# Female sf authors!



## Jo Zebedee (Aug 11, 2015)

I've had loads of interaction with blokes writing sf, but less with women. I'd love to do some interviews with some female sf (not fantasy authors) and wondered if anyone wanted to shout out for one?


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## Stephen Palmer (Aug 11, 2015)

Gwyneth Jones.


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## Jo Zebedee (Aug 11, 2015)

Stephen Palmer said:


> Gwyneth Jones.



Do you have a contact? 

I have about nine on board, including one well known name, which is a great start.


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## Stephen Palmer (Aug 12, 2015)

Find her through her blog. She's an exceptional author.


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## AlexH (Jul 7, 2017)

This appeared in "Similar Threads" - are you still looking? If so, I shout out for Sarah Grey. She's on Flash Fiction Online and Lightspeed if you have trouble finding her (there are at least two others with the same name).


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## Jo Zebedee (Jul 7, 2017)

AlexH said:


> This appeared in "Similar Threads" - are you still looking? If so, I shout out for Sarah Grey. She's on Flash Fiction Online and Lightspeed if you have trouble finding her (there are at least two others with the same name).


Sadly this died a death - very few ever responded to the questions


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## AlexH (Jul 7, 2017)

What - they didn't want free (I guess) publicity? That's a shame.


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## Jo Zebedee (Jul 7, 2017)

AlexH said:


> What - they didn't want free (I guess) publicity? That's a shame.


Yep, it was free. confuses the hell out of me but there you go....


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## J-Sun (Jul 8, 2017)

"How to suppress women's posting." It's the patriarchal pixels keeping the women down. 

So have you completely given up on the project? And, if not, are you looking for a single author I personally (as the third man on this thread about promoting women) want you to interview or are you're looking for folks to interview you may not know about? Maybe if you try again (possibly with different people) you'll have better luck this time. And, on the original prospects, are you sure they saw it and refused or just neglected to respond or did your mails possibly get caught in spam filters or otherwise lost? Or maybe you just didn't bug them with enough reminders to reply?


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## Jo Zebedee (Jul 8, 2017)

J-Sun said:


> Or maybe you just didn't bug them with enough reminders to reply?



Possibly this. But I only have so much time and this one was taking up too much of it for me to justify  Maybe when I'm a nice sedate person with less on my plate I'll return to it


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## Galactic Journey (Jul 11, 2017)

Kit Reed is still around -- she has an interesting experience in that she got published right off the slush pile back in the 50s and never thought of herself as a "woman author."  She can be found on Facebook and Twitter.


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## Vertigo (Jul 12, 2017)

Sorry Jo didn't see this one first time around. I've read loads of female SF authors. Apart from the obvious well known ones - Le Guin, McCaffery*, Bujold, Moon, Cherryh, Butler*, Norton*, Asaro, Kress, Tepper* - here's a few slightly lesser known ones I've read:

Justina Robson
E J Swift
Tanya Huff (maybe should be in the well known list, I'm not sure)
Jennifer Foehner Wells (I found her work very meh!)
Jo Zebedee 

* Now dead so not much use for interviews!!!


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## Danny McG (Jul 13, 2017)

Greg Egan would be good


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## Vertigo (Jul 13, 2017)

dannymcg said:


> Greg Egan would be good


Female?


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## Jo Zebedee (Jul 13, 2017)

Vertigo said:


> Female?



Possibly. No one knows.


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## Vertigo (Jul 13, 2017)

Jo Zebedee said:


> Possibly. No one knows.


This is true but if he/she is so determined to hide their identity I suspect he/she wouldn't be much use for your purposes.


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## Mirannan (Jul 17, 2017)

Further to the rest of the list, how about Julian May?


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## apocalypsegal (Jul 18, 2017)

I'm a female (and yes, I'm sure ) writing SF, but I have a male/gender neutral pen name so don't go around talking about being a female writing SF. I'm not really hiding it, so much as just not being all that out about it.

