List of female science fiction authors

The novel "Frankenstein", written in 1818 by Mary Shelley, has been calledFact|date=August 2008 the first science fiction novel but there is a persistent and mistaken belief women did not begin writing science fiction until the 1960s and 1970s. Authors like Leigh Brackett, Katherine MacLean and Idris Seabright were writing science fiction almost from the genre's naming and increasing isolation from 1926 (since it had, in fact, been born nearly a century earlier and not ghettoized into specialty pulps marketed to a male focus). Some, like Andre Norton or C. L. Moore were amongst the most popular writers in the field, using initials or masculine pseudonyms to disguise their female identity. Judith Merril was another noted female writer of American science fiction throughout the 1950s and 60s. She also edited the catalytic "Year's Best" anthology series of science fiction stories which ran from 1956 to 1967. Pamela Sargent edited two of the first anthologies of women sf writers, "Women of Wonder" (1974) and "More Women of Wonder" (1976).

1960s science fiction mirrored society as a whole. New Wave writers such as Merril broke old taboos and a new generation of female writers was published. In the late 1960s and 1970s Joanna Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin and Marion Zimmer Bradley began writing about gender issues in explicitly feminist science fiction. New writers such as James Tiptree Jr., Suzy McKee Charnas and Sheri S. Tepper flourished in the 1970s and 1980s and addressed feminism directly. A plethora of female writers published books in the 1980s and 1990s and in the early 21st century publications by female and male writers seem to have kept pace.

List of women science fiction authors

Women authors in the science fiction field include:

A

*Patricia Anthony
*Kim Antieau
*Eleanor Arnason
*Catherine Asaro
*Margaret Atwood
*Jean M. Auel

B

*Kage Baker
*Elizabeth Bear
*Gertrude Barrows Bennett (Francis Stevens)
*Malorie Blackman
*Leigh Brackett
*Marion Zimmer Bradley
*Lois McMaster Bujold
*Emma Bull
*Octavia E. Butler

C

*Pat Cadigan
*Suzy McKee Charnas
*C. J. Cherryh
*Jo Clayton
*Brenda Clough a/k/a B. W. Clough
*Julie E. Czerneda

D

*A. M. Dellamonica
*Candas Jane Dorsey
*L. Timmel Duchamp

E

*Suzette Haden Elgin
*Kate Elliott
*Carol Emshwiller

F

*Nancy Farmer
*Katherine V. Forrest
*Karen Joy Fowler
*Esther Friesner

G

*Mary Gentle
*Lisa Goldstein
*Kathleen Ann Goonan
*Hiromi Goto
*Joyce Ballou Gregorian
*Nicola Griffith
*Eileen Gunn

H

*Barbara Hambly
*Anne Harris
*Clare Winger Harris
*Lala Hasanova (Elizabeth Tudor)
*Zenna Henderson
*Nathalie Henneberg
*P.C. Hodgell
*Nina Kiriki Hoffman
*Nalo Hopkinson
*Tanya Huff

J

*Kij Johnson
*Gwyneth Jones

K

*Janet Kagan
*Ellen Klages
*Nancy Kress
*Marj Krueger

L

*Mercedes Lackey
*Tanith Lee
*Ursula K. Le Guin
*Madeleine L'Engle
*Doris Lessing
*Megan Lindholm
*Kelly Link
*Karin Lowachee
*Elizabeth A. Lynn

M

*Louise Marley
*Lisa Mason
*Julian May
*Anne McCaffrey
*Maureen McHugh
*Vonda N. McIntyre
*Patricia McKillip
*Katherine MacLean
*Judith Merril
*Sarah Micklem
*Syne Mitchell
*Laura J. Mixon
*Elizabeth Moon
*C. L. Moore
*Pat Murphy

N

*Linda Nagata
*Ruth Nestvold
*Lisanne Norman
*Andre Norton
*Naomi Novik

O

*Rebecca Ore

P

*Diana L. Paxson
*Marge Piercy
*Marianne de Pierres
*Doris Piserchia
*Rachel Pollack

R

*Cat Rambo
*Marta Randall
*Justina Robson
*Michaela Roessner
*Mary Rosenblum
*Kristine Kathryn Rusch
*Joanna Russ

*Michelle Sagara
*Jessica Amanda Salmonson
*Pamela Sargent
*Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
*Melissa Scott
*Nisi Shawl
*Susan Shwartz
*Joan Slonczewski
*Melinda M. Snodgrass
*Martha Soukup
*Wen Spencer
*Tricia Sullivan
*Lucy Sussex

T

*Cecilia Tan
*Judith Tarr
*Sheri S. Tepper
*Lois Tilton
*James Tiptree, Jr (Alice Sheldon)
*Karen Traviss
*Mary A. Turzillo
*Sydney J. Van Scyoc

V

*Carrie Vaughn
*Joan D. Vinge
*Elisabeth Vonarburg

W

*Sage Walker
*Jo Walton
*Kathy D. Wentworth
*Leslie What
*Cherry Wilder
*Kate Wilhelm
*Liz Williams
*Connie Willis
*M.K. Wren
*Heidi Wyss

Y

*Jane Yolen

Z

*Sarah Zettel

Early Female SF Writers

*Louisa May Alcott (pseudonym: A. M. Barnard)
*Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton (pseudonym: Frank Lim)
*Charlotte Brontë
*Marie Corelli
*Charlotte Perkins Gilman
*Mary Griffith
*Eliza Haywood
*Jane C. Loudon (originally using male pseudonym)
*Rose Macaulay
*Margaret Oliphant
*Rosa Praed
*Mary Shelley a/k/a Mary Godwin
*Catherine Helen Spence
*Harriet Prescott Spofford

ee also

*List of female writers
* Women in science fiction
* Broad Universe
* WisCon

External links

* [http://wiki.feministsf.net feminist science fiction wiki]
* [http://feministsf.org/authors/wsfwriters.html Index to Female Writers in Science Fiction, Fantasy & Utopia: eighteenth Century to the Present]
* [http://www.trivium.net/womenshistorymonth/resources/science.htm "The Women Were Always There: The Obligatory History Lesson"]