Because we wouldn’t want to forget that women have always written SFF, WOULD WE?
1915 – Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
1916 – Five Generations Hence by Lillian B Jones
1917 – The Great Beast of Kaifu by Clotilde Graves
1918 – The Professor in Erin by L. McManus
1919 – When Dead Lips Speak by Alice Earle Chapin
1920 – Serapion by Gertrude Barrow Bennett
1921 – The Secret Power by Marie Corelli
1922 – Theodore Savage by Cicely Hamilton
1923 – Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair
1926 – Metropolis by Thea von Harbou
1927 – The Fate of the Poseidonia by Clare Winger Harris
1928 – Orlando by Virginia Woolfe
1930 – Into the 28th Century by Lilith Lorraine
1931 – The Corn King and the Spring Queen by Naomi Mitchison
1932 – Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
1933 – The Last Bouquet by Marjorie Bowen
1934 – Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
1935 – The Girl with the X-ray Eyes by Mhairi O’Nair
1936 – The Virgin and the Swine by Evangeline Walton
1937 – Swastika Night by Katherine Burdekin
1939 – Hellsgarde by C. L. Moore
1940 – Kallocain by Karin Boye
1941 – The Dragon-Queen of Jupiter by Leigh Brackett
1942 – The Ghost Ship of Aztlan by L. Taylor Hansen
1943 – Anger in the Sky by Susan Ertz
1944 – The Delicate Ape by Dorothy B. Hughes
1945 – I Am Lazarus by Anna Cavan
1946 – The Last Generation? by Miriam Allen deFord
1947 – The Soma Racks by Margaret St. Clair
1948 – In Hiding by Wilmar H. Shiras
1949 – Defence Mechanism by Katherine MacLean
1950 – Shadow on the Hearth by Judith Merril
1951 – Hidden Valley of Oz by Rachel Cosgrove Payes
1952 – Tea Tray in the Sky by Evelyn E. Smith
1953 – You Can’t Stop A Spaceman by Norma K. Hemming
1954 – The Long Way Back by Margot Bennett
1955 – The Brides of Ool by Monette Cummings
1956 – The Pint-Sized Genie by Kate Wilhelm
1957 – Strange Evil by Jane Gaskell
1958 – From an Unseen Censor by Rosel George Brown
1959 – Encounter by Joan Hunter Holly
1960 – To Whom It May Concern by Elisabeth Mann Borgese
1961 – Mantrap by Wilhelmina Baird
1962 – A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
1963 – Witch World by Andre Norton
1964 – Sunburst by Phyllis Gotlieb
1965 – The Anything Box by Zenna Henderson
1966 – When I Was Miss Dow by Sonia Dorman
1967 – The Heat Death of the Universe by Pamela Zoline
1968 – They by Marya Mannes
1969 – The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey
1970 – Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz
1971 – The Lathe of Heave by Ursula K LeGuin
1972 – Darkover Landfall by Marion Zimmer Bradley
1973 – Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home by James Tiptree Jnr.
1974 – Walk to the End of the World by Suzy McKee Charnas
1975 – The Female Man by Joanna Russ
1976 – Islands by Marta Randall
1977 – Diadem from the Stars by Jo Clayton
1978 – Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre
1979 – Kindred by Octavia Butler
1980 – The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
1981 – Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh
1982 – The Time of the Dark by Barbara Hambly
1983 – So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
1984 – Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
1985 – The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
1986 – Daggerspell by Katherine Kerr
1987 – War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
1988 – The Healer’s War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
1989 – Grass by Sheri S. Tepper
1990 – Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner
1991 – Synners by Pat Cadigan
1992 – Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
1993 – The Element of Fire by Martha Wells
1994 – Beggars and Choosers by Nancy Kress
1995 – Slow River by Nicola Griffith
1996 – The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
1997 – King’s Dragon by Kate Elliot
1998 – Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
1999 – Black Light by Elizabeth Hand
2000 – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
2001 – The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
2002 – Light Music by Kathleen Ann Goonan
2003 – Natural History by Justina Robson
2004 – Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
2005 – Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor
2006 – The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne Valente
2007 – Empress by Karen Miller
2008 – Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
2009 – Ōoku: The Inner Chambers by Fumi Yoshinaga
2010 – Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard
2011 – Among Others by Jo Walton
2012 – The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin
2013 – Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
2014 – The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley
Farewell!
This list is very cool, thanks for compiling it. We need to be reminded that women have always written fiction, even in ‘masculine’ genres. One of the authors I follow recently tweeted about using initials instead of her first name on a new book to hide the fact that the author is female. She thought this might improve sales (along with having no photo of the author on the dust jacket). I am very sympathetic to her efforts to increase sales of her work, but this approach really bothered me. It took me a long time to discover most of my favorite authors are women because of the use of pseudonyms, initials, and androgynous names, and perpetuating this practice only serves to obscure the contributions of women. Will a significant number of people refuse to buy a book because it was written by a woman?!? I honestly hope this is not true 😦
Liz, you’ve chosen to use your initials for professional purposes. Was there a specific reason why?
So…Liz answers this question on the Tin Dog Podcast ep. 400:
http://tin-dog.co.uk/tdp-394-show-400-honestly-an-interview-with-l-m-myles-big-finish-author-and-podcaster
No spoilers, so you’ll have to listen if you want to know the answer!
Fantastic list! I’m going to have to look each of these up once I have some spare time (if I ever do).
Many are excellent, most have something to recommend them. Some are useful only as historical artefacts of early SFF writing, to put it kindly.