Happy Women’s Month! I wanted to take a look at some notable women in the science-fiction space to help diversify our bookshelves. We all know Mary Shelley is credited with the birth of science-fiction with her novel, Frankenstein, and women have continued to contribute to the genre ever since. Let’s take a look at some of these lovely ladies:
Ann Aguirre (1970 - present)
A happily-ever-after softee, Aguirre writes speculative fiction and romance for both young adult and adult audiences. He website says, “she loves video games, Korean dramas, music, dogs and cats, and staring at the sea.” Her Sirantha Jax series is an intriguing space opera romance and the Enclave series is a dystopian novel set in New York.
Notable books:
Sirantha Jax series
Enclave series
The Dred Chronicles
C.J. Cherryh (1942 - present)
She has written more than eighty books, and is a winner of three Hugo Awards. She was also named a Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America. She worked as a teacher and would write in her spare time up until 1979 when she began being published and quit to write full time. Using her research in psychology, language, history, and archeology, Cherryh created realistic fictional worlds. She also used an “intense third person” approach to most of her novels. She resides with her wife in Washington.
Notable Works:
Downbelow Station
Cyteen
Foreigner series
Karen Bao (1997 - present)
An author who also actively works in a lab studying mosquito brains. She mostly writes in the young adult sphere, but she brings to life diverse characters. Dove Arising is about life on the moon after earth is destroyed and Pangu’s Shadow is a frenemy murder mystery in space. Being a newer author in the field, having written Dove Arising at 17, I have hopes she’ll continue to bring different perspectives and wonderful stories to the genre.
Notable Works:
Dove Arising Series
Pangu’s Shadow (2024)
Octavia E. Butler (1947 - 2006)
In 1995, she was the first author to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. Using her experiences as living as an African American in the 1960’s, Butler enriched her science-fiction stories. She was raised by her widowed mother and grandmother, and would accompany her mother on housemaid jobs, seeing first hand how employers treated her mother. Her works were warnings about the road the US was heading.
Notable Works:
Pattern Master
Parable of the Sower
Bloodchild
Speech Sounds
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929 - 2018)
She was brought up by anthropologists and biographer, Le Guin went on to college to ger a Nater’s in romance literature of the middle ages and Renaissance. Influenced by feminism, Carl Jung, and Taoism, Le Guin tied beautiful, fantastical stories together. Starting with utopian societies, her works show the differences of extremes. She had a strong belief that “that science fiction and fantasy, though fascinating in themselves, are also essential literary constructs or tools through which the world could profitably be described – but only if one honored the tools.”
Notable Works:
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
Vonda N. McIntyre (1948 - 2019)
A traveling girl who grew up to write Stars Wars and Star Trek novels and sci-fi TV shows. Beginning as a biology student she left the PhD program to pursue writing. Her book, Dreamsnake, “explores the interpersonal relationships (not always traditional) of various communities, child abuse, fertility control and the emotional impact” on the character Snake. Moving to themes of humans contacting aliens and exploring space, McIntyre brought a unique depth to science-fiction.
She has a memorial scholarship to enable women writers and writers of color to attend Clarion West Writers Workshop.
Notable Works:
Enterprise: The First Adventure
Dreamsnake
Starfarers
The Moon and The Sun (The King’s Daughter adaptation)
It should very obviously be apparent that this is not a definitive list of all the amazing women who wrote and continue to write science-fiction. Feel free to comment your favorite authors and your favorite books/series to hype up women in sci-fi!
Comments