I think it's great that more women are writing SF, and being up front about it, but I made a decision to hold back and at this point see no reason to change that. Maybe once I'm selling really good, that will change.


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## Jo Zebedee (Jul 18, 2017)

apocalypsegal said:


> I'm a female (and yes, I'm sure ) writing SF, but I have a male/gender neutral pen name so don't go around talking about being a female writing SF. I'm not really hiding it, so much as just not being all that out about it.
> 
> I think it's great that more women are writing SF, and being up front about it, but I made a decision to hold back and at this point see no reason to change that. Maybe once I'm selling really good, that will change.



I don't blame you - and most female sf writers I know don't advertise it. I don't hide that I'm a woman (but I did change to Jo rather than Joanne) and don't intend to. I intend to fight for this genre to be anyone's, including my daughters' should they so desire and to hell with the naysayers: 


If you want an interview pm me and we'll set it up


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## Cathbad (Jul 18, 2017)

Vertigo said:


> E J Swift





Vertigo said:


> Jo Zebedee



Only one's I've read from your list.  Both very good!


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## J-Sun (Jul 18, 2017)

Well, if you are interested in some suggestions, FWIW, some living female SF authors recently read or on my shelves or in the Pile are:

Madeline Ashby
Pat Cadigan
C.J. Cherryh
Carol Emshwiller (rarely SF)
Lisa Goldstein (rarely SF)
Nicola Griffith (has quit writing SF)
Ursula K. Le Guin
Anne Leckie
Katherine MacLean
Vonda N. McIntyre
Pat Murphy (not usually quite SF)
Linda Nagata
Connie Willis
Sarah Zettel (has quit writing SF)

(In SF terms, I'd be most interested in Cadigan, Cherryh, MacLean, and Murphy interviews, myself. A specific question I'd have for Murphy is "Why does the co-author of a science column and director of a science expo and author of the deservedly multi-award winning "Rachel in Love" write so little science fiction?" I like most anything she writes but wish she'd do more SF. Really enjoyed her recent (collaborative) SF story, "Cold Comfort.")

Women not listed above who have written some of my favorite SF stories in the past three years:

Nina Allan
Emily Devenport
Becky Ferreira
Theodora Goss (usually fantasy and the story that puts her in this list was billed as a fantasy but is actually an sfnal mainstream story)
Alice Sola Kim [oops - Kim's story was a fantasy. Dunno if she has any SF.]
Nicole Kornher-Stace
Naomi Kritzer
Michele Laframboise
Fiona Moore
Wendy Nikel
Mary Pletsch
Vina Jie-Min Prasad
Lina Rather (probably usually writes fantasy)
N. J. Schrock
J. M. Sidorova
Laurence Suhner
Julie Steinbacher
Lucy Taylor (actually horror)
Carrie Vaughn
Caroline M. Yoachim (usually fantasy, I think)

Any of these would be interesting and as many of them are newer and lower profile, would probably appreciate the exposure.


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## Vertigo (Jul 18, 2017)

Cathbad said:


> Only one's I've read from your list.  Both very good!


Interesting, I'm guessing you've read Swift's Osiris books, which I thought were rather good, and yet she doesn't appear to have broken the big time with them, at least based on numbers of reader ratings on GoodReads and I've not previously met anyone else who's read her. Also bearing in mind she's traditionally published by Nightshade.


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## Cathbad (Jul 18, 2017)

Vertigo said:


> Interesting, I'm guessing you've read Swift's Osiris books, which I thought were rather good, and yet she doesn't appear to have broken the big time with them, at least based on numbers of reader ratings on GoodReads and I've not previously met anyone else who's read her. Also bearing in mind she's traditionally published by Nightshade.



Actually, I am embarrassed, here.  

I read the name too quickly.  I was thinking of E. M. Swift-Hook.

My bad.  But Swift-Hook is a very good, up and coming female author!  (We both have stories published in anthologies from Inkling Press.)


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