Seventyfive years of fabulous writers



Women? Writing science fiction? Editing science fiction? Even *gasp* reading it? Don’t let the blurb writer of Sign of the Labrys hear about it… Sandra McDonald has put together a periodic table of 117 women in science fiction, available at her website as well as a youtube video. Below is the list of featured writers, authors and others. I’ve bolded the ones I own books of, italicised, the women I’ve read something of (short stories count) and starred those I never heard of. How many of the following do you know? And who do you miss? Myself, just looking at my own books, I don’t see Liz Williams, Patricia Wrede or Josephine Saxton.

  • 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
  • *Jessia 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 Kurz
  • *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