SF Mistressworks

[altariel]

There's been a lot of discussion in recent months about the lack of visibility of women sf writers, particularly within the British context, and the ease with which classic sf texts by women can disappear.

Some of this discussion is linked from this post by Nicola Griffith, where she also suggests taking a pledge "to make a considerable and consistent effort to mention women's work which, consciously or unconsciously, has been suppressed". She calls this the Russ Pledge.

I'm not really interested in opening that debate here, rather simply to give some context for a great project that emerged from all the discussion: the SF Mistressworks blog. From the blog's FAQ:

This blog aims to be a resource providing reviews of science fiction books by women writers. It will demonstrate that:

a) women have been writing science fiction since the genre’s beginnings,

b) many of their books should qualify as classics, and

c) many of their books are, in fact, better than “classics” by their male counterparts, and have at least aged better.

The blog (run by Ian Sales), has been running since the start of June, averaging three reviews a week (switching soon to two), and already has built up a sizeable selection of reviews of books by more than 40 authors.

But it could really do with wider participation. If you think you'd like to review something (min. 500 words), do take a look at the site, and the FAQ, and consider contributing.

Comments

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link!

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link!

I'm far too uneducated when it comes to adult SFF, and especially to sci-fi written by women - mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa - so I certainly can't contribute, but it looks like an mazing resouce for future reading.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

It sounds as though I'm not qualified to write a review, for one very fundamental reason, but it sounds like an interesting and worthwhile project and I'll certainly take a look at the site.

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

I did an LJ feed for it at sfmistressworks because I'll never remember to look at the blog.

I should post a review or two, as I'm reading quite a lot of SF by women at the moment.

[six-old-cars.livejournal.com]

Interesting, but I'm no good at reviews.

Browsing those links I was mildly surprised to note that:
- Ian Sales admits a similar female author ratio to my shelves, despite my being vastly more "politically incorrect" than he seems capable of tolerating
- He doesn't seem to like any of the same authors as me, including my significant liking for Connie Willis
- I've not read any of the books that have so far been reviewed

Oh well.
(Actually, while in some places it would invite accusations of misogyny, I should probably point out that I have a fundamental distrust of "positive discrimination" in any form. If my list of suggested SF authors happens to start with a woman it's only because her books fit the requested profile better than any man's.)