It's just the first 101 female sf writers who came to mind. Feel free to generate your own list.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I've finished and enjoyed books by 55, and attempted books by a few more. Definitely a good list, and several other authors on it are people I've been meaning to read novels by. There are also 4 or 5 names on the list I've never heard of - I'm definitely writing those names down. OTOH, the degree to which Karen Traviss doesn't belong on that list or any other list of good authors is rather impressive.

[dagbrown.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering how long this obsession with the gender of an author/panelist/judge/editor/publisher has to go on before turning into pure sexism. Or did I miss the analyses of the relative paucity of men in the romance genre, which way outsells science fiction?

The last bit of SF I read was by a woman as it turns out--Peta Hewitt. It might not count, though, because it's a webcomic instead of something which went through a formal editor. You can tell when her comic started to get attention internationally though--she started adding footnotes with translations of some of the more opaque Australianisms that her characters used.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

As long as major publishers produce lists of significant SF like Gollancz' Masterworks, I think the day SF becomes a cruel gynocracy is still sometime off.

Series	                      Total	Female	Male	F/T
Numbered paperback series	73	4	69	0.05
Unpublished titles 	         2		2	0
Hardcover titles	        10	1	9	0.1
New design	                62     12      50	0.19

[dagbrown.livejournal.com]

That's nice.

It's just that your "you go girl" drumbeat has stopped feeling like promotion of equality, and has started to take on a seriously patronizing undertone. Although I suppose shitting on Connie Willis makes up for all of that, right?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess that's just a burden I will have to live with.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

So, that's "fear the coming gynocracy", and "it's patronizing." I need at least three more variations for a bingo.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

sly implication that you're obsessed due to a lack of sexual satisfaction

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Hmm...

"This is becoming boring."

"Shouldn't you really be looking at _____ instead?"

"Male authors who are supporters of feminism should count too."

"Isn't the whole looking at gender thing inherently discriminatory?"

"PC!"

[sanskritabelt.livejournal.com]

I liked that dude's "well in my experience, only women make lists" from one of your posts a couple weeks ago.

[laetitia-apis.livejournal.com]

> I'm wondering how long this obsession with the
> gender of an author/panelist/judge/editor/publisher
> has to go on before turning into pure sexism.

There was a time when the obsession *wasn't* patronizing?

[dagbrown.livejournal.com]

It wasn't when it was just an observation, the first couple of times. When it turned into a full-blown obsession, it became patronizing.