There’s an interesting meme going around based on Sandra McDonald’s periodic table of women in science fiction. At Wiscon this weekend, an audience member asked if women weren’t writing hard SF. I said that they were, but since I hadn’t done my homework couldn’t come up with a good list. My feeling is that fairly few new writers are doing hard SF in novel form in general.
But, behold! Sandra McDonald has put together a partial list of women in SF over the last 75 years.
On to the meme…
Bold the women by whom you own books
Italicize those by whom you’ve read something of (short stories count)
*Star those you don’t recognize
Andre Norton
C. L. Moore
Evangeline Walton*
Leigh Brackett*
Judith Merril*
Joanna Russ*
Margaret St. Clair*
Katherine MacLean*
Carol Emshwiller
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Zenna Henderson*
Madeline L’Engle
Angela Carter
Ursula LeGuin
Anne McCaffrey
Diana Wynne Jones
Kit Reed
James Tiptree, Jr.
Rachel Pollack
Jane Yolen
Marta Randall*
Eleanor Arnason
Ellen Asher
Patricia A. McKillip
Suzy McKee Charnas*
Lisa Tuttle
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Tanith Lee
Pamela Sargent
Jayge Carr*
Vonda McIntyre
Octavia E. Butler
Kate Wilhelm
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro*
Sheila Finch
Mary Gentle*
Jessica Amanda Salmonson*
C. J. Cherryh
Joan D. Vinge
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Ellen Kushner
Ellen Datlow
Nancy Kress
Pat Murphy
Lisa Goldstein*
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Mary Turzillo
Connie Willis
Barbara Hambly
Nancy Holder*
Sheri S. Tepper
Melissa Scott*
Margaret Atwood
Lois McMaster Bujold
Jeanne Cavelos
Karen Joy Fowler
Leigh Kennedy
Judith Moffett
Rebecca Ore
Emma Bull
Pat Cadigan
Kathyrn Cramer
Laura Mixon
Eileen Gunn
Elizabeth Hand
Kij Johnson
Delia Sherman
Elizabeth Moon
Michaela Roessner
Terri Windling
Sharon Lee
Sherwood Smith
Katherine Kurtz
Margo Lanagan
Laura Resnick
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Sheila Williams
Farah Mendlesohn
Gwyneth Jones
Ardath Mayhar
Esther Friesner
Debra Doyle
Nicola Griffith
Amy Thomson
Martha Wells*
Catherine Asaro
Kate Elliott
Kathleen Ann Goonan
Shawna McCarthy
Caitlin Kiernan
Maureen McHugh
Cheryl Morgan
Nisi Shawl
Mary Doria Russell
Kage Baker
Kelly Link
Nancy Springer*
J. K. Rowling
Nalo Hopkinson
Ellen Klages
Tanarive Due*
M. Rickert
Theodora Goss
Mary Anne Mohanraj
S. L. Viehl*
Jo Walton
Kristine Smith
Deborah Layne
Cherie Priest
Wen Spencer
K. J. Bishop
Catherynne M. Valente
Elizabeth Bear
Ekaterina Sedia
Naomi Novik
Mary Robinette Kowal
Ann VanderMeer
I’m willing to bet that I’ve read fiction by several of the people that I’ve starred. It’s hard to track short fiction down sometimes.
How about you?
If you’ve watched Empire Strikes Back then you’ve sampled Leigh Brackett’s work.
You know, the only problem with limiting the PT to 75 years is that you miss the very first well-known science fiction story (and author), waaaay before even Verne and Wells – I’m of course talking about Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. Wasn’t the only SF she wrote, either; she seemed to have a habit of it. If Andre Norton is the Grand Dame of SF, then certainly Shelley is the Queen Mum, having broken into the popular market a full century before The Prince Commands.
Oh, DUH. The Helium spot is missing in the table! Such a noble position. 🙂 And “Sh” isn’t taken. (You couldn’t just use S, because, well, symmetry with “He”… or maybe you could? Anyway. Easily rectified.
Oh, you really should read some Kate Elliott! I know, I know, she writes nothing but long series of huge books, but they’re so good! If you want a standalone, The Golden Key – collaboration with Jennifer Roberson and Melanie Rawn – is wonderful, and basically unique in historical fantasy.
Loved the meme. Filled in mine here, including a couple of dozen more women: http://skottk.typepad.com/blog/2010/06/women-in-science-fiction-1.html
Yikes! Your asterisks remind me (yet again grumble grumble grumble) that I’m of another generation!
And yet: Joanna Russ?! Damn. Kids these days…
I’m gonna have to trade in my Y chromosome. When I did the list, only three names came up asterisked; only five others came up in plain roman type; and well over half the list was in bold.
Either that, or I’ll have to accept that I’m just a nerd Of a Certain Age who has consumed anything readable for a very, very long time…